Family and Education

b. ?1737, s. of Burrington Goldsworthy, consul at Leghorn and Cadiz, by Philippia, da. of Capt. Philip Vanburgh, RN. educ. Westminster 1749-54; Trinity Coll. Camb. 10 Oct. 1755, aged 18; L. Inn 1755. unm. suc. to estates of his aunt Martha, wid. of Francis Gashry^† 1777.

Offices Held

Cornet 1 Drag. 1756, lt. 1760, capt. 1768, maj. 1776, lt.-col. 1779, col. 1794-d.; brevet-col. 1784, maj-gen. 1793, lt.-gen. 1799.

Equerry to the King 1779; first equerry and clerk marshal of the mews 1788-d.

Biography

Goldsworthy, a superior officer at one time of the 10th Earl of Pembroke’s son, Lord Herbert, was returned for Wilton in place of him in 1785. He was ‘very proper for the time’, but Pembroke did not ‘mean him to be the fixed Member’. So in 1788 he made way for his patron’s son. When Herbert succeeded his father in 1794, Goldsworthy was again returned for Wilton. As before, he could be expected to support administration, but without speaking, and his attendance must have been curtailed by recurrences of what he called ‘a visit from Poll, that is apoplexy’. By 1794 his constitution was ‘entirely broken up’.

‘The wag professed among the equerries’, according to Fanny Burney, he was ‘warmly and faithfully attached to the King and all the royal family’. He died 4 Jan. 1801.

Pembroke Pprs. ii. 360; Prince of Wales Corresp. ii. 814; iii. 1017; vi. 2511; Diary of Madame d’Arblay ed. Dobson, iii. 64.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes