[11]. John Jamieson: “Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language” (1879).
[12]. An American edition, bound under the title, “Brande’s Encyclopædia,” was published in 1843.
[13]. The English Dictionary, edited by Rev. John Boag and published at Glasgow in 1848, gives for the verb lynch, “To inflict punishment without the forms of law, as by a mob.” The definitions given for the words “lynched” and “lynching” are also very similar to the ones given by Webster. It is fair to presume that Boag consulted Webster and followed his authority, although he did not mark the term as an American word. John Craig’s Dictionary of the English Language (London, 1849) gives “lynch, v. a. To punish summarily without judicial investigation, as by a mob.—An American word.” The London edition of Nuttall’s Dictionary (published about 1863) gives “Lynch, v. a. To inflict pain, or punish without the forms of law, as by an American mob.” The dictionaries published in Great Britain previous to 1848 do not contain the verb lynch.
[14]. The edition of 1901 has the same. The Century Dictionary is the only recent authoritative work that states unequivocally that lynch-law was originally the kind of law administered by Charles Lynch of Virginia.
[15]. See Hardiman’s History of Galway (Dublin, 1820), p. 70. Also, Spectator (London), April 13, 1889 (62: 511). The story can be traced back as far as the year 1674. See Miscellany of the Irish Archæological Society (1846), I, 44–80. (M.)
[16]. The Green Bag, March, 1900 (12: 150).
[17]. See “lynch law,” The American Cyclopædia (edition of 1875). See also, Notes & Queries, 2d Series, Oct. 23, 1858 (6: 338), where reference is made to London Gazette, 6–9 February, 1687–8, No. 2319.
[18]. That he succeeded in making himself thoroughly unpopular with every one is shown in the Calendars of State Papers, Colonial Series, America & West Indies, 1685–1688, and 1688–1692. (M.)
[19]. See “lynch law,” Encyclopædia Britannica (9th edition); also, under “to lynch,” Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms (4th edition, 1877).
C. A. Bristed, in an essay on The English Language in America (Cambridge Essays, 1855, p. 60) says: “Linch, in several of the northern-county dialects, means to beat, or maltreat. Lynch Law, then, would be simply equivalent to club-law; and the change of a letter may be easily accounted for by the fact that the name of Lynch is as common in some parts of America as in Ireland.”