LYNCH LAW, a term used in the United States to characterize the action of private individuals, organized bodies of men, or disorderly mobs, who, without legal authority, proceed to punish by hanging or otherwise real or suspected criminals, without a trial according to the ordinary forms of law. The origin of the term is doubtful. American lexicographers generally refer it to the practice of a Virginia farmer of the 17th century, named Lynch, who, when he êaught a wrongdoer, was wont to tie him to a tree and flog him, without waiting to summon the officers of the law. He is also said to have acted, by request of his neighbours, though without any legal authority, as a judge in the summary trial of persons accused of crime. Others trace the origin of the name to the act of James Fitzstephen Lynch, mayor and warden of Galway, Ireland, in 1493, who is said to have “hanged his own son out of the window for defrauding and killing strangers, without martial or common law, to show a good example to posterity.” Others trace it still further to the old Anglo-Saxon verb lineh, meaning to beat with a club, to chastise, <fcc., which they assert has survived in this cognate meaning in America, as have many other words and expressions long obsolete in Great Britain. While lynch law does not prevail in the old and well-settled States of the Union, and is almost universally deprecated, it is sometimes resorted to even in these States, in times of great popular excitement, or when the legal penalty seems disproportioned to the enormity of the offence. For example, the practice of lynching is said to have increased in Wisconsin since the abolition of the death penalty by law. Lynch law prevailed to a large extent in the early history of California, Oregon, Nevada, Kansas, Colorado, ...

LYNCHBURG, a city in Campbell county, Virginia, U.S., is finely situated on the rising ground to the south of the James river 144 miles by rail, west by south of Richmond. Having excellent facilities of communication by the Richmond and Allegheny, the Norfolk and Western, and the Virginia Midland Railways, together with the James River canal, and possessing abundant water-power and immediate access to coal and iron, Lynchburg has become the seat of no small commercial and industrial activity. The tobacco trade, which formerly rendered it the wealthiest city of its size in the United States, except New Bedford, Mass., is still the staple; there are about eighty factories in the town, and the amount of tobacco sold in 1870-71 was 17,425,439 lb, while in 1880-81 it was 26,000,000 lb. Most of the operatives are negroes— men, women, and children all being employed. The local iron-works and flour-mills are of some importance, and large machine-shops are maintained at Lynchburg by the Norfolk and Western Railway. Two reservoirs, constructed in 1828 and 1878, supply the town with water. The population was 8067 in 1850, 6853 in 1860, 6825 (3353 coloured) in 1870, and 15,959 in 1880.

The town dates from 1786, and derives its name from a Mr Lynch who served in the war of independence and is erroneously credited by some with the origination of the term Lynch law. It was incorporated as a city in 1805. During the civil war it was a point of great importance to the Confederates as a base of supplies.