James Reynolds (1625 - 1698)

Born 13 May 1625 in Plymouth, Devon, England

Descendants

Died 27 Apr 1698 at age 72 in North Kingstown, Rhode Island

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Biography

James Reynolds is the 1st authenticated ancestor of the Rhode Island branch of the Reynolds Family. First records have him landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts as a young man, where a James Renell was recorded in August 1643.

James Reynolds married Deborah (of unknown maiden surname) and their children included ^[1]...

1. John Reynolds, b: 12 Oct 1648; killed by the Indians 1675
2. James Reynolds, b: 28 Oct 1650; m1: Mary Greene; m2: Joanna ???
3. Joseph Reynolds, b: 27 Nov 1652; m2: Mercy ???
4. Henry Reynolds, b: 01 Jan 1656; m: Sarah Greene
5. Deborah Reynolds, b: 17 Feb 1658; m: John Sweet
6. Francis Reynolds, b: 12 Oct 1662; m: Elizabeth Greene
7. Mary or Mercy Reynolds, b: 03 Dec 1664; m: Thomas Nichols
8. Robert Reynolds, m: Deliverance Smith
9. Benjamin Reynolds.

Timeline for James Reynolds

Tradition would have it that James was the son of William, but the only (presently) known marriage of William Reynolds was in 1638, too late for the wife of this marriage to have been James' 1625 birth mother.

1637 William Reynolds was of Providence.

1637/Aug/20 or a little later, William Reynolds and 12 others signed the following compact ... "We whose names are hereunder, desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in active and passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good of the body in an orderly way, by the major consent of the present inhabitants; masters of families, incorporated together in Town fellowship, and others whom they shall admit unto them only in civil things".

1640/July/27 William Reynolds and 38 others signed an agreement for a form of government.

1644/Jan/30 William Reynolds and others of Providence, testified as to the outrage on Warwich settlers by Massachusetts.

1646/Apr/27 William Reynolds sold some land. The name of his wife was not given. He had 1 child named James. ^[1]

C. 1647 he married Deborah Jordan in Plymouth Colony where some of their children were born. By 1669 they resided in Quidnesset, part of what became North Kingstown Twp., Rhode Island. C. 1681 they conve yed realty in East Greenwich, RI. James was administrator for his father's estate; James's brothers Henry, Joseph and Francis receipted for their shares of that estate. Items in this paragraph given in Roth, Stephen, Reynolds: A Genealogy of James and Deborah Reynolds of N. Kingstown, RI ... (1999).

He settled his family on the Potowomut River. ^[2]

On 13 May 1665 he petitioned the Assembly for accommodation of land.

He took an oath of allegiance 30 May 1671 and the same year was Constable.

On 2 May 1677, the Rhode Island General Assembly at Newport voted on a petition from Thomas Gould, James Raynolds, and Henry Tibbitt "for instruction, assistance and advice as to the oppressions they suffer under from the Colony of Connecticut" arriving at a unanimous result to "vindicate their jurisdiction unto the Naraganset Countrey." The court statement goes on to further declare the authority of the court in the matter by asserting the proclamation: "hereby also strictly prohibiting the said Thomas Gould, James Raynolds and Henry Tibbitt, and all other persons inhabiting in the Naraganset Countrey, from yielding any subjection or obedience to any authority derived from any other Colony." This is followed by a 24 May 1677 court record in which the court addresses Mr. Thomas Gould, Mr. James Raynolds, and the rest who were carried away prisoners to Hartford, by the Colony of Connecticut, and declares it has addressed this issue of wrongful imprisonment, and thus the sovereignty of the Narragansett Country to the King of England. The King rules in favor of Rhode Island and on 12 Feb 1679 grants jurisdiction of the Narragansett and Niantick country to be governed by the Colony of Rhode Island. ^[3] page 197-199 Clearly, the Colony of Connecticut used this arrest and imprisonment of Tibbetts, Gould, and Reynolds, as a "show of force" to aggressively assert their supreme governmental authority over the Narragansett and Niantick country in direct response to the oath of allegiance these Quidnessett landholders, situated in the Narragansett Country, had sworn to the government of Rhode Island in 1671.

