REYNOLDS, Samuel (c.1642-94), of East Hill House, Colchester and Peldon, Essex

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1681
1689 - 23 Aug. 1694

Family and Education

b. c.1642, 2nd s. of Thomas Reynolds, clothier, of Colchester by Margery, da. of Samuel Decoster, merchant, of London.  educ. M. Temple 1666.  m. 27 Aug. 1665, Judith, da. of Thomas Samford of Colchester, 4s. 2da.  suc. fa. 1665.1

Offices Held

Recorder, Colchester, Feb.–May 1688.2

Biography

Reynolds inherited three assets useful for parliamentary electioneering: wealth, local status and one of Colchester’s inns. Despite these advantages he had been involved before the Revolution in a protracted struggle with the non-resident Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Bt.*, to represent the borough, succeeding in 1681 and again in 1689, but losing to his rival in 1679 and 1685.

Reynolds was re-elected in March 1690, and although a scrutiny was required to check the three different totals produced by the clerks recording the poll, Sir Isaac Rebow’s* petition against the return was never investigated. Reynolds was marked as a Whig by Lord Carmarthen (Sir Thomas Osborne†) and entertained King William on his first visit to Colchester, at which time he may have secured the crown’s recognition of his disputed purchase of a manor in Herefordshire. On 23 Dec. 1691 Reynolds was granted ten days’ leave of absence. Robert Harley annotated his name with the letter ‘d’ on a categorization of MPs dated April 1691, which may signify either that his political affiliation at that time was doubtful or that the list was amended at a later date to record his death on 23 August 1694. He evidently left a burdened estate to his son Samuel, whose negotiations for marriage were complicated by a suspected debt of £3,000, at least part of which was due to Samuel senior’s having ‘spent a great deal in carrying an election’.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Mark Knights

Notes

  • 1. Info. from Dr D. F. Lemmings; IGI, Essex.
  • 2. Essex Arch. Soc. xiii. 272.
  • 3. Essex Rev. ii. 226; vi. 174; xlvii. 197; Cal. Treas. Bks. ix, 292, 1915; Add. 70121 (unfol.), Anne Pelham to Edward Harley, 3 Dec. [–].