Francis Townsend Rusden (1811 – 7 June 1887) was an Australian politician and pastoralist.
Rusden was the son of an Anglican clergyman who migrated to New South Wales and was appointed to a chaplaincy in Maitland in 1835.
After a liberal education under his father's tutorship, Rusden worked as an assistant surveyor in the Lands Department.
After resigning in 1842, he squatted in the vicinity of Gwydir River and eventually acquired more than 100,000 acres of pastoral land in the Gwydir and Wellington districts.
After retiring from parliament, Rusden was appointed to the position of police magistrate in the Liverpool Plains district.