During our time here many questions come through the door. Some are easy to answer, some are much more difficult, while others eluded us. The one question that eluded us for so long was why the area was called Lynches Lake. There are many assumptions that people take from Thomas Lynch Jr. to the lynching of the Regulator Movement in the Colonial era, and many other theories. This river system is important for South Carolina because unlike the different river systems in SC(minus the Ashley and the Cooper) it is not named after Native American people. The goal is to narrow the search for the name down to viable reasons because there will be limited documentation of why something could be a given name. The limitation in documentation could be due to time from the production of material to now, wars that have caused damage or helped in the loss of said document since the printing of said document, and fire. To fully discuss the area, we must first look at the Lake and Riverway and their history. As time passes, we can narrow down the time when it would change into Lynches Lake and Lynches River. When we get to the first mention of Lynches River and Lynches Lake, we will look at what events would be happening around when the change from one name to its current name occurs as well as developments in South Carolina. This way we can both understand why the River and area were given the name in history while keeping the reason the State gives for Lynches River being named after Thomas Lynch Jr.

SC and the area of Lake City and much of the Pee Dee were first settled by Native American tribes of multiple languages and many subtribes within larger nations. In the 1500s the Spanish were the first European group to explore and document along the area of the river to try and discover gold in the new world. The main explorers of the Carolinas were Luis Vasquez de Allyan (towards Cape Fear), and Hernando de Soto(Southern Appalachian mountains) The last time the Spanish documented coming through was with the expeditions of Juan Pardo trying to discover an easier route towards Mexico to attempt to make transportation easier and harder forpirates to steal. During Juan Pardo’s expedition, he and other members wrote journals about their trip in the area and documented the area they were traveling. In this documentation, there are two Tribes that mention the Catapa and the Yssa. Catapa in the area of current Lynches Lake and Yssa towards the Carolina border more into North Carolina. The Catapa is seen in two other variations, this is due to change in language (Spanish to English) as well as the difference in how people would assume it is spelled due to very few people knowing how to write. Catapaw is seen in maps like La Floride divisee enFloride et Caroline by Sr. Robert de Vaugundy. And Esaw is seen in Early maps like Carte General de la Caroline

        The English were trading with the Native American tribes and multiple towns inland may have started, like Georgetown, as a trading post for Native Americans and Colonials/Europeans. A man named John Lawson began exploring from Charleston and exploring the Carolinas (at the time Carolina) in his book of adventures named New Voyage of Carolinas he goes into the interior of the Carolinas and he sees and takes hospitality from the chief of the Catapaw and in two days journey sees the people of the Esaw tribe. His book was published in 1709 in London, thus his exploration of the interior was around 1700-1708. This is important for the river system because the diary from the writer says that the river was named after the Catapaw people because of the tribe being so close to it. The next time the river system is named was not until the 1730s when Huguenots and Ulster Scots (Scots Irish) started settling in the area where it switched the title between River and Creek, but it is known as Lynches Creek/River or Linches Creek/River. This is seen in land grants and titles given to people in the area. The reason the importance of this switch is important is that it solidifies the area of time the name changed as well as this is the area they are talking about between 1735-and 1736 many people have plats named for Lynches Creek, Lynches River, and Lynches Lake because this is people who want to know exactly where their land is and where their property line ends at.

      So, between 1702 and 1735 we have the river and area changing from Catapa/Catapawto Lynches. There are a couple of historical events going on during this period. From 1702-1713 there was a war named Queen Anne’s War. This was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought in North America involving the colonial empires of Great Britain, France, and Spain; it took place during the reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain. In the United States, it is regarded as a standalone conflict under this name. 1706-1778 the Parish system was established where a church was the center for new towns and the seats of government for an area. In 1715, the Yamasee people of South Carolina rebelled against trading injustices and the Native American slave trade. Various Indigenous tribes, including the Cherokee and the Pee Dee, banded together during the Yamasee War (1715-1717) to attack the British, forcing many colonists to flee South Carolina. From 1706-1722 there was a change in the system of division, the governor in 1706 Sir Nathaniel Johnson wanted to show his support of his type of religion in a means far beyond the scope of acceptability and the hope many people had in leaving their homes in the United Kingdom. As an ardent supporter of the Protestant Church of England, Governor Johnson sought to establish his preferred form of worship as the official religion of South Carolina. To accomplish this partisan goal, the provincial General Assembly ratified a controversial law in 1704 that divided the most populous county—Berkeley—into seven Anglican parishes to be supported by the public treasury. Following a chorus of complaints from the non-Anglican citizens of South Carolina, who comprised most of the population, the Lords Proprietors of Carolina disallowed or canceled the offending statute. The provincial legislature ratified a less discriminatory version of the same material in late 1706, which received official approval in England the following year. This would set up multiple parishes throughout the colony’s lifespan and would be a source of revenue for both church and state while keeping records of township populations through the years.  The revolution in SC against the Lord's Proprietors led to a bloodless coup of the system. They then became a Royal Colony in 1719. In 1730 there was a Governor Robert Johnson who proposed the Township Act, this was for people to register better but also for better defense in case the Native American raids were coming. This Plan/Act was originally proposed in 1721 that way frontier towns would have many fighting men involved so that the raids were less severe but also to grow more out of these townships. The Parish/Townships around Lynches Lake and the River are Queensborough/Queensboro Township, Kingsborough Township, Prince Fredrick Parish, and Williamsburg Township. The importance of these townships tells us that Lynches Lake was in a particular area, all these territories surrounding the area had paperwork filed through them but generally did not claim as part of their territory of government. However, when it came to taxes and judicial judgment (criminal, civil, and probate) it fell within the county of Craven County.