In 1687 he was overseer of the Poor, ^[4] page 362 and on 6 September 1687 he is cited on Gov. Andros' tax roll at Rochester, (Kingstown) Rhode Island owing a “pole” (poll) tax of 1 s, and a property tax of 6s 5.5d, which places him as an adult resident and as a property landholder in Kingstown, RI on this date. ^[5] This tax roll identifies a sum total of 136 heads of house living in the roughly 22.5 square mile area associated with Kingstown, RI on this date in 1687; one consequence of this sparse population is that he would have been well acquainted with many, if not all, of the individuals identified on this list. The list is a defacto definition of the people who were available to be his friends, neighbors, and allies; it would be essential to cultivate strong working relationships with these neighbors in order to survive on this frontier landscape. This cross reference tool provides hot links to peruse most of the 136 Wikitree families identified in this tax roll; families who were very frequently interconnected, or became interconnected, by marriage over the course of their lives and throughout the ensuing generations, further binding a network of neighbors into extended families. ^[6]

He was the Conservator of the Peace in 1690.

He died about 1700 and was buried in North Kingstown, Washington County, Rhode Island. ^{[7] [8]}

The Land of James Reynolds

The previous timeline informs us that James Reynolds lived along the Potowomut River; that he was arrested on 2 May 1677 along with his presumed neighbors, Thomas Gould and Henry Tibbetts; and that he was assessed a property tax in Kingstown, Rhode Island on 6 September 1687. These factual tidbits place the James Reynolds farm within the bounds of the 16 August 1661 acquisition of Narragansett Indian Land, by an company of prominent Englishmen sometimes referred to as the Atherton Purchase. ^[9] Fones Record; page 21-25 The location may be further narrowed to one of The probable location of his farm is on the Quidnessett side (North Kingstown) of the Mascachuge River adjacent to the Potowoome neck, presently in East Greenwich; which may be determined by inspection of this map of Rhode Island Indian place names by Sidney S. Rider. lan

Plat of ~ 1661 Quidnesett, Rhode Island Landowners

From Fones: page177; James Reynolds house cited in boundaries of Rochester 16 Oct 1686 page 141: late john Reynolds by Joshua Hews (Hues) by Richard Smith; Hews sold to John Fones. 11 nov 1680

1885 Kent County Map.

page 221: Jame Reynolds and neighbors in dispute settlement with french settlement over shared grassland (for)

Research Notes

The birth date of 5-13-1625 is unsubstantiated. It appeared in the discredited 1959 book on Reynolds descendants by Tillman, a collection of unvetted data submitted on 3x5 cards by persons claiming a Reynolds ancestor.

The Land of James Reynolds

Quidenessett map

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Boddie, John Thomas. Boddie and Allied Families (Chicago, 1918) Page 161.
2. ↑ IMPORTANT, but unsourced
3. ↑ Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Vol III; Marshall, Brown, and Company; Providence, RI; 1835.
4. ↑ Austin, John Osborne; The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island: comprising three generations of settlers who came before 1690: with many families carried to the fourth generation; Printed by Joel Munsell Sons; Albany, NY; 1887.
5. ↑ Roberts, Gary Boyd; Genealogies of Rhode Island Families, Vol. II, Niles - Wilson; Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore 1989. RI Taxes under Gov. Andros pages 592- 594.
6. ↑ Randolph Beebe;Cross Reference: Gov. Andros 1687 Rochester RI Tax Register to Wikitree profile; Wikitree Free Space Profiles, 2024.
7. ↑ Cemetery records
8. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #87042231 for James Reynolds, b: 13 May 1625; d: Aug 1700; buried: Reynolds Lot, North Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island
9. ↑ James N. Arnold; The Records of the Proprietors of the Narragansett : otherwise called the Fones Record; Narragansett Publishing Co.; Providence, RI; 1894.

• Ancestors & Descendants of William & Elizabeth Reynolds of North Kingstown 1903
• "United States Rosters of Revolutionary War Soldiers and Sailors, 1775-1783," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7JL1-QC2M : 16 April 2020), James Reynolds, 1687; citing Military Service, Rhode Island, United States, Citing various published state rosters, United States; FHL microfilm 103140772.
• Genealogical records submitted to and accepted by the Sons of the American Revolution by William Henry Reynolds Reynolds-18835
• Rhode Island, US, Birth Index 1636-1900
• North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 for Mercy; Family charts, illustrations, & Coat-of-Arms: Ancestry.com. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61157/images/46155_b289843-00176?pId=1096295