A verb named for
Captain William Lynch. Contrary to what
Webster 1913 says in
Lynch law, this is pretty solid. In the late
1700s in
Pittsylvania County,
Virginia (
USA), Mr. Lynch started a sort of
vigilante group to wreak havoc on criminals in the area that had so far found ways around
the system.
From a compact thought to have been written by Lynch:
"If they will not desist from their evil practices, we will inflict such corporeal punishment on him or them, as to us shall seem adequate to the crime committed or the damage sustained."
The '
adequate corporeal punishment' usually means
hanging.