Log In

Thomas Lynch Edit Profile

planter Continental congressman

Thomas Lynch, American planter, Continental congressman. Member South Carolina. House of Commons from Saint James Parish, Santee, 1761-1763, 65, 68, 72; member South Carolina. General Committee, 1769-1774; member Continental Congress (selected by popular convention in Charleston), 1774-1776; member 1st South Carolina. General Assembly, 1776.

Background

Lynch, Thomas was born in 1727 in Berkeley County, South Carolina, United States. Son of Thomas and Sabena (Vanderhorst) Lynch.

Education

4 children including Thomas, Elizabeth.

Career

Other notable people share this name. See Thomas Lynch (disambiguation). He was a delegate to the Stamp Acting Congress of 1765 and the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776.

He served in the Colonial Legislature of South Carolina and represented the Colony in the Stamp Acting Congress, heading the committee which drafted the petition to the House of Commons.

Elected to both the First and Second Continental Congresses, Lynch joined Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Harrison on a committee sent to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to confer with General George Washington upon “the most effectual method of continuing, supporting, and regulating the Continental Army.”

In the ensuing discussions, Washington told the committee of his plan to arm ships to prey upon British supply lines. The gentlemen from Congress approved of the scheme and recommended it to Congress, thus giving essential political support to the establishment of “George Washington’s Navy,” the first organized naval force of the new Nation.

Thomas Lynch’s wife was a sister of Isaac Motte, who became a South Carolina Congressman.

Achievements

  • Thomas Lynch has been listed as a noteworthy planter, Continental congressman by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

Member South Carolina. House of Commons from Saint James Parish, Santee, 1761-1763, 65, 68, 72. Member South Carolina.

General Committee, 1769-1774.

Member Continental Congress (selected by popular convention in Charleston), 1774-1776. Member 1st South Carolina.

General Assembly, 1776.

Connections

Married Elizabeth Allston, September 5, 1745. Married second, Hannah Motte, March 1755.

Father:
Thomas Lynch

Mother:
Sabena (Vanderhorst) Lynch

Spouse:
Hannah Motte

Spouse:
Elizabeth Allston