Charles Lynch, Jr^[1]

1736 - 1796  (60 years)

• Name	Charles Lynch  [2]
  Suffix	Jr
  Birth	1736	Chestnut Hill, Loudoun, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Male
  Death	29 Oct 1796	, Campbell, Virginia, USA
  Person ID	I37295	Master
  Last Modified	1 Jun 2020

  
  

  Father	Charles Lynch,   b. 1705, , County Galway, Ireland d. 10 May 1753, Charlottesville, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA (Age 48 years)
  Mother	Sarah Clark,   b. 1716, , New Kent, Virginia, USA d. 20 Jan 1792, , Campbell, Virginia, USA (Age 76 years)
  Marriage	1733	, Hanover, Virginia, USA
  Family ID	F8918	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1736 - Chestnut Hill, Loudoun, Virginia, USA Death - 29 Oct 1796 - , Campbell, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  As Charles Lynch Jr. grew up, it is reasonable to assume that his parent's activities afforded him an oprortunity to come in contact with law, business, politics, management of a plantation, military life, religion, and possibly a disregard for constituted authority, since the Quakers were not prone to pay homage to anyone as their superior. This last-named trait offers some interesting speculation which may help to show how Charles Lynch Jr. stepped so surely in with other American patriots of the Revolution. It is not known that Charles Jr. bad any formal education. Probably he was taught at home by his mother, and his father certainly could have provided his more technical instruction. 'l:hat few of his letters which have been preserved seem to indicate that he would belong to the planter aristocracy of Virginia, intellectually speaking. Of course, he would not rate with a Jefferson, but was above the average man. Little else is known about Charles Lynch Jr. in early life. The first time his name appears in print is in his father's will, dated October 9, 1752 and proved on May 10, 1753, in which Charles Jr. is designated one of his father's executors. Born in 1736, Charles Jr. was only seventeen at the time of his father's death. According to the terms of the will, Charles Jr. was to receive a good tract of land on the Staunton River, five slaves, and to divide the cattle and hogs at Staunton with his brother, John, in 1757 when the former reached his majority. The cultural background of his parents provided him with good intellectual potent1al and his physical needs and start in life were amply provided for in his father's will. There is no doubt that Sarah Lynch governed the thinking and activities of her children altogether for several years after the early death of her husband. Certainly, they acquired her interest in religion and the Quaker Church, and Charles was no exception. Even though the South River congregation had been authorized to hold its own public meetings, there were sorr:e proceedings which had to be approved by the Cedar Creek Church until South River was granted an independent status. Accordingly, Charles Lynch and Anne Terrell published their intention of marriage the first time at Cedar Creek Monthly Meeting on December l4, 1754. Likewise, 1n good Quaker tradition, a committee was appointed to Enquire into the said Lynches Clearness and make a report to the next Monthly Meeting. The committee reported the following month that Charles was "clear in relation to marriage" and the marriage was approved. Charles and Anne Terrell were married on January 12, 1755 according to the prescribed form as reported by the committee appointed to attend their wedding. Attendance at the Cedar Creek Meetings required some little traveling, for it was usually held in Caroline County. Nevertheless, Charles Lynch continued to attend various meetings throughout the next two years as evidenced by his appointment to investigating committees and for permission to sue for just debts. By March, 1758, the South River community had begun to conduct its own Monthly Meetings, and Lynch had risen in importance enough to be appointed to attend the Quarterly Meetine, representing South River. In addition, he was appointed to take over the job of clerk of the Monthly Meeting, a duty which he performed for about six years and which involved writing the proceedings or each meeting in a journal provided for that purpose. Lynch's name appears frequently ln the records throughout 1758 in various committee assignments and as a rei:resentative to tr.e Quarterly Meeting. In one instance, he and several others were appointed to inquire into the failure of a previous committee to make a certain report about prospective members to the Society from Halifax. Lynch's committee was also a failure for several months, but eventually nade its report in December of that year and along with it, satisfactory reasons for the delay of their investigation. Such checking and double-checking on the assignrents of Quaker committees was not uncommon. Frequently there was delay in reporting. Always, in such cases, another group was appointed to investigate the failure of the first, but if satisfactory explanations were forthcoming, then nothine else was ever said about the failure. 27 The purpose of this illustration is to show further the lengths to which the orthodox Quakers went in governing the affairs of their members, as it rray shed so~ light later on the reasons which caused Charles Lynch to break with the church. During the years 1758 through 1763, Lynch was a veritable pillar of the church community in which he lived. Hardly a month passed without his name appearing in the records as a representative to the Quarterly Meeting, appointment to an investigating committee, appointment to prepare the Quarterly Meeting accounts, to attend regular Quaker meetings and assist them in correct procedure, to prepare testifications against other Quakers who were straying from the straight and narrow path, to prepare or deliver disownments to members who did not repent of sinful acts, to repair the meeting house and secure the title to same bylaw, or to perform miscellaneous duties of the clerk. This was the period of his greatest activity among the Quakers and one