Note 41 — Chapter II · Origin of the Term Lynch-law

Mr. Page makes no mention of any trouble with desperadoes. Referring to the Tories in Bedford County, he says: “Numerous records of the county courts, taken together with other sources of information, show that here, as in many other western counties, there was a strong and influential party opposed to the struggle for independence. For the most part they were quiet, thrifty men, far different from the ruffians and desperadoes that prejudice has since represented them to be.” That there were cliques of depredators and that much lawlessness prevailed in Virginia and the Carolinas at about this time is undoubtedly true, however. William Wirt, in his “Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry” (p. 217), cites the case of Josiah Philips who, at the head of a band of banditti, spread terror in the counties of Norfolk and Princess Anne, and was made an outlaw by an act of the legislature of Virginia, by which act it became lawful for any person to kill him whenever opportunity offered. Lyman C. Draper presents the record of a great deal of lawlessness and depredation in his “King’s Mountain and its Heroes.” See pp. 241, 331, 332, 336, 340 note, 343 note, 384, 448–449.