This cemetery is on the private Ashby Estate located on Goldsborough Neck outside the town of Easton, Maryland. It was the primary residence of Robert Goldsborough and his wife Elizabeth Greenberry. Thus, the Goldsborough Family Cemetery was located here. The current manor house was built in 1858. Previous versions met with fire and disrepair. The cemetery is located directly behind the house and is enclosed by a high brick wall and formal gate. Many of the Talbot, Kent and Queen Anne's County Goldsboroughs are buried here. The Dorchester Country Goldsboroughs are mostly buried at Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery in Cambridge, Maryland. There is open area in this Ashby cemetery, so it is highly likely that the graves of some early Goldsboroughs who are buried here do not have personal headstones or markers.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the landed gentry were the dominant class on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The great landowners controlled the economy, government and social life of the region. Families like the Lloyds, Goldsboroughs and Tilghmans lived on large estates worked by slaves, free blacks and poor whites. This class enjoyed a social life and political influence that approximated that of the great planters who resided in the tobacco, rice and cotton states that formed the Confederacy in 1861.
One of the most celebrated of the great political families were the Goldsboroughs. Descended from Nicholas Goldsborough, who emigrated from England and settled on Kent Island about 1670, this family played an influential role in Maryland and national political life from the 1690s until well into the middle of the 20th century – a span of at least nine generations.
The Goldsboroughs settled throughout Maryland, but most of them put down roots in the four Mid-Shore counties of Caroline, Dorchester, Queen Anne's and Talbot. Robert Goldsborough, a descendant of Nicholas, owned 1,941 acres in Talbot County by 1733. An this estate, "Ashby," on the Miles River became one of the showplaces of the region. The estate manor house, known as "Myrtle Grove," was built in the 1740s by Robert.
During the Colonial era, the Goldsboroughs held numerous offices such as judge, commissioner of justice, sheriff, delegate to the Maryland Assembly and a member of the Governor's Council. Beginning with the national period and continuing into modern times, various members of the family have gained fame as Governors of Maryland and United States Senators. Much of this bio is courtesy of the Tidewater Times, and is used here with their permission.