Charles Lynch (jurist)
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Charles Lynch (1736 – October 29, 1796) was a Virginia planter and American Revolutionary who headed an irregular court in Virginia to punish Loyalist supporters of the British during the American Revolutionary War. The terms "lynching" and "lynch law" may derive from his name.
Lynch was born in Virginia to Quaker immigrants from Ireland. The city of Lynchburg, Virginia, was named for one of his family members, probably his brother John. In 1767 Charles became a justice of the peace of Bedford County, Virginia, but was disowned by the Quakers for taking an oath of office, something Quakers were not permitted to do. His wife Anne Terrell remained a lifelong Quaker, and their five children were raised as Quakers. Lynch served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1769 until 1778, when he became a militia colonel. After the Revolution, he served in the Virginia Senate from 1784 to 1789.
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 retroactively legitimized by the Virginia General Assembly in 1782.
"Lynch's Law", refering to organized but unauthorized punishment of criminals, became a common phrase, as was used by Charles Lynch to describe his actions as early as 1782. Variations of the term, such as "lynch law", "judge lynch", and "lynching", appeared in American and British English dictionaries by the 1850s. In 1811 a man named Captain William Lynch claimed that the phrase, by then famous, actually came from a 1780 compact signed by him and his neighbours in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, 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.
[edit] References
- Tarter, Brent. "Lynch, Charles". American National Biography Online, February 2000.
