Goldsborough, Robert, 1733-1788

Robert Goldsborough (December 3, 1733 – December 22, 1788) was an American lawyer and statesman from Maryland. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress.

Born at Horns Point, his family's estate in Dorchester County in the Province of Maryland, Goldsborough studied law at the Inner Temple in London, England. After graduating in December 1752, he was admitted to the bar in 1754 and commenced practice in London, serving as barrister of the Inner Temple, London from 1755 to 1759. After returning to the colonies and graduating from the Philadelphia College in 1760, Goldsborough continued the practice of law at Cambridge, Province of Maryland. Goldsborough was the sheriff of Dorchester County from 1761 to 1764. He began his service in the Maryland Assembly in 1765, and served as the colony's Attorney General from 1766 to 1768.

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. Under the new state constitution, he was elected to the first Maryland Senate in 1777. In 1787, he was selected as a representative to attend the U.S. Constitutional Convention but didn't attend due to poor health. He died the following year at Horns Point, and is buried in the Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery in Cambridge, Maryland.