diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml b/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
index e40d6362fd23..c354f67903f8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
@@ -336,6 +336,9 @@ jobs:
     - name: Install R linter dependencies and SparkR
       run: |
         sudo apt-get install -y libcurl4-openssl-dev
+        # dependencies for usethis 1.6.3.
+        sudo Rscript -e "install.packages(c('clipr', 'cli', 'crayon', 'desc', 'fs', 'gh', 'glue', 'purrr', 'rematch2', 'rlang', 'rprojroot', 'whisker', 'withr', 'yaml', 'git2r', 'rstudioapi'), repos='https://cloud.r-project.org/')"
+        sudo Rscript -e "install.packages('https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/usethis/usethis_1.6.3.tar.gz', repos=NULL, type='source')"
         sudo Rscript -e "install.packages(c('devtools'), repos='https://cloud.r-project.org/')"
         sudo Rscript -e "devtools::install_github('jimhester/lintr@v2.0.0')"
         ./R/install-dev.sh
diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index c40b23c8341e..b6a42a02d1ac 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -41,6 +41,9 @@ cache:
 install:
   # Install maven and dependencies
   - ps: .\dev\appveyor-install-dependencies.ps1
+  # usethis and its dependencies
+  - cmd: Rscript -e "install.packages(c('clipr', 'cli', 'crayon', 'desc', 'fs', 'gh', 'glue', 'purrr', 'rematch2', 'rlang', 'rprojroot', 'whisker', 'withr', 'yaml', 'git2r', 'rstudioapi'), repos='https://cloud.r-project.org/')"
+  - cmd: Rscript -e "install.packages('https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/usethis/usethis_1.6.3.tar.gz', repos=NULL, type='source')"
   # Required package for R unit tests. xml2 is required to use jUnit reporter in testthat.
   - cmd: Rscript -e "install.packages(c('knitr', 'rmarkdown', 'testthat', 'e1071', 'survival', 'arrow', 'xml2'), repos='https://cloud.r-project.org/')"
   - cmd: Rscript -e "pkg_list <- as.data.frame(installed.packages()[,c(1, 3:4)]); pkg_list[is.na(pkg_list$Priority), 1:2, drop = FALSE]"