Robert Goldsborough

Who was Robert Goldsborough?

Robert Goldsborough was an American lawyer and statesman from Maryland. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress.

Robert was the son of Charles Goldsborough, and was born on the family estate at Cambridge in Dorchester County, Maryland. His father owned over 10,000 acres of land, and became a member of the Governor’s Council in 1760. As a young man Robert travelled to London to study law at the Inner Temple, where he was admitted to the bar in 1754. He remained there practicing law as a Barrister until 1759 when he returned to America. He attended the Philadelphia College, and graduated in 1760 before resuming the practice of law in Cambridge, Maryland.

Goldsborough was the sheriff of Dorchester County from 1761 to 1765. He began his service in the Maryland Assembly in 1765, and served as the colony’s Attorney General in 1766. He became active in the protests that led to the American Revolution, joining Maryland’s "Committee of Safety". In 1774 he was sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he served until May 1776. Later that year he attended the Convention that drafted Maryland’s first state constitution.