T/ic Origin and History of Lynch Law. He was also a member of the House of Bur gesses in 1774—75. When out of public ser vice, he led the life of a rich and respected Virginia planter, surrounded by his family and slaves. His home was some twenty miles above Red Hill and Roanoke, the afterward famous homes, respectively, of Patrick Henry and John Randolph, on the Staunton river. (Howe's "History of Vir ginia," p. 2 1 2; also, " Sketches and Recollec tions of Lynchburg," p. ii.) A digression here to remark a decided peculiarity in the naming of this stream may be pardoned. While both its upper and lower courses are known as the Roanoke, the intermediate section is known as the Staunton. This anomaly is said to have arisen from the fact that when white settle ments were first established in this vicinity, in order to protect them from the incursions of the Indians, a company was organized to patrol the territory along the Roanoke river from the mountains to the mouth of the Dan, and placed under the command of a Captain Staunton. From the name of this officer, this part of thé stream came to be called at first " Staunton's river," and later known as " Staunton river," by which name it appears on the map, and is known to the people of the surrounding counties, and doubtless will be so known until the end of time. This account of its naming, is, how ever, a matter of tradition rather than of record or history. Thomas Jefferson, in his "Notes on Virginia," does not enumerate it in his list of rivers, but calls the whole stream by its Indian name, " Roanoke," from source to mouth; but in the accompanying maps — Peter Jefferson's and Fry's — the whole western end of it, i. c., from its confluence with the Dan to its source, is put down as "Staunton." At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the Quaker proclivities which Mr. Lynch had imbibed in his youth and early manhood seemed to still influence his actions so far as to keep him out of active service in
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arms. They did not, however, deter him from making himself thoroughly useful. At that time the whole of the mountainous section of Virginia was infested with Tories and desperadoes of the worst character, who burned and plundered the unprotected homes and property of the Continentals without mercy. Horse-stealing, too, owing to the fine prices paid by both armies for this class of property, had gained a marvelous popu larity, and the unsettled condition of the time gave the thieves practical immunity from punishment. They were frequently caught red-handed in the act, but there was at that time but one court in the State for the fina trial of felonies. The county courts were merely examining courts in all such cases. The trial court sat at Williamsburg, sometwo hundred miles from Campbell Count)-, and the war rendered the transmission of prisoners thither, and the attendance of the necessary witnesses to convict them, next to impossible. The officers in charge of the prisoners would often be attacked by outlaws and forced to release their men, or be cap tured by British troops and themselves made prisoners of war. The efficacious operation of the civil laws was thus rendered out of the question. In addition to the aggravation of this state of affairs, it later came to Mr. Lynch's.ears that a conspiracy was in active process of formation in his own community, the object of which was to overthrow the con tinental government, then considered ex tremely weak and as having very limited prospects of success, and to aid the British by every means possible. Mr. Lynch, there fore, in conjunction with his neighbors, Capt. William Preston, Capt. Robert Adams, Jr., Lynch'sdecided loway, brother-in-law, to take active and Col. steps James to frus Caltrate the objects of the conspirators, and, in fact, to punish lawlessness of every kind, and restore, as far as possible, quiet to their harassed community. No one knew better than they the risks they were assuming, yet they made no attempt at secrecy. They or
