Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/352

 344

NOTES AND QUEEIES. t n s. i. APR. so, 1910.

JOHN REYNOLDS, WILKES'S ATTORNEY.

(Concluded from p. 285.)

SOME mention of the family of John Reynolds ("senior" he is called in 'The Law List' after his son became an attorney) may be acceptable. As in my earlier article, refer- ences are to Frederick Reynolds's ' Life l of himself.

The eldest son Richard was born in

(i. 6, 48) ; entered at Westminster Schoo 22 Jan., 1770, and left in 1775 (Barker' '* Register *). Frederick says (i. 136) tha Richard was sent to Trinity College, Cam bridge ; but this was not so. The Maste of Trinity kindly informs me that his nam was entered on the books on 19 Oct., 1773, hi age being stated to be sixteen ; that he neve matriculated, and that he was probably never in residence.

He was entered at the Middle Tempi 11 May, 1774, when his father is describee as of Salisbury Court ; but I am informec there is no note of his age or of the date of hi call, which was in April (i. 70), and probably in 1779.

Richard's name first appears in ' The Law List * in 1787, but in those days no one -seemed to trouble much about ' The Law List.'- Even in the present day barristers names sometimes appear several years after they have died.

Up to 1786 Richard had never received a

p le


 * single brief (i. 324), although his father hac

such a large practice, and his brother was also an attorney. It is probable he never received one, for on Friday, 15 March, 1799 (ii. 295), he married the widow of Miles North of Thurland Castle, Westmorland. This lady is stated in Burke's ' Landed Gentry,'- 1894, ii. 1494, to have been a daughter of Oliver Toulmin of Cranborn Lodge, co. Dorset, barrister and Master in Chancery ; but I am unable to find his name in ' The Law List * among the barristers, or in ' The Royal Calendar * among the Masters in Chancery. He was deceased in 1799. Frederick says (ii. 391) it was in 1813 that he lost his excellent brother Richard, but this is incorrect. The Vicar of Kirkby Lonsdale, the Rev. J. LI. Davies, kindly informs me that he died on the 23rd of November, 1812, and was buried on the 28th. Richard's widow died 1 Sept., 1837, as I am informed by Mr. North North, late of Thurland Castle. There was no issue of the marriage.

John junior was born in 1758 (i. 6), and it would appear from the note I found in the

Bang's Bench list of admissions of attorneys that he was articled at the early age of nine. The entry says :

" John Reynolds, son of J. R. of Salisbury Court, articled to his father 18 July, 1767, for five . years ; affidavit of due execution sworn 17 Nov., 1772 ; filed 23, and read in Court 28, June, 1773."

The last date is, I presume, that of his admission (?), though he was only fifteen years of age ! But his name does not appear in * The Law List J until 1782, when his office was in Clifford's Inn. He was then twenty-four, up to which time he had pro- bably been in his father's office. I presume that then, as now, no one could practise under the age of twenty-one.

When John was twenty he had published a poem, with verses from which he would worry his brother Frederick at night. Among the family the poem was a subject for laughter. John made no profit by its publication, but a loss. However, he had his revenge in laughing at his brother's tragedy of ' Werter l three years after (i. 50, 285, 313). John's poem was anonymous, and the author's name is still unknown at our National Library, where, fortunately, a copy, only acquired in 1814, is preserved. The title is :

The Indian Scalp, or Canadian tale, a poem [motto]. London : printed for the author, and sold by M. Folingsby near Temple Bar. 1778. 4to, pp. 32, with a whole-page engraving after S. Vale.

Frederick never had sufficient respect for his brother's poem to quote it with accuracy. He says (from memory, no doubt) that it was published by Fourdrinier of Fleet Street (i. 44), and quotes some lines from it, which, though given very inaccurately, prove that the above is the poem John wrote, as the lines occur on pp. 13 and 23 of ' The Indian Scalp. x

John married the widow of Alderman Hart (ii. 15). This was on 5 March (Gent. Mag. for March, 1792). Their daughter married John Jopson, a London attorney, who was admitted in 1792, and whose name drops out of 'The Law List 1 after 1828 rle held a number of important posts.

John Reynolds junior died 1 Dec., 1802, at Vineyard Walk, Clerkenwell ; see The Gentleman 1 s Magazine, p. 1169, where he i dentified, not as the son of his father, but as }he brother to the dramatic author.

Jonathan Robert Reynolds, born 1760, matriculated at St. John's College, Oxford, 2 Nov., 1779, at the age of twenty (Foster's

Alumni

The Vice - President of the

College kindly informs me that there is no