Sarah Lynch

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Major Charles W Lynch
• Arrival: 1733, , , Virginia, USA

Notes:

The first Charles Lynch ran away from his home in Ireland in 1720 at about the age of fifteen. It is said that as the ship on which he sailed left the coast of Ireland, the boy jumped overboard in an attempt to swim back to his home but was quickly fished out of the water and the voyage was resumed.

On reaching Virginia, Lynch was indentured to a wealthy planter, Christopher Clarke, to pay for his passage across the ocean. Clarke subsequently took a great interest in Charles Lynch and helped to educate him. Lynch studied law and became a good business man. He married Sarah, the daughter of Christorher Clarke, and was the first settler to occupy Lynchburg and its environs.

Lynch can very properly be considered a pioneer when it is remembered that only the Tidewater area of Virginia was relatively well populated. No well-defined line was drawn delineating the frontier, but it is generally conceded that the benefits of civilization extended only about one hundred miles from the coast at the time Lynch moved his family to the frontier region. His first land grant of about 1,000 acres was received in 1731, in Goochland County. By 1750 he had received some twenty grants of land which totaled 10,231 acres.

Lynch was relatively prominent in his county, his name frequently being associated with that of Nicholas Meriwether and Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson. He operated a ferry from his plantation in Goochland County across the Northana River. He acted as a trustee with Joshua Fry, William Randolph, and Peter Jefferson for money granted by the General Assembly to clear the Fluvanna River of rocks and make it more navigable. He was comissioned a Captain in the Militia in July, 1745. He served a term in the House of Burgesses from 1748 to 1749 and was appointed to the Committee for Courts and Justice. He was appointed sheriff for Albemarle County in 17499 and was appointed one of the justices of the peace for Albemrle in April, 1752. This list of achievements, from an indentured servant to membership in the House of Burgesses in the space of thirty years, speaks well for his initiative and intelligence and would indicate that Lynch was a conscientious, hardworking individual.

Charles Lynch married Sarah Clarke in 1733, and moved to about one mile south of the present site of Lynchburg. Sarah had become a Quaker in Louisa County so maintained contact with her old church for a number of years, holding silent worship at home with her children when no meeting was near enough to attend. However, her husband was not religiously disposed and seems to have taken no part in the church or family worship. Sarah Lynch raised six children, three of whom became famous: Charles as the author of Lynch Law, John as the founder of Lynchburg, and Sarah Lynch-Terrell as the outspoken opponent of slavery in South River Meeting.

As more settlers moved to the Lynchburg area, Sarah Lynch invited her neighbors to attend silent worship in her home. Enough interest was shown for this group to petition the Cedar Creek Monthly Meeting, their immediate superiors in the Quaker Church organization, for a public meeting place of their own to be called South River Meeting, because of its location on the south side of the James River. Permission was granted in 1754, but these Friends continued to meet in homes until 175?, when Sarah Lynch gave some land to provide a place for building a meeting house. Thus, from a simple family worship grew a substantial church which lasted well over a hundred years and formed the foundations of the city of Lynchburg, for the history of the South River Meeting from 1754 to 1800 is the history of Lynchburg.

Sarah Lynch's influence on her son, Charles, must have been tremendous in his early years as he was very active in Quaker affairs. As proof of the righteousness of this woman, it should be noted that she was appointed an elder for the South River Meeting in June, 1759, a very rare privilege among the orthodox Quakers who only bestowed such honor in exceptional cases, as they preferred to have no hierarchy rather than appoint unworthy individuals to leadership.

Charles married Sarah Clark in 1733 in , Hanover, Virginia, USA. Sarah (daughter of Christopher Clark and Penelope Johnston) was born in 1716 in , New Kent, Virginia, USA; died on 20 Jan 1792 in , Campbell, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Father Imigrated Developed Rice.

Thomas married Sabina VanDerHorst in 1720. Sabina was born on 26 Oct 1691 in Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA; died on 18 Jul 1773 in Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]