Lynch, Thomas, 1727-1776

Thomas Lynch (1727–1776) was an American planter, a statesman from South Carolina, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 and the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776, and signed the 1774 Continental Association.

Born in St. James Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina, Lynch attended the common schools and engaged in planting with extensive rice plantations on the Santee River and elsewhere. He served in the Colonial Legislature of South Carolina and represented the Colony in the Stamp Act Congress, heading the committee which drafted the petition to the House of Commons. Elected to both the First and Second Continental Congresses, Lynch joined Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Harrison on a committee sent to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to confer with General George Washington upon "the most effectual method of continuing, supporting, and regulating the Continental Army." In the ensuing discussions, Washington told the committee of his plan to arm ships to prey upon British supply lines. The gentlemen from Congress approved of the scheme and recommended it to Congress, thus giving essential political support to the establishment of "George Washington's Navy," the first organized naval force of the new Nation.

Due to illness, Lynch was unable to sign the Declaration of Independence. He died in Annapolis, Maryland in December 1776 while en route to his home and was buried in St. Anne's Churchyard in Annapolis.