• DAR Ancestor #: A072635 (see document, attached). On March 5, 1781 (Colonel) Lynch led a battalion of rifleman at the Battle of Guilford Court House.
• Tombstone Inscription:  A zealous and active patriot of the Revolution.

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" apparently derive from his name.

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 and the Convention 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.

Family

Col. Charles Lynch, Jr. was born 1736 in in "Chestnut Hills", Goochland County (now Albemarle County), Virginia  and died around Oct. 29, 1796 in "Green Level," Bedford County, Virginia- current day "Avocoa," Campbell County.  He is buried in the Lynch Graveyard, near Altavista, Campbell County, Virginia, USA. 

• Parents: Charles Lynch (about 1704-1753) &  Sarah Clark (1716 - 1791)

  Married:

1.  12 January 1755 in Caroline County, Virginia  to Anna Chiles Terrell (____ - 1804).  She was the daughter of  Henry Terrell (1704-1760) & Anne Chiles (1709-1740).  

  Children 

1.  Charles Lynch III b: 28 NOV 1756.  Married Sarah Adams.
2. Anselm Lynch b: 8 JUN 1764 in Campbell County, Virginia.  Married Susannah Miller.
3. John Lynch b: 11 SEP 1769 in Bedford County, Virginia. Married Anna Terrell.
4. Sarah Lynch b: 28 NOV 1773 in Virginia. Married  Charles Lynch Terrell.
5. Christopher Lynch b: 17 APR 1775.  No known marriage.

Sources

• [http://www.archive.org/stream/ourquakerfriends00bell#page/258/mode/2up Bell, James P. P. Our Quaker Friends of Ye Olden Time: Being in Part a Transcript of the Minute Books of Cedar Creek Meeting, Hanover County, and the South River Meeting, Campbell County, Va. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co, 1976. page 258.]
• [http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1989/1/89.01.09.x.html Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. "Lynch Law: An American Community Enigma." by Henry A. Rhodes.]
•  William & Mary College Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 3

Links

•  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lynch_(jurist)
•  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=59683118
•  http://www.harveypowers.com/terrell/terrell/d1955.html#P1959
•  http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=kmgb2345&id=I12276