Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynolds, John (d.1657)
REYNOLDS, Sir JOHN (d. 1657), soldier, third son of Sir James Reynolds of Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire, was brother of Sir Robert Reynolds (fl. 1640–1660) [q. v.]. He was educated as a lawyer, and probably was a member of the Middle Temple, for Silas Titus [q. v.] who entered that society in 1639, described him as his ‘chamber-fellow’ (Whitelocke, Memorials, iv. 379; Clarendon State Papers, iii. 340). Reynolds joined the parliamentary army, and was probably the Captain Reynolds whose gallantry is praised by Essex in his narrative of the surrender of the parliamentary army at Foy in September 1644 (Rushworth, v. 702). On the formation of the new model he obtained command of a troop in Vermuyden's (afterwards Cromwell's) regiment of horse, and distinguished himself at the storming of Bridgewater (Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, ed. 1854, pp. 78, 331). He is said to have taken a leading part in concerting opposition to the proposed disbanding of the army in 1647, and to have been for a time chairman of the committee of ‘agitators’ (Clarke Papers, i. 426). Reynolds was popular with soldiers of advanced political views, and in 1648 was put in command of a regiment of horse consisting mainly of volunteer troops raised on the occasion of the second civil war (Lilburne, England's New Chains Discovered, pt. ii. p. 11; The Moderate, 5–12 Dec. 1648). He was one of the officers in charge of King Charles at Hurst Castle in December 1648 (Memoirs of the two last Years of King Charles I, 1702, pp. 89, 92). On 17 Feb. 1649 his regiment was placed on the establishment, and ordered to be completed (Commons' Journals, vi. 145, 147). It was intended to employ it in the relief of Ireland. Part of the regiment joined in the mutiny of the levellers in May 1649, but Reynolds, with those who remained faithful, dispersed some of the mutineers at Banbury, held Newbridge against them, and joined in the final suppression of the revolt at Burford (Cromwelliana, p. 57; The Moderate, 8–15 May, 15–22 May 1649). The levellers denounced him in their pamphlets as an apostate and a traitor (The Levellers Vindicated, 1649, p. 4).
Reynolds and his regiment landed at Dublin on 25 July 1649, and played an important part in the victory which Colonel Michael Jones [q. v.] gained over Ormonde at Rathmines on 2 Aug. (Cary, Memorials of the Civil War, ii. 160; Whitelocke, iii. 80, 85). He captured Carrick (November 1650), and with a very small garrison successfully repulsed Lord Inchiquin's attempt to retake it [see O'Brien, Murrough]. ‘Both in the taking and defending of this place,’ wrote Cromwell to the speaker, ‘Colonel Reynolds his carriage was such as deserves much honour’ (Carlyle, Letter cxvi.). About April 1651 Reynolds was made commissary-general of the horse in Ireland, and in that capacity assisted in the sieges of Limerick and Galway, and signed capitulations with Colonel Fitzpatrick, Lord Clanricarde, and other Irish leaders (Ludlow, Memoirs, ed. 1894, i. 262, 269, 289; Gilbert, Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, iii. 232, 293, 304, 331). In 1653 the islands of Arran (15 Jan.) and Innisboffin (14 Feb.) surrendered to him (ib. p. 363). Parliament voted him as a reward Irish lands to the value of 500l. per annum, in pursuance of which vote the manor of Carrick was made over to him (Commons' Journals, vii. 105, 725). With the debentures he received for his pay he invested in seven thousand acres of land in the county of Cork, and also purchased other lands in Waterford (Thurloe Papers, vi. 761). In the parliament of 1654 he represented the counties of Galway and Mayo, and in that of 1656 Waterford and Tipperary.
