Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynolds, James (1684-1747)
REYNOLDS, Sir 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.]