Thomas Lynch
MSA SC 3520-17849
Biography:
Thomas Lynch enlisted as a private in Maryland's Fifth Independent Company, led by Captain John Allen Thomas, in early 1776, when he was about seventeen years old. The company was raised in St. Mary's County, Maryland, where Lynch lived, and was one of seven independent companies that the Maryland Council of Safety formed across the state in early 1776, initially intended to guard the Chesapeake Bay's coastline from a feared British invasion. By that summer, however, the independent companies were dispatched to New York, to help reinforce the Continental Army as it prepared to defend the city from the British. In total, twelve companies of Maryland troops traveled to New York that July and August: nine companies that comprised the First Maryland Regiment, commanded by Colonel William Smallwood, and the Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Independent companies, the only three that were ready to travel then. [1]
On August 27, 1776, the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. The battle was a rout: the British were able to sneak around the American lines, and the outflanked Americans fled in disarray. During the retreat, the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy Gowanus Creek. While half the regiment was able to cross the creek, the rest were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, the Marylanders mounted a series of daring charges. These men, now known as the "Maryland 400," held the British at bay long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape, at the cost of many lives. In all, 256 Marylanders were killed or captured by the British; some companies lost as much as 80 percent of their men. Lynch and his company likely saw little combat. Instead, the Fifth Independent Company did not cross the East River from Manhattan to Brooklyn until after the fighting had begun, and did not venture into the field of battle. They did, however, perform valuable service assisting the Americans retreating through the Gowanus Marsh. [2]
During the fall of 1776, Lynch and the rest of the Marylanders fought a series of battles in New York: Harlem Heights (September), White Plains (October), and Fort Washington (November). While the Americans had some tactical successes at these engagements, by November they had been pushed out of New York entirely, though they secured key victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. The enlistments of the soldiers in the independent companies ended in December 1776. The companies were disbanded, and Lynch returned home. [3]
Lynch lived in St. Mary's County, where he worked as a sailor or waterman, in addition to farming. Although he was never rich, he was firmly among the county's middle class. He was able to accumulate a modest amount of land, and owned a few slaves. He was married, and had two sons, born around 1800 and 1805, and a daughter, who was born around 1811. None of their names are known, however. [4]
Whatever economic success Lynch achieved during his lifetime, he fell on hard times as he grew older. In 1818, he applied for a Federal Revolutionary War veteran's pension, and was awarded eight dollars per month. However, in 1820 pension requirements were tightened, and veterans were required to provide proof of financial distress. Lynch "considered that he was worth more than two hundred dollars," the maximum amount of property veterans could own and still be eligible, and did not attempt to reapply. As the decade came to a close, however, he was unable to support himself without government assistance. In 1827, the Maryland General Assembly granted Lynch a pension worth half of a private's pay. [5]
Two years later, Lynch reapplied for a Federal pension. In his application, he described how his "occupation is a Seaman [but] that I am too old to follow it," and could not support himself and his family by farming his 100 acre tract of "very poor" land. Lynch's wife had died, but his three children lived with him, along with a grandson. As a tribute to his Revolutionary service, Lynch was once again granted a pension of eight dollars per month, in addition to his payments from Maryland. He collected this money until his death, on November 18, 1831, when he was in his early seventies. [6]
Owen Lourie, 2018
Sources:
[1] Pension of Thomas Lynch, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, S 34969, from Fold3.com; St. Mary's County Court, Pension Papers, Military, Thomas Lynch, 1829, MdHR 20314-1 [MSA C1653-1, 1/57/9/39]; Mark Andrew Tacyn, "'To the End:' The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution" (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 33-45.
[2] Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, from Fold3.com; Tacyn, 48-73; Reiman Steuart, The Maryland Line (The Society of the Cincinnati, 1971), 154-155. For more on the experience of the Marylanders at the Battle of Brooklyn, see "In Their Own Words," on the Maryland State Archives research blog, Finding the Maryland 400.
[3] Lynch pension. Lynch recalled being discharged in September 1777, which was likely incorrect. There is no evidence that he did any service after late 1776 or early 1777, and no reason that he would have, since his company was disbanded long before September 1777.
[4] Lynch pension; U.S. Federal Census, 1790, St. Mary's County, Maryland; U.S. Federal Census, 1800, St. Mary's County, Maryland; U.S. Federal Census, 1810, St. Mary's County, Maryland; U.S. Federal Census, 1820, District 3, St. Mary's County, Maryland; Inventory of Thomas Lynch, 1832, St. Mary's County Register of Wills, Inventories, Liber EJM 2, p. 291 [MSA C1611-6, 1/60/12/6]. Exactly how much land Lynch owned is difficult to say for sure, owing to gaps in the county's land records and multiple people with the same name. In 1829, he owned 100 acres of "very poor" land, but may have owned several times as much a few decades earlier.
[5] Lynch pension; Maryland General Assembly, Session Laws of 1827, Revolution 38, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 474, p. 294.
[6] Lynch pension; Lynch inventory; Maryland General Assembly, Session Laws of 1832, Revolution 50, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 547, p. 410.
Return to Thomas Lynch's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|