which it must be assumed that he entered into wholeheartedly or else he could have found ways to shun the various duties required of him. Several other men stand out as prominent members of this cornrr.unity, but in church affairs Charles Lynch played equally as important a part. It was not until the spring of 1?64 that the first clue appears that possibly Lynch was tiring of his church duties. The entry appears in South River records that Charles Lynch requested to be relieved from his duties as clerk, and one William Chandler was appointed to that station.29 After August, 1764 his name does not appear again to any assignment whatsoever. Possibly one of the greatest factors in Lynch's waning interest for the church was the affair in which his brother Chris torher was involved. No specific account of the charges brought against Christorher Lynch by his brethren is found in the Quaker records except that, "Christopher Lynch being in practices contrary to the principles of Truth" will be disowned unless he can give the meeting satisfaction for his actions, whatever they were. This entry was recorded on July 21, 1764, and although it, my be i::ere coincidence that Charles Lynch took no active part in the work of the church after August, it is probable that he sympathized with his brother or else had been contemplating leaving the church for some time. The business with Christopher Lynch ended in October, 1?641 when the two Men appointed to treat with him reported that he no longer claimed any right or title among the Quakers. An interesting pursuit was begun in September, 1765 by the Quakers in their attempts to get back the meeting rapers and other business records belonging to the church which had been retained by Charles Lynch since he bad given up hie post as clerk. Boling Clark and VJilliam Candler were appointed to collect the papers and settle various other rratters with Lynch. For reasons unknown, they were unsuccessful in their task. Several other men were appointed to the committee but each month the record shows them all to be unsuccessful. Almost a year later, on August 16, 1?66, 11The Friends appointed to settle the Meeting tusiness with Charles Lynch report they could not get the accounts nor settle it any other way than it was. They are therefore discontinued till further direction. 11 32 Here the mltter ended, and it is not yet known if the records in question were ever collected. October, 1766 brought on the final round with Lynch and the Quakers. The church entered a complaint against Charles Lynch for taking "solemn oaths" and justifying himself in the action. A committee was appointed to persuade him of his error and also to inform him that he would be testified against unless he rr.ade the rroper repentance to the congregatjon. In November the committee reported that Lynch had again justified himself for taking oaths, so several Quakers were designated to draw up a paper of denial against the accused. There are two events that may have led to the raper of denial against Lynch for takinr, oaths. The first occurred on September 23, 1766, when Lynch and two others were appointed by a Bedford County Court order to settle with the executors of William Boyd's est~te to see that a final settleirent of the will was made.34 Such an order rriay have necessitated taking an oath before Lynch could be approved for the assignment. The second event, although not recorded until Deceniber, 1766, by the House of Burgesses, could have occurred before the Quaker car.plaint and thereby have been its cause. The House of Burgesses resolved "That Captain Charles Lynch, ••• being ordered out on err~rgent Occasions, ~nd not havin~ Tirne to raise the full Complement of 1len to entitle him to Captain's pay, ••• ought to be allowed the Pay of a Captain for his said Services." Lynch's commission as a captain being authorized ry the governrnent, may have involved an oath of alleginnce to England. Even though neither or the events cited are positive illustrations of Lynch's oath taking at this time, both ere plausible. It need scarcely be add~d, that hod Lynch not been disowned for tak1ng oaths, he certainly would have been for participating in the above n:ilitary campaign. Enlistirent in the army or other warlike activities were grounds for disownment by the Quakers. The paper of disownment was drawn up and read to Lynch in January, 1767, by Eoling Clarke, one of Lynch's closest friends while in the church. Lynch was offered a chance to redeem hirnse1r37 but apr~rently never did, for the final statement in the records reads, 'ffllereas Charles Lynch having been a tr.ernber of the Soci~ty of the People Called Quakers & have Con~rary to our known principles been guilty of taking solemn oaths we do therefore testify against him all such practices and the acter thereof from being any longer a rember of our Society till it may please God to convince him of bis error and work repentanc~ in him by a Godly sorrow which is the Sincere desire of us. It is difficult to say precisely why Charles Lynch broke with his religion after spending about ten very active years among the Quakers and having been reared a Quaker by his mother. Maybe his father's aloofness from the church had some bearing on his decisi.on. Certainly he was deeply concerned over the disown~ent of Chriotopher Lynch. It is also possible that Lynch develored some skepticism as to the value of Quaker passive resistance jn the face of Indian nnsaacrea about the countryside around 1?6o.39 He may even have turned the Quakers' own disregard of constituted authority against them, had it occurred to him that the church did a good deal of unwarranted meddling into the private affairs of its rrembers. Whatever his reasons, breaking with the church caused him to radically alter his previous living pattern and enter a variety of activities which he could not have done otherwise.

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=162117177&pid=355 [S1133] Ancestry.com, North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), Book Title: Lineage Book : NSDAR : Volume 004 : 1893.