Antedating of "Lynch" -- a footnote

[George Thompson]

The OED defines "lynch" as a verb as "To condemn and punish by lynch law. In early use, implying chiefly the infliction of punishment such as whipping, tarring and feathering, or the like; now only, to inflict sentence of death by lynch law."  Its first two examples are:

1836 Niles' Reg. 1 Oct. 69/1 Some personal friend of Mr. Bronx..proceeded to the mansion of judge Bermudez, with a view to Lynch him. 1839 MARRYAT Diary Amer. Ser. I. III. 240 It may appear strange that people should be lynched for the mere vice of gambling.

It's not clear what the intention of the friend of Mr. Bronx was.  The gamblers Marryat was referring to were hanged.  Five gamblers had been lynched in Vicksburg, Miss. in 1835; the incident was reported in Niles' Weekly Register, July 25, August 1, August 8 of that year and is discussed in Ann Fabian, Card Sharps, Dream Books, and Bucket Shops: Gambling in 19th Century America, Ithaca: Cornell U. Pr., 1990.  The incident created a bit of a stir around the country, as is seen in the next:

        The authorities in Boston have been "coming Vicksburgh" over a lot of black legged gentlemen. . . .  By "coming Vicksburgh" we don't mean that they hanged them, but simply broke up their quarters. . . .   New York Commercial Advertiser, September 3, 1836, p. 2, col. 2  ["black legged gentlemen" alludes to the common term "blackleg" to refer to a gambler.  Notice the construction to "come [something] over", which HDAS dates only from 1845.]

The OED's 3rd citation for "lynch" is from 1856, from Emerson, and it's not clear what the lynching referred to consisted of.  I have a citation from 1843 that pretty clearly refers to mere physical punishment.

        Dr. Wells, of Madison county, Ohio, charged with habitually whipping his wife, was lately taken from his house at night by some of his neighbors and severely lynched.  New York Daily Express, March 8, 1843, p. 2, col. 4

Presumably the unfortunate whale in 1835 was neither hanged nor tarred and feathered.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.