[1] Anstey returned to England, intending to take up law, and was educated at school in Wellington, Somerset and at University College London.
[1][4] Returning to England, Anstey took an appointment as Professor of Law and Jurisprudence at Prior Park College, Bath.
[6] An opponent of Lord Palmerston, Anstey often worked with David Urquhart as ally in foreign policy issues.
[7] On first entering politics in 1846, he aligned with the more radical followers of Daniel O'Connell, who died in 1847, and supported William Smith O'Brien.
His attempts to enforce building regulations on Chinese merchants led in 1858 to a strike, retrospectively named the "Anstey Riots".
He came back to England in 1866 and in a tract entitled A Plea for the Unrepresented for the Restitution of the Franchise advocated universal suffrage as a panacea for the ills resulting from class legislation.
[11] In 1839, Anstey married Harriet, daughter of Jarrard Edward Strickland of Loughlinn, County Roscommon, Ireland.