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 of Bury St. Edmunds, for which borough he was returned to parliament on 16 May 1717, having in the meantime been made serjeant-at-law (24 Jan. 1714–15).

At the conference held by the judges at Serjeants' Inn on 22–24 Jan. 1717–18 on the question whether the royal prerogative included the care and education of the royal grandchildren, Reynolds argued with great learning and ability the claim of the Prince of Wales to be both natural and legal guardian of his children. Appointed on 16 March 1724–5 to the puisne-judgeship in the king's bench vacant by the advancement of Sir Robert Raymond [q. v.] to the chief-justiceship, he was continued in office on the accession of George II. On 30 April 1730 he succeeded Sir Thomas Pengelly [q. v.] as lord chief baron of the exchequer. Failing eyesight compelled his resignation in July 1738, when he was succeeded by Sir John Comyns [q. v.] His death followed on 9 Feb. 1738–9. His remains were interred in St. James's Church, Bury St. Edmunds, where a costly but inartistic monument and magniloquent epitaph perpetuate his fame. His portrait was engraved by Vertue.

Reynolds married twice. His first wife, Mary, daughter of Thomas Smith of Thrandeston Hall, Suffolk, died on 18 July 1736. His second wife, married in July 1737, was Alicia Rainbird. He had issue by neither wife. His estate passed to the Frere family, with which he was connected by the marriage of his first wife's sister with Edward Frere of Thwaite, Suffolk. Some of his letters are in Addit. MS. 32556, ff. 121, 196, 200, 232.

[Lincoln's Inn Reg.; Grad. Cant.; Addit. MSS. 19146 f. 344, 21498 f. 52; Baker's St. John's Coll. Cambr., ed. Mayor, i. 302; Wynne's Serjeants-at-law; Howell's State Trials, xv. 1203; Hist. Reg. Chron. Diary, 16 March 1724–1725, 30 April 1730; Lord Raymond's Rep. p. 1381; Gillingwater's St. Edmund's Bury, p. 184; Foss's Judges of England; Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. iv. 264; Gent. Mag. 1736 p. 424, 1737 p. 450, 1738 p. 381, 1739 p. 106; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iii. 54; Lysons's Mag. Brit. ii. (pt. i.) 155; Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby.] 

REYNOLDS, JAMES (1684–1747), judge, eldest son of Robert Reynolds of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, by Kesia, daughter of Thomas Tyrell of Gipping, Suffolk, and grand-daughter of Sir William Hervey of Ickworth in the same county, born in 1684, was admitted on 19 May 1705 of Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the bar on 6 May 1710. On 24 Nov. 1727 he was made chief justice of the common pleas in Ireland, where he won the confidence and esteem of the people by his impartial administration of justice. In May 1740 he was appointed to the seat in the English court of exchequer vacant by the transference of Baron Parker to the common pleas, and on 11 June received the degree of the coif. He was knighted on 23 Nov. 1745, and died on 20 May 1747. He was buried in the church at Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire, near which he had a villa called the Greenhouse. His portrait was engraved by Faber.

[Lincoln's Inn Reg.; Gage's Suffolk, ‘Thingoe Hundred,’ p. 287; Add. MS. 19146, f. 344; Letter-books and Diary of John Hervey, first Earl of Bristol; Smyth's Law Officers of Ireland; Gent. Mag. 1740 pp. 204, 317, 1745 p. 612, 1747 p. 248; Townsend's Knights; Foss's Judges of England; Lysons's Mag. Brit. ii. (pt. i.) 157; Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby.] 

REYNOLDS, JAMES (1805–1866), orientalist, born in 1805, was the younger son of Cornwall Reynolds of Clapton. The father, a naval surgeon, had sailed with Lord Nelson, who stood godfather to his elder son. James, after being educated at a private school, entered St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, as a sizar. He graduated B.A. in 1826. In the following year he was ordained deacon, and in 1828 took priest's orders. He acted for some time as chaplain to the first Earl of Munster [see ], through whose influence he was appointed, on 27 Oct. 1837, perpetual curate of St. Mary's Chapel, Great Ilford, Essex. In the same year he became secretary to the Oriental Translation Fund of the Royal Asiatic Society, to whose publications he contributed. He died at Great Ilford on 19 April 1866.

Reynolds, who was a good Persian and Arabic scholar, published: 1. ‘The History of the Temple at Jerusalem, by Jalal-addin-al-Sinti, translated from the Arabic, with Notes and Dissertations,’ 1836, 8vo (Oriental Transl. Fund, xlv.). 2. ‘Brief Discourses on certain of the Epistles and Gospels,’ 1856. 3. ‘The Kitab-i-Vamini: Historical Memoirs of Amir Sabaktagin and Sultan Mahmûd of Ghuzni,’ translated from the Persian version of the Arabic Chronicle of Al Utibi, 1858, 8vo (Oriental Transl. Fund, lxix.). Reynolds also superintended the publication of Sir Gore Ouseley's ‘Biographical Notices of Persian Poets’ in 1846, and wrote the prefatory memoir of the author (Oriental Transl. Fund, lxi.).

[Annual Report of Royal Asiatic Society, June 1866; Foster's Index Ecclesiasticus; Crockford's Clerical Directories; Allibone's Dict. Engl. Lit.] 