Elizabeth Shubrick Lynch
Wife of Thomas Lynch, Jr., Signer of the Declaration of Independence
1748 – 1779 A.D.

Elizabeth Shubrick, the beautiful girl who in 1773 married the sweetheart of her girlhood days, was destined to add another chapter to the tragic story of the Carolina signers and their families.

Thomas Lynch, Jr., son of a wealthy planter of the St. George Parish, after eight years in England in which he had prepared at Eton, taken his degree at Cambridge, and read law at The Temple, returned home in 1772 determined to devote his life to advancing the best interests of his country, a resolution directly in line with the wishes of his father.

He married Elizabeth Shubrick, daughter of an old and prominent family, and they took up their residence on a plantation which the elder Lynch had given them. In 1774 he became a captain of militia and a year later was elected ember of Congress to fill a vacancy caused by the breaking down of the health of his father. His own health had been seriously impaired by a fever he had acquired by a term of recruiting service which he had undertaken. However, he attended Congress, signed the Declaration, which he and his father both heartily favoured [sic], and then, his health still failing, decided to act on the advice of his physicians and friends and take a voyage to the south of Europe. He and his young wife sailed to the West Indies in 1779, to secure passage on some neutral vessel, and were never heard from again. It is supposed the ship went down and that Thomas Lynch and his wife perished with all on board.

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Reference: The Pioneer Mothers of America: A Record of the More Notable Women of the Early Days of the Country, and Particularly of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods by Harry Clinton Green and Mary Wolcott Green, A.B. Third Volume, Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.