LYNCH.
Charles Lynch, it is said, was a native of Ireland. Taking
offence while a mere youth at some ill-treatment, he
determined to quit home and country, and with this purpose
took passage on a vessel bound for America. As the ship was
leaving her moorings, he repented the step, and leaping into
the sea, struck out for land. He was however rescued by the
sailors from his perilous position, and after the usual voyage
of those days, safely reached the shores of the new world.
Coming to Virginia, and exerting the energy and perseverance
that belonged to his nature, he soon began a successful
career. He commenced entering land within the present
county in 1733, and in the next seventeen years had obtained
patents for sixty-five hundred acres in different sections, on
Hardware, on the Rivanna, on Moore's Creek, and on the
waters of Mechum's, not far from the Blue Ridge. He established
his home on the Rivanna, on the place now known as
Pen Park. The ripple in the river at that point was beyond
question Lynch's Ferry, or Ford, which is often mentioned
in the early records. He was one of the original magistrates
of Albemarle, and had previously been one in Goochland.
He served as Sheriff in 1749, and was a representative of the
county in the House of Burgesses. His last entry of land was
made in 1750, and embraced sixteen hundred acres on the
James, opposite Lynchburg. To this land he removed at
that time, but did not long survive the change. He died in
1753.
His wife was Sarah, daughter of Christopher and Penelope
Clark. She joined the Friends about the time of their
removal from Lynch's Ferry on the Rivanna to Lynch's Ferry
on the James. A Quaker Meeting House called South River,
was built in 1754 on her land on Lynch's Creek, a branch of
the Blackwater, three or four miles south of Lynchburg.
Her children were Charles, John, Christopher, and Sarah,
the wife of Micajah Terrell. John was the founder of Lynchburg.
Charles was the clerk of South River Meeting till the
beginning of the political ferment prior to the Revolution,
when the warmth of his patriotism surmounted the pacific
principles he had espoused, and he became a Colonel in the
Revolutionary army. His busy promptitude in dealing with
outlaws and violent Tories during those disturbed times, gave
rise to Lynch law. Mrs. Lynch was married the second time
to John Ward, of Bedford. Besides the imprints of this family
about Lynchburg, they have left their memorial in the names
of this county, Lynch's River, and Lynch's Creek, a tributary
of the Rockfish.
