Difference between revisions of "John Lynch"

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(Goldfields Involvement, 1854)
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==Goldfields Involvement, 1854==
 
==Goldfields Involvement, 1854==
  
Lynch was a participant at the [[Eureka Stockade]] battle, being a Captain under [[Peter Lalor]]. After the battle Lynch helped conceal Peter Lalor in a hole and covered him with slabs. Lynch claimed that the greatest loss of life took place after the Stockade battle.<ref>Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.</ref>
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Lynch was a participant at the [[Eureka Stockade]] battle, being a Captain under [[Peter Lalor]]. Before the attack on Eureka Stockade, a final licence hunt was undertaken by the government forces. [[John Lynch]], one of Peter Lalor's "Captains", and an educated Irishman, wrote:
  
Lynch was one of the [[Prisoners]] held after the [[Eureka Stockade]] but was released without being tried for treason.<ref>List of names of people who figured in the life of Ballarat before and during the Eureka Rebellion of 3 December 1854, unpublished.</ref>
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" It was at this critical juncture, when men's minds were seething with passion, that another hunting raid was got up, and carried out with so many incidents of undisguised truculence as to leave no doubt of its having been intended to provoke hostilities. It was meant for a challenge, and as such was accepted."
  
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After the battle Lynch helped conceal Peter Lalor in a hole and covered him with slabs. Lynch claimed that the greatest loss of life took place after the Stockade battle.<ref>Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.</ref>
  
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Lynch was one of the [[Prisoners]] held after the [[Eureka Stockade]] but was released without being tried for treason.<ref>List of names of people who figured in the life of Ballarat before and during the Eureka Rebellion of 3 December 1854, unpublished.</ref>
  
 
==Post 1854 Experiences==
 
==Post 1854 Experiences==

Revision as of 18:25, 8 July 2013

]==Background==

Born Ennis, County Clare, Ireland on 25 December 1926. [1]

Lynch first mined at Magpie in September 1853. [2]He was married by Fr Patrick Smyth just before Eureka.[3]

Hi died on 21 March 1906 at Smythesdale and is buried in the Smythesdale Cemetery. [4]

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

Lynch was a participant at the Eureka Stockade battle, being a Captain under Peter Lalor. Before the attack on Eureka Stockade, a final licence hunt was undertaken by the government forces. John Lynch, one of Peter Lalor's "Captains", and an educated Irishman, wrote:

" It was at this critical juncture, when men's minds were seething with passion, that another hunting raid was got up, and carried out with so many incidents of undisguised truculence as to leave no doubt of its having been intended to provoke hostilities. It was meant for a challenge, and as such was accepted."

After the battle Lynch helped conceal Peter Lalor in a hole and covered him with slabs. Lynch claimed that the greatest loss of life took place after the Stockade battle.[5]

Lynch was one of the Prisoners held after the Eureka Stockade but was released without being tried for treason.[6]

Post 1854 Experiences

After the Eureka Stockade Lynch was one of the first to ‘rush’ to Smythe’s Creek in 1855, where he became district surveyor. Lynch played a prominent role in education and the Council at Smythesdale, becoming the first Chairman of the Municipality of Browns and Scarsdale in 1862. [7]

On the second anniversary of the Eureka stockade battle, Lynch led a small procession to the site of the stockade, and read address to those who were gathered.[8]

In 1873 Lynch was an examiner for scientific subjects at the Ballarat School of Mines. [9]

At the time of the 50th anniversary of Eureka Lynch was described as a bent form leaning on the arm of his son, Captain Lynch of the 3rd Battalion, Victorian Rangers Volunteers. As they passed many older men doffed their hats. He is buried with his wife and children at Smythesdale.[10]

Obituary

Mr Lynch was one of Lalor’s Captains, and fought beside him at the stockade. On his arrival at the Ballarat diggings his strong and sturdy personality soon made its impression on the diggers, so that he became a leader amongst them. After the historic fight, Mr Lynch who was a working miner like the bulk of the population at the time followed this occupation for many years.
When the Smythe’s Creek rush broke out he was the first to go to it. He subsequently built his house near Fraser’s Hill and lived there for more than half a century. Soon after his arrival the local Mining Board was constituted and he was appointed the position as chairman.
He was a very well educated man and a fine mathematician – a gift he handed on to his sons. He was a ready reader and a keen logician. Mr Lynch later became the first examiner in mathematics at the School of Mines.
Lynch was a sympathetic man, charitable almost to a fault and stood in the front rank of public life so long that he became, as it were, a mentor whom all in his own district willingly looked to for advice and guidance.
He was a councillor of the Borough of Smythesdale and later the first chairman of the Borough of Brown’s and Scarsdale.
For the last 12 months he lived almost in seclusion, owing to his great age and infirmities, and the end came peacefully: the old man died in his sleep. [11]