 Georgetown was established in 1729 and is the second oldest city in South Carolina. This was a jumping point for many immigrants to push into the frontier also known as the back county of South Carolina. Many townships like Queensboro, Kings Town, and Fredericksburg became official in 1730 throughout the year. All these townships surrounding the area of Lynches Lake help tell us that people were settling in the vicinity a little earlier than official records. Much like John Lawson many other people were moving, trading, and (some) living in this backcountry with other settlers and Natives. Both with many other immigrant settlers wanting to own their land they began settling further back down navigable rivers. This was so that trade and transportation were easy for crops, supplies, and more people as they came along.

Names are important to help classify property to give boundaries. Rivers are the main route of travel during the Colonial Period. Many names change over time due to landowners passing, trading hands, or new groups coming into possession. A perfect example is in Charlestown; Originally known as Lynches Creek (due to a good bit of land in the area belonging to Jonack Lynch in 1670), When he passed in 1691, the area slowly began changing the name of the creek to Orange due to the Huguenot presence growing in the area. This would eventually lead to Orange transitioning to French and becoming the French Quarter of Charleston.

The same process would happen to the river feeding into the Pee Dee River. It would make the transition from Catapaw to Lynches. Due to the Catapaw no longer living in the area after 1720 and Native Americans pushing backward to avoid the Colonials that would cause trouble for the tribe. With this change from one name to another, the cartographers possibly named places after a person who had much influence in the area or a major landowner to help influence this section of Craven County.

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Jonack had two sons, Johnson and Thomas.  Johnson and Thomas both inherited their father’s fortune, and both went to live successfully. Both moved from the crowded town that was becoming Charleston to further up the Coast close to Cape Fear. Both served in the militia and obtained the rank of Captain. Thomas Lynch obtains the rank of Colonel by the end of his career. Thomas served in Queen Anne’s War and helped in repelling Spanish invaders from Charleston on James Island in 1706. Thomas set up residences around Charleston in 1719 and was active in politics during his time. He will continue obtaining grants for lands in Craven County in the span of a year close to 25,000 acres along different areas and some along the riverway. His Father Jonah (Jonack Lynch/Linch in some records) owned much land in Charleston before he died in the 1690s being an avid rice planter, as well as a man coming to make a new life for himself and his family, he named his plantation after the boat that brought him to the New World the Blessing. Jonah was also a merchant and Justice of the Peace in present-day Berkley County. His sense of justice in the sense of freedom defined his children in not only serving in the militia to defend their homes but also to serve their communities. This sense of dedication is seen within Thomas’ line from his son Thomas Lynch II (Sr.)and Thomas Lynch III (Jr.) serving in Congress and militia from a young age.

Names have many aspects and reasonings. When we look at an area map, many differences can be seen not only over time but also over people. Many artists like to make their work special and unique. The same is said for cartographers of the early colonial periods. Though many maps look the same, each one says something different about an area or can bring tension with a description or layout of a place.  The importance of these maps of colonial SC was that they showed people moving inward towards the Appalachian Mountains, as well as communities being built up over time. The difference between Mouzan’s map and Cook's map brings in contention a problem with the creek/river. In this Mouzan spells it ‘Lynches’ while Cook spells ‘Linches’. Could Mouzan looked at the name for the area and assumed the Lynch family was involved in a form or fashion in the settling of the area, could it be that Cook might have thought that two separate Lynch families (Like both Thomas and Johnson) were involved in separate settlements, could it be an error by one man that the other corrected, or possibly could they mean the same thing but based on documentation of land assumed it was different, or that they are using terms from their homeland. Even when immigrating over in 1669 from Ireland, Jonah/Jonack Lynch had a paper trail that was hard to find due to the period that he arrived with the Blessing (The ship he would name his plantation after) in 1669. In the ship’s manifest from the UK to Barbados he is labeled under Jonah Linch and his wife Margaret but on arrival to the colony of Carolina, his last name switches to Lynch. This can be because the person hearing the last name spelled it a way believed it would be spelled to the writer.

