At least three British ship's tender or privateer schooners bore the name Arbuthnot during the American Revolutionary War. They were probably named for Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot, who commanded the British Royal Navy's North American station at that time.

One schooner that bore the name Arbuthnot was a warship. In 1781, the armed schooner Arbuthnot, tender to HMS Allegiance, captured two American vessels that it sent into Halifax for adjudication by the Vice admiralty court there: Two Brothers (8 February), and Swallow (20 February).