a higher point than had ever before been reached. ‘He traversed the course of the Tigris from its source in Armenia to Baghdad, fixing the chief position by astronomical observations, and others by cross-bearings. He then connected Nineveh, Baghdad, Babylon, and Ctesiphon by triangulation, and completed the Tigris map in 1839’ (Clements Markham).
Lynch was promoted to commander 1 July 1839. The court of directors of the East India Company, anticipating important results from the navigation of the rivers of Mesopotamia, sent out that year, round the Cape, in pieces, under charge of Lieutenant Michael Lynch, three river-steamers of special construction, built by Laird & McGregor. These were put together at Bussorah, and in 1840 four steamers flying British colours were afloat under the walls of Baghdad, with which Henry Blosse Lynch kept up regular communication with Bussorah. During Lynch's temporary absence in 1841, his successor, Lieutenant Dugald Campbell, with Lieutenant Felix Jones, both of the Indian navy, accomplished the ascent of the river Euphrates as far as Beles, which was considered a very remarkable feat (see Morning Chronicle, 10 Aug. 1841). Lynch resumed command at Beles in the autumn of the same year, when a base-line for the Mesopotamian survey was measured on the plain between Beles and Jiber, and connected by chronometric measurements with the Mediterranean. Lynch proceeded to Baghdad, and remained there in charge of the postal service across Syria between Baghdad and Damascus until late in 1842, during which time ‘he continued actively engaged in extending our geographical knowledge, and promoting commercial intercourse between India and Europe by this route’ (Sir Henry Rawlinson). He commanded a flotilla off the mouth of the Indus in 1843, keeping open communication with Sir Charles James Napier's army in Scinde. From that time until 1851 Lynch was employed as assistant to the superintendent of the Indian Navy, and a member of the Oriental Examination Committee at Bombay, where he was remembered as a very active member of the Bombay Geographical Society, and founder of the Indian Navy Club, once famous for its cuisine and its hospitality to the other services. He became captain 13 Sept. 1847, and was appointed master attendant in Bombay dockyard in 1849. In 1851–3, as commodore, he commanded a small squadron of vessels of the Indian navy, which rendered distinguished services with the royal navy during the second Burmese war, at the conclusion of which he was made C.B. He returned home, and on 13 April 1856 finally retired from the service.
Lynch established himself in Paris, where he was a well-known and very popular member of the English colony. At the conclusion of the Persian war of 1856–7, Lynch was delegated by Lord Palmerston to conduct the negotiations with the Persian plenipotentiary, which resulted in the treaty of Paris of 4 March 1857. The shah, in recognition of his services, nominated him to the highest class of the Lion and Sun, which order he first received in 1837. Lynch was author of the following short papers: ‘Note on a Survey of the Tigris’ (Geog. Soc. Journal, 1839, pp. 441–2); ‘Note on part of the Tigris between Baghdad and Samarrah’ (ib. pp. 471–6). Lynch's researches must not be confused with those of Captain William Francis Lynch, United States navy, whose surveys of the Jordan and Dead Sea were made a few years later, and are also noticed in the ‘Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.’ Sir Henry Rawlinson described Henry Blosse Lynch ‘as an accurate and daring observer of the school of Ormsby, Wellsted, and Wyburd, but even more gifted than they as a scholar and linguist, and in having those rare qualities of geniality, tact, and temper, which command the respect of the wildest, and win the confidence of less barbarous Orientals’ (Presidential Address, Roy. Geogr. Soc., 1873). He died at his residence in the Rue Royal, Faubourg St. Honoré, Paris, 14 April 1873, aged 66. Lynch married a daughter of Colonel Taylor, at one time political resident at Baghdad.
[Information supplied by the India Office; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1886 ed., under ‘Lynch of Partry;’ Chesney's Euphrates Expedition; Layard's Nineveh; Clements Markham's Indian Surveys; Low's Hist. Indian Navy; Roy. Soc. Cat. Scientific Papers, 1851; Presidential Address, R. Geogr. Soc. London, 1873, Journal, vol. xliii. p. clxviii; obituary notice in Galignani's Messenger, 19 April 1873.]
LYNCH, JAMES (1608?–1713), catholic archbishop of Tuam, born about 1608, doubtless in Ireland, was educated at the English College at Rome. The Propaganda in January 1669 appointed him archbishop of Tuam, and he was consecrated at Ghent 16 May 1669, but did not receive the pallium till 18 March 1671. Martin French, a renegade monk, having informed against him for violating the statute of præmunire, Lynch was arrested, and was to have been tried at Galway, but his counsel had the venue changed to Dublin. The informer turned penitent and did not appear at the trial.
