During James III's minority Guthrie was made lord treasurer (in 1461) by the queen-mother.
[1] On 10 August 1468 Sir David Guthrie appears as clerk of the register, and the next year, owing to a change in the ministry, was made Master of the Rolls, his name again appearing as comptroller in November 1470.
He was appointed Lord chief justice of Scotland in 1473; the last official mention of his name is as justiciary in 1474, but he certainly survived till 1479.
'In the time of his greatness he much enlarged his estate',[2] and founded and endowed a collegiate church at Guthrie for a provost and three prebends (increased by his eldest son to eight), and confirmed by a bull from Sixtus IV, dated at Rome 14 June 1479.
His eldest son, Alexander Guthrie, a grandson, three sons-in-law, and a nephew were all slain at Battle of Flodden, 1513.