judge planter politician Soldier
Charles Lynch was born in 1736 at "Chestnut Hill, " his father's estate near the present site of Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. He was the eldest son of Charles Lynch, a Virginia burgess who had emigrated from the north of Ireland as an indentured servant, and who had married Sarah, daughter of Christopher Clark the indenter.
Settling on his patrimonial lands in the newly formed Bedford County, Lynch rapidly became a man of wealth and importance. He took the oath of office as justice of the peace in 1766. The following year he was "disowned" by the Quakers "for taking solemn oaths". In 1769 he became a member of the House of Burgesses, continuing as such until the Revolution. He signed the Williamsburg protests of 1769 and 1774 against English taxation, served in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1776, and was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates until January 1778.
On February 24, 1778, he was recommended for the office of colonel of militia; and in 1781 he was dispatched by Governor Jefferson to the assistance of General Greene in North Carolina. With his volunteer regiment, he participated in the battle of Guilford Court House and continued with Greene until the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, after which he resumed his duties as justice of the peace. He later served inconspicuously in the Virginia Senate between May 1784 and December 1789. The disrupted state of the courts in Bedford County during the Revolution early led to the formation of an extra-legal court "to punish lawlessness of every kind". With Lynch as the presiding justice, convictions by this court were frequent and were followed by summary whippings. In 1780 when Cornwallis' success seemed probable, a Loyalist conspiracy was discovered in Bedford County; and, as the General Court had been dispersed, Lynch's impromptu court tried and sentenced the conspirators. Two years later Lynch and his companions were exonorated by the Assembly, on the ground that their acts, though not "strictly warranted by law, " were "justifiable from the imminence of the danger". Though remembered now chiefly on account of the connotation of the term "Lynch Law, " Charles Lynch was of at least minor importance in the economic development of Virginia. The city of Lynchburg was named for his younger brother, John.
Lynch was an adherent of the Quaker religion.
Charles Lynch was a man of considerable public spirit and broad-mindedness.
On January 12, 1755 Lynch married Anna Terrell. They were the parents of five children.
