Thomas Lynch

Education Lynch Jr. was schooled at the Indigo Society School in Georgetown, South Carolina. His parents sent him to England for higher studies. He received honors at Eton College and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Lynch Jr. studied law and political philosophy at the Middle Temple in London. His father admired English education and encouraged him to remain in Great Britain to study law and the principles of the British constitution.

After eight years away from North America, Lynch Jr. returned to South Carolina in 1772. Although his father had dreamed of his being in law, Lynch Jr. decided to end his pursuit of that profession.

Marriage and family Lynch Jr. married Elizabeth Shubrick on May 14, 1772.

Following their marriage, the couple lived at Peach Tree Plantation, which was located near his homeland plantation. The group formed the South Carolina constitution. Many people objected to the document. including the Continental Congress. It stood as a temporary constitution, as many believed there would be reconciliation with Great Britain.

Lynch became a company commander in the First South Carolina regiment on June 12, 1775. He was commissioned by the Provincial Congress. After being appointed, he gathered men and led a march into Charlestown, South Carolina. Amid the march, he became very sick with a bilious fever which prevented him from continuing. Although he was ill, Lynch Jr. traveled to Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Lynch Sr. and Thomas Lynch Jr. were the only father and son to serve successively in the Continental Congress.

Less than a month after signing the Declaration of Independence, Lynch Jr. threatened that South Carolina would secede from the United States; his threat expressed the interests of his constituents, the elite planter class. "If it is debated, whether their Slaves are their Property, there is an End of the Confederation."

After signing the Declaration of Independence, an ill Thomas Lynch Jr. set out for home with his ailing father. On the way to South Carolina, his father suffered a second stroke. He died in Annapolis, Maryland, in December 1776. The ship is known to have disappeared shortly after. He and his wife were considered to have been lost at sea.

Autographs by Thomas Lynch Jr. are among the rarest by signers of the Declaration of Independence. His time in Congress lasted less than a year, and for much of this time he was in poor health. Only a single letter has survived, along with a few signatures on historical documents. Many of his autographs have scattered, and others were lost in a fire. Today, Lynch's autograph sells for as much as $250,000.

In popular culture Lynch Jr. is played by Richard Bond in the 1938 film Declaration of Independence.