Richard Busby (/ˈbʌzbi/; 22 September 1606 – 6 April 1695) was an English Anglican priest who served as head master of Westminster School for more than fifty-five years.

In his thirty-third year he had already become renowned for the obstinate zeal with which he supported the falling dynasty of the Stuarts, and was rewarded for his services with the prebend and rectory of Cudworth, with the chapel of Knowle annexed, in Somerset.

Despite his unapologetic royalism, a popular anecdote held that one day the school was visited by Charles II and Busby refused to doff his hat to the king, explaining that if the boys saw him doing so, it might lead them to believe there was "a greater man on earth than himself.

The nonconformist Anglican priest Philip Henry attributed his strong religious convictions to Busby's lessons and recalled being flogged as a student only once, and "deservedly", for lying.

The ghost of Busby comes forward, carrying a birch rod "dripping with Infants' blood, and Mothers' tears" (The Greater Dunciad IV 142) and proclaims the virtues of rote memorisation for placing a "jingling padlock" on the mind.