EUREKA VETERAN DEAD. - :FATHER OF "COLONEL" LYNCH. :SMYTHESDALE. Wednesday. - Deep regret was felt here when it became known that Mr John Lynch, mining surveyor for the Smythesdale district, has died. The deceased, who had been in failing health for the last four or five years, became unconscious on Monday last, and remained so until his death on Wednesday. Mr. Lynch, who was 80 years of age, was born in County Clare, Ireland, and left for the Victorian goldfields in the early fifties. He followed mining pursuits, and was ultimately elected by the diggers as surveyor for Warren's Lead, the appointment being afterwards confirmed by the Government.
He was also one of those who took an active part in the historic Eureka riot, being one of Peter Lalor's lieutenants. Years ago he was prominent in all local movements, and was elected a councillor of the borough of Smythesdale in 1861. A few years afterwards, he was one of those who formed the borough of Browns and Scarsdale. Mr Lynch was married in Ballarat in 1857, his wife having pre-deceased him by a few years. The surviving family consists of Captain J. Lynch, Mr Maurice Lynch, M.B., Mr Peter Lynch, L.R.C.S., Mr. Arthur Lynch, M. A., ex-member for Galway in the British House of Commons, and best known as "Colonel" Lynch during the South African war; Mr Thomas Lynch, a surveyor in West Australian; and one daughter, Miss B. Lunch. The funeral, which is of a private character, is to take place to-morrow (Thursday).[12]


Mr. John Lynch,' one of the pioneers of Ballarat, and the last of the captains who fought under Peter Lalor at the Eureka Stockade, died to-day at his residence of Smythesdale. The deceased , who was a native of County Clare, was 80 years of age. He was a member of one of the oldest and most influential families in the South of Ireland, and arrived in Victoria in 1852. He worked as a digger at Bendigo for some time, but the prospects of Ballarat proved more alluring, and he finally set out for Eureka. In the fight at the stockade between the British soldiers, and the diggers he was in command of the Pikemen, and was among those who were subsequently arrested for resisting the supremacy of the law, but he was not included among the thirteen insurgents who were conveyed to Melbourne to stand their trial for high treason on the conclusion of peace. With the termination of the State trials Mr. Lynch, who was a first-class mathematician, and a classical scholar, adopted the profession of a surveyor, and on settling in the Smythesdale district, he engaged largely in the work of surveying the surrounding gold- fields. For nearly 50 years he acted as Government surveyor in the district, and was professionally associated with the Grand Trunk, the Reform, and other well known mining properties. The deceased was a fluent speaker, and on the occasion of public gatherings in connection with the Eureka Stockade his utterances were al- ways heard with great interest, lie was a widower, and left a family of four sons and one daughter. His sons are Captain Lynch (chairman of the Country Fire Brigades Board), Dr. Peter Lynch "(of Carlton), Dr. Maurice Lynch, and Mr. Arthur Lynch, M.A., M.B., who fought with the Boers against the British in the South African campaign, and was subsequently elected to the British House of Commons by an Irish constituency. The deceased some years ago sustained a severe bereavement by the death of seven of his children from diarrhea within a few days.[13]


EXIT JOHN LYNCH - The passing out of John Lynch, aged at 80, at Ballarat on Wednesday, recalls to old Victorians, Australians, in fact, memories of the famous Eureka Stockade. Lynch was one of the men who stood in the forefront of the men who stood in the forefront of the fight which Peter Lalor led against the bureaucrats who sought to sap their liberty.
Deceased was of a firm, resolute nature which brooked no tyranny. This characteristic he seems to have imparted to his son, Arthur, who fought in the Boer war as a Boer colonel, was tried and convicted of treason, but was subsequently released.
Another son, Thomas, is employed in the Survey Department at Perth, in which service he is very well advanced. [14]

See also

Prisoners

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.

Lynch, John, The Story of the Eureka Stockade (facsimile), Ballarat Heritage Services.

Mentioned on Rev. T.J. Linnane's List.[15]

References

  1. List of names of people who figured in the life of Ballarat before and during the Eureka Rebellion of 3 December 1854, unpublished.
  2. List of names of people who figured in the life of Ballarat before and during the Eureka Rebellion of 3 December 1854, unpublished.
  3. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  4. List of names of people who figured in the life of Ballarat before and during the Eureka Rebellion of 3 December 1854, unpublished.
  5. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  6. List of names of people who figured in the life of Ballarat before and during the Eureka Rebellion of 3 December 1854, unpublished.
  7. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  8. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  9. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  10. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  11. unnamed newspaper clipping, 1906.
  12. Argus, 22 March 1906.
  13. Adelaide Advertiser, 22 March 1906.
  14. Perth Sunday Times, 25 March 1906.
  15. List of names of people who figured in the life of Ballarat before and during the Eureka Rebellion of 3 December 1854, unpublished.

External links



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