John Banister (December 26, 1734 – September 30, 1788) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, planter, and slave owner from Petersburg, Virginia.

[1][2] His second wife died in 1775, and four years later Banister married Agan (Scottish for Anna) Blair of Williamsburg, daughter of John Blair Sr.[3] Banister's suburban villa in Petersburg, Battersea, was built in 1768 in a five-part Palladian style.

[4] During the Revolutionary War, Banister was a major and lieutenant colonel of cavalry in the Virginia line militia (1778–1781).

General and Commander-in-Chief George Washington regarded him highly, as witnessed by a letter he wrote to him from Valley Forge.

British forces under General William Phillips would commonly stop at his home in Battersea.