When discussing our two map makers, James Cook and Henry Mouzon Jr, we must discuss where they come from because some terms, they could use words and descriptions to influence what they would illustrate through their findings in the Carolinas. Henry Mouzon Jr. is a native of South Carolina born in Craven County and grandson of an immigrating Huguenot. Upon his father’s death when he was 8, he was sent to France to learn and become a civil engineer and map maker getting his education and returning home, he and Ephraim Mitchell (the surveyor general of South Carolina) worked together and made the map of the Carolinas known as theMouzon Map. In this map, Mouzon uses the spelling, Lynches to describe the area of the Lake and the Fork where the river/creek divides. This could be because the land was known as Lynches due to the family of prominence in both Charleston and Georgetown, the land they owned in both places. It could also be known due to how active the family was in the community and how Jonah/Jonack and his descendants cared for immigrants coming in. Jonah/Jonack cared for many Huguenots coming into Charleston that settled near the area around him so much that it changed the Lynches Creek in Charleston to Orange to the French District.

James Cook was from England and was a mariner along with the ship the HMS Mars, originating from Nova Scotia, before getting paid out and leaving with the HMS Alarm. In his first voyage with the Mars he made observations and sketches published as A Draught of the Harbour of Hallifax and the adjacent coast in Nova Scotia in 1766. ^[1]He did similar with the Alarm in Port Royal SC. This shows not only Cook being an active mariner but also where he is from. This can be seen in his use of language both Honorable and Esquire when describing the speaker of the House of Commons. This is not what Henry Mouzon Jr. does, Mouzon does both Carolinas and does not address either colony’s House or government representatives. The classical care can also be seen in the two-year difference between Cook and Mouzon. When classifying Lynches, now River, both men called it a creek but in the name choice, they make a distinction. Mouzon continues Lynches through the river system and Lake, while Cook differs and says the Creek is Linches. This is due to an old English term “‘at the linch’ from residence there by. 'A.S. hlinc, ahill, but especially a balk or boundary, a sense still preserved in modern provincial English linch ' (Skeat, V. Iink). ' Linch, a balk of land(Kent). Any bank or boundary for Uie division of land ' (Halliwell). A large portion of the New York Lynches must be ascribed to an Irish parentage, as such prefixes as Michael, Patrick, and Terence abound (v. New York Directory).”^[2]The reason for the linch difference could be in the nautical term for a reference point in sandy land where dwellings are. This would explain why the Creek has the distinction due to its population around these forks. The river kept switching the name Lynches Creek and Lynches River throughout the years until 1880when the House Representatives and Senate of South Carolina put in an Act (Actno. 239 1880) that was approved on February 20 of that year to change the name of the Lynches Creek to Lynches River.

[1]Robert R. Rea, “Master James Cook and Gulf Coast Cartography,” STARS, December 14, 2021, https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol63/iss3/4/.

[2]  “Lynch,” essay, in A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with Special American Instances (H. Frowde, 1901),503–503.

       There are many interpretations of Lynches in documentation, but all mean the same location. This spelling is due to there not being a consistent or standard rule of what it is. So seeing the name spelled Lynch’s, Lynches, Lynche’s, Linches, and Linch’s all mean the same river basin system.

Though in the past it was Lynches Creek, nowadays the reason for its current iteration name (Lynches River and Lynches Lake) is for the youngest signer of the Declaration to honor his duty and sacrifice he was willing to give up for us to be free today. When we dive into the past, we find reasonings for things well before their time. We should seek to understand why a place was called something in the past because the past can help guide our future to something bright. When we dove to explore the reasonings for Lynches Lake and River, we found more questions than answers. That does not mean we look any less; we must press forward in our search for knowledge and understanding. There can be multitudes of reasons why a place like Lynches Lake could be called it. Whether evil or in honor we must throw the hood off and see the facts for what it is. We know it cannot be for lynching due to both the time and the difference in both maps and spellings for the world, along with Lynch’s Law not truly being “established” till closer to the Revolutionary War a 40-year gap away nor the Regulator Movement that is20-years away from beginning.  

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                            Bibliography

Gregg, Alexander. History of the old Cheraws. New York: Richardson and Company, 1867.

“Lynch.” Essay. In A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with Special American Instances,503–503. H. Frowde, 1901.

Moore, Caroline T. Records of the Secretary of the Province of South Carolina, 1692-1721,1978.

Oliphant, Mary C. Simms, and William Gilmore Simms. The New Simms History of South Carolina. Columbia, S.C: State Co, 1941.

“Online Records. ”Online Records of Land Grants. Accessed August 26, 2024.https://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/.

Outen, Lon D. A history of Lynches Forks and extended areas on Big and Little Lynches River, South Carolina. Ann Arbor, MI: Sheridan Books, Inc, 2012.

Rea, Robert R.“Master James Cook and Gulf Coast Cartography.” STARS, December 14, 2021.https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol63/iss3/4/.

“Reports and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina, at the Extra Session, 1880.” Historical documents of the Legislative Branch. Accessed August 27, 2024. https://www.carolana.com/SC/Legislators/Documents/home.html.

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