Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 399

he the said Alien Thomas & M^r Robert Goldsborough the
present Attorney General. M^r Goldsborough coming over
about that time to the Provincial Court I sent him the Paper
M^r Thomas had given me whereupon he paid me a Visit again
denied every Tittle & Circumstance & gave many more Rea-
sons than were necessary to convince me that the whole was a
Malicious Falshood. In order that M^r Jordan might also be
satisfied I desired the favour of him to step over to my House
& I apprehend that what M^r Goldsborough repeated in his
Presence removed any Doubts he might have before enter-
tained. His asserting at first to M^r Jordan that he had heard
M^r Goldsborough make the Declaration in a publick Company
with a View as he intimated of gaining Popularity & his
Alledging afterwards when he was called upon for proof that
the Declaration had been made not in publick but at M^r
Charles Goldsboroughs Table when he the Informant was the
only Person present except the Father & a near Relation of
the Attorney Generals was alone sufficient to discredit his
Testimony, but when it is considered that the only Persons
who are said to have been present beside himself positively
aver they never heard the Attorney General make any such
Declaration as Thomas had mentioned, that during the many
years which have elapsed since the time referred to No Hint
thereof had ever been dropt by Thomas till last Winter altho
M^r Goldsborough had at more Elections than one opposed M^r
Thomas's Father who had been a Candidate & by way of
recommending himself to the populace had called himself the
Wilkes of Maryland, that when the Story was told, it was told
in a part of the Province very distant from the Place of M^r
Goldsboroughs Residence & as I before observed not till
about six years after it was said to have happened, when
it is also considered that the Attorney General hath always
supported the Character of a Man of Honour & Veracity, is
known to be remarkably prudent & cautious, has always shewn
as little fondness for Popularity as any Person in the Province,
while the Informant hath ever since he arrived to the State of
Manhood appeared in quite a different light, a Tool to those
who have given the greatest Opposition to the Government,
One ever ready to propogate any Lye against your Ldp
myself or the Upper House for he has at times made free
with All of us, what Weight can his Assertion have unsup-
ported by any other Testimony & contradictory in itself, I
might add too that when upon being asked by M^r Holliday
what could induce him after so many years Silence to give
such Information to M^r Jordan he said that he had before
mentioned it to Col^o Barnes & that Col^o Barnes had started
the Subject, whereupon Col^o Barnes having heard as much

Letter Bk. IV