Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/41

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connection with the succeeding volumes. Revett, however, continued an active member of the Society of Dilettanti, and was selected by them to go on an expedition to the coast of Asia Minor, with Richard Chandler (1738–1810) [q. v.] and William Pars [q. v.], Revett undertaking the duties of the architectural measurement of antiquities. The party left England in June 1764, and returned in September 1766. Subsequently their journals and drawings were handed over to the Society of Dilettanti, who made a selection from them, which they entrusted to Revett to prepare for publication. The remainder were handed over to Chandler for the same purpose, on his own account. The first volume of ‘The Antiquities of Ionia’ was published in 1769, but the second volume did not appear until 1797. Revett remained a prominent member of the society, and was employed by some of them, notably Lord Le Despencer (Sir Francis Dashwood), to execute various architectural works in the ‘Grecian gusto.’ One of the most important architectural works executed by Revett was the church of Ayott St. Lawrence in Hertfordshire. During the later years of his life he fell into pecuniary difficulties. He died on 3 June 1804, aged 84, and was buried at Brandeston. A portrait of Revett was presented by Mr. Weale to the Institute of British Architects in 1825; this was engraved to form the frontispiece to the fourth volume of ‘The Antiquities of Athens.’

[Memoir in vol. iv. of the Antiquities of Athens; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Hamilton's Historical Notice of the Society of Dilettanti; Michaelis's Ancient Marbles in Great Britain; Gent. Mag. 1821, ii. 423.]

L. C.

REYNARDSON, Sir ABRAHAM (1590–1661), lord mayor of London, son of Thomas Reynardson, Turkey merchant, of Plymouth, by Julia Brace, was born at Plymouth in 1590. Abraham served his apprenticeship in London to Edmund James, of the Merchant Taylors' Company, and became a freeman of the city on 5 Oct. 1618. He was also a prominent member of the governing bodies of the Turkey and East India Companies. In July 1640 he was chosen master of the Merchant Taylors' Company, and entered on the office of sheriff in the following September. As master of the Merchant Taylors he helped to respond to Charles's demand for a loan from the city companies in 1640. His sympathies were with the royalist cause. Neither he nor his colleagues on the court of the company assisted the corporation, except under compulsion, in raising loans for the parliament in 1642 and 1643. His term of office as lord mayor extended over the eventful year 1648–9. Reynardson was the first Devonshire man who attained the dignity. His election sermon was preached by Obadiah Sedgwick, an eloquent divine, whom Cromwell had stigmatised as ‘a rascally priest.’ Reynardson soon found himself in conflict with the Rump parliament, which had declared all oaths of allegiance to the king illegal. The mayor refused to admit to the common council members who had not made the customary loyal subscription, but parliament retaliated by ordering him to assemble the council and suspend the taking of oaths (5 Jan. 1648–9). In anticipation of resistance, they further directed that the mayor should remove the chains which had been placed across the streets as a protection from cavalry charges. The act constituting the court for the trial of King Charles naturally received no countenance from Reynardson, and it was read in his absence at the Exchange and in Cheapside by the sergeant-at-arms, with the commons' mace upon his shoulder. A petition which had been circulated in the city, affirming ‘that the commons of England, in parliament assembled, have the supreme power of this nation,’ was read before the common council on 9 Jan., when Reynardson presided, with a view to its being presented by the council to the House of Commons. A committee recommended its adoption, but when this recommendation was brought up at the meeting of the council on 13 Jan., Reynardson refused to put the question. The debate on the subject lasted from eleven in the morning till eight in the evening, when the lord mayor left, and the resolution for presenting the petition was carried. The House of Commons took no proceedings against the mayor, but passed an ordinance that, if the mayor failed to call a meeting of the council on the requisition of six members, any forty of the members could convene the council without the lord-mayor's presence. After the execution of Charles on 30 Jan., Reynardson had official possession of the ‘personal treaty,’ which was an engagement subscribed by most of the common council in favour of the proposed treaty between Charles and the parliament. This contained the names of leading citizens who had by their signatures approved its loyal sentiments, and Reynardson burnt the incriminating document ‘to ashes privately in his chamber,’ says Smallwood in his ‘Memoir,’ ‘that nothing might remain to the prejudice of any.’ Notwithstanding the anxieties that beset him, Reynardson accepted the presidentship of St. Bartholomew's Hospital