Sir Robert Ainslie, 1st Baronet

Sir Robert Ainslie, 1st Baronet, Kt (c. 1730 – 21 July 1812) was a Scottish ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (Ottoman Porte)), orientalist and numismatist. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the rotten borough of Milborne Port in Somerset between 1796 and 1802.

He was the third and youngest son of George Ainslie, Esq., the representative of the ancient Scottish family of Ainslie of Dolphinton, Lanarkshire, chief of the name, who married Jane, daughter of Sir Philip Anstruther of Anstrutherfield, and died in 1733. The issue of the marriage of George Ainslie was a family of seven children, and included four daughters, three of whom were married and established in France. The elder brothers of Ainslie were Sir Philip Ainslie, knight, who was born in 1728, and died on 19 June 1802; and George Ainslie, a general in the army, colonel of the 13th regiment of foot, and lieutenant-governor of the Scilly Islands, who died on 7 July 1804.

Ainslie, who was born either in 1729, or most probably in 1730, is described as having resided in the earlier part of his life at Bordeaux, where his father had been for some time settled as a merchant. He is said to have returned to Scotland in 1727, and to have purchased the estate of Pilton, in the county of Midlothian.

Ainslie is first noticed in the London Gazette on 20 September 1775: "The king has been pleased to appoint Robert Ainslie, Esq., to be his majesty's ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, in the room of John Murray, Esq., deceased; and his majesty was pleased this day to confer upon him the honour of knighthood, upon which occasion he had the honour to kiss his majesty's hand." He left England in May 1776 for Constantinople, where he arrived on 2 October following. Ainslie had the reputation while in Turkey of being a great favourite and boon companion of the Sultan Abdul Ahmed. He returned to England in 1791. He was given leave to return home on 22 September 1793 and left Turkey sometime in 1794.

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