Robert Goadby

Robert Goadby (1721–1778) was an English printer and publisher in Sherborne, Dorset. He was a Whig supporter, and influential through his newspaper, the Sherborne Mercury. He also made available the standard version of the supposed autobiography of the rogue Bampfylde Moore Carew. Goadby, his wife and others have been given credit for this popular work that gave Carew the status of folk hero.

Life Goadby was the son of Samuel Goadby of the Founders' Company in London. In 1740, he set up a bookseller's business in Bath, Somerset, in Wade's Passage, a central location in an alley recently constructed by George Wade. In 1744, he was in Yeovil, and published there the Western Flying Post, or, Yeovil Mercury.

In 1753, Goadby inserted the following in his newspaper: "This is to inform all....in the counties of Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devonshire and Cornwall, that the proprietor is ever willing to oblige every single person; but that it is impossible to contrive the circuit of the news carriers, as to take in every house or place; but if the inhabitants of any such parishes were this paper is not at present carried, would be so kind as to send a messenger to any place where it is brought in its usual circuit, for as many papers as are wanted in the parish, the proprietor will allow the person who comes for them a halfpenny on each paper he takes, besides a further allowance upon all the pamphlets, book &c. which he can sell in the said parishes."

According to John Nichols, Goadby made enemies as well as friends by his plain speaking and views.

Printer and publisher Goadby's major production was the Illustration of the Holy Scriptures, in three large folio volumes (1759). The Christian's Instructor and Pocket Companion, extracted from the Holy Scriptures, compiled by Goadby, and approved by Bishop Thomas Sherlock. The Universe Displayed. A Rational Catechism on the Principles of Religion drawn from the Mind itself Goadby's British Biography. A new display of the beauties of England; or A description of the most elegant or magnificent public edifices, royal palaces, noblemen's and gentlemen's seats, and other curiosities, natural or artificial, 1773-1776, two volumes with three editions published between 1773 and 1777, followed by a new and enlarged edition in 1787