"L" is for Lynch, Thomas, Jr. (1749-1779)

“L” is for Lynch, Thomas, Jr. (1749-1779). Signer of the Declaration of Independence. A native of Prince George Winyah Parish, Lynch attended the Indigo Society School. He then travelled to England where he was schooled at Eton and then Caius College, Cambridge. He then read law at the Middle Temple. Lynch returned to South Carolina in 1772 and two years later was elected to the First Provincial Congress. In 1775 he was commissioned a captain in the First South Carolina Regiment. A year later he was elected to the Second Continental Congress. And, at twenty-six, he was the second-youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1779, seriously ill, he and his wife set sail for France where he hoped to regain his health. The ship carrying Thomas Lynch, Jr., and his wife was lost at sea.