Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/81

 by Thomas Gibson (1680?–1751) [q. v.], was engraved in mezzotint by G. White. He left a widow, whose maiden name was Terry.

Reynolds published funeral sermons for John Ashwood (1706), Mary Terry (1709), Mrs. Clissold (1712), Thomas Clissold (1713), Eleanor Murdin (1713), and William Hocker (1722); accompanying most of the funeral sermons are didactic biographies. His share in ‘The Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity stated and defended by some London Ministers,’ &c., 1719, 8vo, is the last piece, ‘Advices relating to the Doctrine.’

[Funeral Sermon by Wood, 1727; Noble's Continuation of Granger, 1806, ii. 157 sq.; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, i. 157 sq.; Calamy's Own Life, 1830, i. 142, 339 sq., 365, 491, ii. 342, 413, 465, 510 sq.; Pike's Ancient Meeting-Houses, 1870, pp. 339 sq.; Jeremy's Presbyterian Fund, 1885, pp. 114 sq.] 

 REYNOLDS, THOMAS (1752–1829), antiquary, born in 1752, was the son of Joseph Reynolds, a clergyman, of Marston Trussell, Northamptonshire, and belonged to the family of Dr. Edward Reynolds, bishop of Norwich [q. v.] He matriculated from Lincoln College, Oxford, on 18 Oct. 1769, and graduated B.A. in 1773, M.A. in 1777. In 1776 he was presented to the rectory of Little Bowden, Northamptonshire, which he held till his death, and to the vicarage of Dunton Bassett, Leicestershire, which he resigned in 1802. He was also vicar of Lubbenham from 1787 to 1800.

Reynolds wrote on Roman antiquities in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and in 1794 communicated to Nichols, for his ‘History of Leicestershire,’ observations on the Foss and Via Devana (vol. i. p. cliv) and remarks on Lubbenham and Farndon camps (ii. 700). His principal work was ‘Iter Britanniarum; or that part of the Itinerary of Antoninus which relates to Britain, with a new Comment,’ Cambridge University Press, 1799, 4to. The book was severely handled in the ‘British Critic’ in an article attributed to Whitaker. Reynolds had collected and arranged the material that had accumulated since the publication of Horsley's ‘Britannia,’ and Dr. William Bennet [q. v.], bishop of Cloyne, who examined the proof-sheets, declared that the author had made many ingenious observations, though he had the odd idea that he could judge better of Roman roads ‘by consulting books in his closet than by examining them on the spot’ (, Literary Illustrations, iv. 712).

Reynolds died on 24 Dec. 1829. He had married early in life. His eldest son, Joseph, died in 1805, in his nineteenth year (Gent. Mag. 1806, pt. ii. p. 775).

[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Gent. Mag. 1830, pt. i. pp. 373–4.] 

REYNOLDS, THOMAS (1771–1836), informer, was born on 12 March 1771 at 9 Park Street, Dublin, in which city his father, Andrew Reynolds (1742–1788), had acquired a considerable fortune as a manufacturer of poplins. His mother was Rose (d. 1797), eldest child of Thomas Fitzgerald of Kilmead, co. Kildare, and it was at Kilmead that Reynolds spent the first years of his life under the supervision of a Roman catholic priest. At the age of eight he was sent to a protestant school at Chiswick, near London, where he remained till the beginning of 1783, when he was removed to a jesuit seminary at Liège. He returned to Ireland in the spring of 1788, and, his father dying shortly afterwards, he inherited considerable property from him. But falling into dissipated habits, in consequence of which he became seriously ill, he went for the sake of his health by sea to Rotterdam. From Rotterdam he proceeded to Paris, and in the spring of the following year he made a journey through Switzerland into Italy, returning to Paris in July. Becoming alarmed at the progress of the French revolution, he returned to Dublin, where he speedily relapsed into dissipation. In March 1792 he came of age, and, according to his son's account, into the possession of a fortune of 20,000l., exclusive of his share in the capital and profits of his father's business. Living thus in affluence, he passed his time idly and agreeably to himself. He represented the city of Dublin in the catholic convention of 1792, and continued to be a member of the committee till its dissolution, after the passing of the relief act of 1793. On 25 March 1794 he married Harriet Witherington (1771–1851), whose sister Matilda was the wife of Theobald Wolfe Tone [q. v.] But, in consequence of the dishonesty of a partner, his business had at that time so far declined that he found himself in serious pecuniary embarrassment. His principal creditor was a wealthy Dublin merchant of the name of Cope, to whom his firm stood indebted for 5,000l.

Hitherto he had avoided politics, but in January or February 1797 he yielded to the solicitations of his friends, and became a United Irishman. Shortly afterwards he obtained an advantageous lease of Kilkea Castle in co. Kildare from the Duke of Leinster, through the good offices of Lord Edward Fitzgerald [q. v.], by whom he was in November induced to accept the post of colonel