Last Updated on 5/30/2012

Published on 2/10/2012

One of America’s Founding Fathers will join his son and the first African American state Chief Justice in the South Carolina Hall of Fame on Monday.
Thomas Lynch Sr. helped secure the infant military — Army and Navy — that helped George Washington lead the fight to form the United States of America. He and his son Thomas Lynch Jr. owned land in what is today Georgetown County and northern Charleston County. The older Lynch built Hopsewee Plantation on the banks of the North Santee River.

Contemporary inductee

Ernest A. Finney Jr. was Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court from 1994 to 2000. His previous service included time as a justice from 1985.
He was  elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1972. He was one of the founders of the Legislative Black Caucus and was the charter chairman.
Finney’s mother died when he was young and his father, Dr. Ernest A. Finney Sr., raised him.
The future justice earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Claflin College in 1952 and graduated from the South Carolina State College School of Law in 1954.
He taught for six years and then moved to Sumter where he began a full-time law practice.
He was chairman of the South Carolina Commission on Civil Rights in 1963.

Historic inductee

Thomas Lynch Sr. was the first president of the Winyah Indigo Society in Georgetown, when it was founded in 1755.
A wealthy planter, he owned some 9,000 acres along coastal South Carolina.
The family’s wealth came from indigo and rice. Thomas Lynch Sr. was the second-wealthiest citizen of the colony of South Carolina.
He was a South Carolina delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 and served as a representative to both the first and second Continental Congresses under George Washington.
Lynch was held in extremely high regard among the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, but at the time of signing he was suffering from an illness.
To signify their high regard for him, they left a blank place created solely for his signature, and elected his son, Thomas Lynch Jr., to the Continental Congress to sign in his father’s absence.
Thomas Lynch Sr. was the only one of the Founding Fathers to have his son replace him as a representative. Lynch was considered invaluable to the independence of America, and spearheaded the idea that the Legislative Branch of Congress should consist of two houses, one to represent the area and one to represent population.
Thomas Lynch Jr. was inducted into the S.C. Hall of Fame in 1976.
“I am extremely privileged to be able to honor both of these remarkable contributors to the state of South Carolina by inducting them into the official South Carolina Hall of Fame. It’s an exciting day for them and their families, and an exciting day for South Carolina,” said Leo Twiggs, chairman of the Hall of Fame’s board of trustees.

Monday ceremony

Both inductees will be honored at a formal ceremony on Monday, Feb. 13 at the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel at 10:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Speakers will include Brad Dean, President of the S.C. Hall of Fame, Dr. Leo Twiggs, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the S.C. Hall of Fame and John Rhodes, Myrtle Beach mayor. Musical tributes to the inductees will also be made. The Official S.C. Hall of Fame is located in the Myrtle Beach Convention Center where attendees to the induction ceremony will be able to learn more about all past inductees.

By Tommy Howard
thoward@gtowntimes.com