Reynolds was a zealous supporter of Cromwell, was knighted by the Protector on 11 June 1655 (Mercurius Politicus, 7–14 June 1655), and voted for the offer of the crown to Oliver (Lansdowne MS. 823, f. 90; Harleian Miscellany, iii. 455, 464). As he married Sarah, daughter of Sir Francis Russell of Chippenham, he was the brother-in-law of Henry Cromwell, who had married her sister Elizabeth. About twenty letters from Reynolds to Henry Cromwell are among the correspondence of the latter (Lansdowne MS. 823). In March 1655 Reynolds was employed in the suppression of the intended rising of the royalists in Shropshire (Thurloe, iii. 265, 298, 354). In July following he returned to Ireland with Henry Cromwell. In September 1655 the Protector thought of sending Reynolds to command in Jamaica. Henry Cromwell reported that he was willing to accept the post, but added: ‘If you take him from hence you deprive me of my right hand’ (ib. iv. 54). In November 1655 Reynolds promoted the petition for the appointment of Henry Cromwell as lord deputy, or for the return of Fleetwood to his duties in Ireland (ib. iv. 197, 421). In January 1656 Reynolds was sent to England by Henry Cromwell to give the Protector an account of the state of affairs in Ireland (ib. iv. 404). He was also charged with commissions of importance relative to the reorganisation of the Irish government (Lansdowne MS. 823, ff. 66–88). On 25 April 1657 the Protector appointed Reynolds commander-in-chief of the forces intended to co-operate with the French army in Flanders (Thurloe, vi. 223, 230). His pay as commander-in-chief was five pounds per diem (ib. vi. 346). Reynolds, after some hesitation, accepted (Lansdowne MS. 823, ff. 104–108). He landed in France in May, and was received with studied courtesy by Mazarin (Thurloe, vi. 297). But he found it difficult to persuade Turenne to attack the coast towns of Flanders, and complained that English interests were throughout postponed to French (ib. vi. 480). At the siege of St. Venant the English troops ‘behaved themselves very stoutly, and were one great cause of the governor's not daring to abide the utmost;’ but the six thousand men under the command of Reynolds were reduced to four thousand by September 1657, solely by the hardships of the campaign. ‘Howsoever,’ he protested, ‘if I must still fight on untill my dagger, which was a sword, become an oyster-knife, I am content and submit’ (Lansdowne MS. 823, f. 114). Mardyke was taken on 23 Sept., and Reynolds installed there as governor of the English garrison; but the task of keeping so weakly fortified a post was one of great difficulty. Though Reynolds repulsed one attack with considerable loss to the assailants (22 Oct.), both the English troops serving with Turenne and the garrison of Mardyke were so reduced by disease that at the beginning of December only eighteen hundred out of the six thousand were fit for service (ib. 823, f. 120; Thurloe, vi. 497, 654, 658). Partly in order to obtain a fresh supply of men, partly on private grounds, Reynolds obtained leave to embark for England, leaving Major-general (afterwards Sir Thomas) Morgan [q. v.] to command at Mardyke in his absence. The ship in which he sailed was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands, and all on board were drowned, on 5 Dec. 1657 (Mercurius Politicus, 10–17 Dec.).
A story which was widely circulated at the time represents Reynolds as returning to England in order to justify himself from the suspicions excited in the Protector's mind by a secret interview which had taken place between Reynolds and the Duke of York. The ‘Memoirs of James II’ prove that such a meeting actually took place, but nothing more than ordinary civilities passed in it (i. 326; cf. Thurloe, vi. 687, 731). Rumours that he had for some reason lost Cromwell's favour had certainly reached Reynolds, as a letter from Sir Francis Russell to his son-in-law proves (ib. vi. 630).
By his will, which was disputed, Reynolds left the manor of Carrick to his brother Robert, and his other lands in England and Ireland to James Calthorpe, the husband of his sister Dorothy. On 20 July 1659 the House of Commons declared the will valid, and ordered Robert Reynolds to be given possession of Carrick (Thurloe, vi. 761; Commons' Journals, vii. 725). Sarah, the widow of Sir John Reynolds, married, in 1660, Henry O'Brien, seventh earl of Thomond (Noble, House of Cromwell, ii. 425).
[A Life of Reynolds is contained in Noble's Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell, ii. 418, ed. 1787; other authorities mentioned in the article.]Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.233
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 47 | ii | 25 | Reynolds, Sir John: for (d. 1657) read (1625-1657) |
| 28 | after [q. v.] insert and was born 10 March 1625 (Sloane MS. 1707, f. 11) |