Charles Lynch (1736 – 1796) was an American planter, politician, military officer and judge who headed a

kangaroo court Kangaroo court is an informal pejorative term for a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides, and is typically convened ad hoc. A kangaroo court ma ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

to punish

Loyalists Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

during the Revolutionary War. The terms "

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...

" and "lynch law" are believed to be derived from his surname.

Early life

He was born in 1736 at an estate known as Chestnut Hill on the banks of the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

in Virginia, a place at which his brother, John Lynch, would later establish the town of Lynchburg.Thomas Walker Page
"The Real Judge Lynch,"
''The Atlantic Monthly,'' vol. 88, whole no. 530 (December 1901), pg. 732. Lynch's father left his native

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and emigrated to the British

colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

in about 1725 as an

indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of Work (human activity), labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as paymen ...

, called a " redemptioner" in the nomenclature of the day. Upon arrival to the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

, Lynch's contract of indenture was sold to a wealthy planter living in Caroline County. Lynch remained with the planter for his fixed term of servitude, winning in the process not only his freedom but also the hand of the planter's daughter, Sarah Clark, in marriage. With the financial assistance of the elder Clark, the Lynches themselves became planters of

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

on a large scale, farming well over 7,000 acres of Virginia land. Sometime between Charles's birth in 1736 and the middle of the decade, Charles's father died, leaving behind his Chestnut Hill estate to his eldest son, John. His mother joined the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

religious sect in 1750, bringing her sons with her into that religion. The family initially joined the Cedar Creek Meeting in

Bedford County, Virginia Bedford County is a county (United States), United States county located in the Piedmont region of Virginia, Piedmont region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is the town of Bedford, Virginia, Bedford, ...

, and later helped found the South River Friends Meetinghouse in

Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner and Abolitionism, abolitionist John Lynch (1740–1820), J ...

. Lynch married a fellow Quaker, the former Anne Terrell, on January 12, 1755. With Chestnut Hill occupied by his brother, the young couple set out to establish their new home on Virginia's western frontier on a more distant parcel of land granted to his father by King George II, in the newly established Bedford County.Page, "The Real Judge Lynch," pg. 733. Green Level, the Lynch estate where the couple would ultimately raise five children, was located at a place now marked by the town of

Altavista AltaVista was a web search engine established in 1995. It became one of the most-used early search engines, but lost ground to Google and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, which retained the brand, but based all AltaVista searches on its own sear ...

. Lynch was instrumental in organizing a Quaker meeting in Bedford County and raising funds for a building to house it, the first public house of worship in the area.Page, "The Real Judge Lynch," pg. 734. Lynch served for several years as the clerk of the meeting and as trustee of the group's meeting house. He was also a delegate to the Quaker Assembly in Virginia. Following the end of the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

in 1763, the danger associated with life at the frontier greatly lessened, and a flood of newcomers began to appear in Bedford County. His position as a landowner and leading citizen was now well-established. His farming of tobacco and raising of cattle had made him a wealthy man, the possessor of property which included several

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. Beginning in 1764 other citizens began to approach Lynch to ask him to become a candidate for the

Virginia Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...

. Lynch initially refused the entreaties on the grounds that swearing the necessary

oath of office An oath of office is an oath or affirmation a person takes before assuming the duties of an office, usually a position in government or within a religious body, although such oaths are sometimes required of officers of other organizations. Suc ...

was prohibited behavior for an adherent of the Quaker religion.

Career

In 1767, Charles became a justice of the peace of

but was disowned by the Quakers for taking an oath of office, something they were not permitted to do. Lynch served in the Virginia

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...

and the Convention from 1769 until 1778, when he became a militia colonel. In several incidents in 1780, Lynch and several other militia officers and justices of the peace rounded up suspects who were thought to be a part of a Loyalist uprising in southwestern Virginia. The suspects were given a summary trial at an informal court; sentences handed down included whipping, property seizure, coerced pledges of allegiance, and conscription into the military. Lynch's extralegal actions were legitimized by the Virginia General Assembly in 1782. After the Revolution, he served in the

Virginia Senate The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Virg ...

from 1784 to 1789. He defined " Lynch's Law", as private vengeance or summary and illegal punishment for crimes actual or pretended, with his "Lynching" being applied both on account of race and opposition to the Revolution. Variations of the term, such as "lynch law", "judge lynch", and "lynching", were standard entries in American and British English dictionaries by the 1850s. In 1811, a man named Captain William Lynch claimed that the phrase, already famous, actually came from a 1780 compact signed by him and his neighbors in

Pittsylvania County, Virginia Pittsylvania County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 60,501. The county seat is Chatham. Pittsylvania County is included in the Danville, VA Micropolitan Statistical ...

, to uphold their own brand of law independent of legal authority. The obscurity of the Pittsylvania County compact compared to the well-known actions of Charles Lynch casts doubt on it being the source of the phrase.

Later life and death

Lynch, like many other planters of his day, had a significant amount of his money tied up in real estate, and was cash poor. He lived in relative poverty at his home, Avoca. He died and was buried there in 1796.

Footnotes

External links

Avoca Museum website, Altavista, Virginia — Museum established in a home on the former estate of Charles Lynch. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Charles 1736 births 1796 deaths People disowned by the Quakers House of Burgesses members People from Bedford County, Virginia People from Altavista, Virginia American vigilantes Virginia militiamen in the American Revolution Virginia state court judges Virginia state senators American people of Irish descent American planters American slave owners 18th-century American politicians

Early life

Career

Later life and death

See also

Footnotes

Further reading

External links