Antedating of "Lynch"

[Towse]

Fred Shapiro wrote:
>
> On Wed, 5 Feb 2003, Dave Wilton wrote:
>
> > HDAS cites an 1835 quote in an article in American Speech XXXII (1948). HDAS
> > doesn't give a more precise dating than the year.
>
> Now that old volumes of American Speech are online, I was readily able to
> check that cite.  It turns out to refer to an Oct. 1835 source, the same
> month as the source I had noted.  American Periodical Series beats both of
> them, however:
>
> 1835 _Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post_ 12 Sept. 2  A whale that was
> making his way quietly up the Chesapeake bay, was pursued and _Lynched_.

Rather than asking about the etymology of "lynch," I trundled off
to the Century Dictionary
<http://www.global-language.com/century/>, which is a _way
entertaining word-hugger site, for those who don't know it.

The definition there doesn't quite jibe with the answers in the
ADS-L archives, where I went afterwards.

Question. The Century Dictionary listing for "lynch" and
"lynch-law" reference Charles Lynch, Robert Adams and Thomas
Calloway and their brand of justice during the Revolutionary War.
I'd always understood "lynch" to refer to vigilante hanging and
not just "justice."

When did the meaning of "lynch" morph from vigilante justice to
vigilante hanging, or did it ever?

My questions are, perhaps, influenced by the fact the last "lynch
mob" in the San Jose, CA, area (where I grew up) included a
hanging (1933). The victims were accused of the kidnapping and
murder of Brooke Hart, of the Hart Department Store family:
<http://www.sjunderbelly.com/unbelly/Sanjose/james/james9.html>

... and yes, I know where "vigilante" comes from. The family
dates back to a "capitalist" (as he is listed in the contemporary
directories) who was a member of the San Francisco Committee of
Vigilance ... or is the word really from the Spanish "vigilante"
... or both?

Sal
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