USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Volume II > Part 7
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JAMES REYNOLDS, thought to have been a son of William, above mentioned, was born May 13, 1625 (said by some genealogists to have been born in England in 1617) ; married in 1646, Deborah - -, who was born in 1620; and died in 1700-02, his will being probated in 1702. He settled at North Kingston,
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Rhode Island, coming from Plymouth Colony about 1645. It is probable that he first settled north of Smith's Trading House and near what is now Stony- lane road. It would appear that he with others were accommodated with lands in the northern part of Kingston, adjoining the East Greenwich line and also the French settlement. May 13, 1665, he and others petitioned the assembly tor accommodation of land in King's Province. He took the oath of allegiance, May 24, 1671, and was made a constable the same year. In 1677, ten thousand acres in the vicinity were assigned to be divided among one hundred men; James Reynolds and his son, who was then of age, drew shares of this land and in 1687, according to the order of Governor Andross, they were both living in this remote settlement and were assigned a portion of hay cut on the French meadows.
May 2, 1677, James Reynolds and others petitioned the assembly for instruc- tions, assistance and advice as to the oppressions they suffered, from the colony of Connecticut. A controversy had been waged for some years prior to 1677 between Rhode Island and Connecticut upon the location of a boundary line, which resulted in much ill feeling. Although threatened by the Indians, the common danger did not deter the opposing parties from waging a bitter war and, May 24, 1677, James Reynolds, Thomas Gould, and Henry Tibbits were seized by Captain Dennison and carried off prisoners to Hartford. They sought the protection of the authorities of Rhode Island, with the result that a demand was made for their release, Rhode Island threatening reprises if the re- quest were refused. The first business of the assembly was an effort to secure the release of the prisoners. Gould compounded with Connecticut and petitioned for leave to replant in Narragansett, acknowledging the authority of Connecticut. The authorities of Rhode Island responded and advised "that you might receive all suitable encouragement that as you continue true to your engagement to this Colony and upon that account are kept prisoners, we shall equally bear your charges of imprisonment, and with all expedition address ourselves to His Maj- esty for relief." The bitter quarrel continuing, May 24, 1677, James Reynolds with forty-one other inhabitants of Naragansett petitioned the King that he would "put an end to their differences about the government thereof, which hath been so fatal to the prosperity of the place; animosities still arising in people's minds as they stand affected to this or that government". Under the provisions of his will, dated October 15, 1692, James Reynolds bequeathed certain of his slaves to his children, but before his death made the request that the slaves be given their freedom when they attained the age of thirty years. The James Reynolds homestead has descended for five generations and is still in the family. The large burial ground on the homestead at Sand Hill Farm has been purchased in fee, incorporated, and is now in charge of a board of trustees, Thomas A. Reynolds, of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, having borne the whole expense, and in addition states his intention of endowing it, that it may be preserved for all time. James and Deborah Reynolds had ten children: John; James, Jr .; Joseph ; Henry; Deborah, who married John Sweet: Francis; Mercy, who married Thomas Nichols; Robert; Benjamin; and Elizabeth.
JAMES REYNOLDS (2), son of James (1) and Deborah Reynolds, born at Kingston, Rhode Island, October 28, 1650, participated with his father in the allotment of land at East Greenwich in 1677, and in 1679, was one of the peti-
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tioners to the King to put an end to the controversy between the provinces of Rhode Island and Connecticut, over the boundary line and jurisdiction, of the two provinces, mentioned in the sketch of his father. In April, 1684, his father conveyed to him one hundred acres additional at East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and he took a hardly less prominent part in public affairs than his father. He died at Kingston, Rhode Island.
James Reynolds (2) married, February 19, 1685, Mary Greene, born Sep- tember 8, 1660, daughter of James Greene, of Warwick, Rhode Island, and his wife Deliverance Potter, daughter of Robert Potter, who was a resident of Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1630, where he was made a freeman in 1631; later of Roxbury, Massachusetts; a resident of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 1638, sign- ing the Rhode Island Compact, before referred to, in 1639; and later a resident of Warwick, Rhode Island, where he was assistant magistrate in 1648, and was a deputy to the colonial Assembly, 1645, 1650, 1652 and 1655, the assembly con- vening at his house in 1652. The paternal grandparents of Mary (Greene) Reynolds, were John and Joan (Tattersall) Greene, of Warwick, Rhode Island.
James and Mary (Greene) Reynolds, had two sons, James, born February 20, 1686, and William, of whom presently, and one daughter, Elizabeth.
WILLIAM REYNOLDS, second son of James and Mary (Greene) Reynolds, born about 1698, at Kingston, Rhode Island, settled at West Greenwich, Rhode Isl- and, on his marriage and lived there until 1751, when, having purchased land at Coventry, Rhode Island, he removed with his family to that town. At about the time of his removal to Coventry, he participated with a number of other Rhode Islanders in the purchase of lands in eastern New York. He also partic- ipated in the organization of Susquehannah Company, in Connecticut, which company in 1754, purchased lands on the Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania, of the Six Nations, and in 1762 began the settlement of the Wyoming Valley, which led to the bitterly waged contest between the Pennsylvania and Connecticut au- thorites, and their respective settlers in that region, that more than once resulted in bloodshed.
William Reynolds sold his Coventry lands in 1759, and removed to his pur- chases in Dutchess county, New York, with a number of other New Englanders from Rhode Island and Connecticut, and ten years later, with his sons, Benja- min and David, removed to the Wyoming Valley. Benjamin Reynolds, seems to have been the first of the family to locate in Pennsylvania, being one of the one hundred and sixty-nine signers, at Wilkes-Barre, August 29, 1769, of the peti- tion to the Connecticut Assembly to erect and establish a county in the Wyom- ing region ; he does not seem to have remained in the valley however, though his father, who joined him at Wilkes-Barre in September, 1769, and his elder brother David, became permanent settlers there. The youngest son William also came to Wyoming and was killed at the massacre of July 3, 1778.
William Reynolds, the father, was one of the twenty-six inhabitants of New York, who, September 12, 1769, singed at Wilkes-Barre, petition to the Con- necticut Assembly for the grant of a township six miles square "lying westward of the Susquehannah Lands," and when the Connecticut settlers were distrib- uted among the five townships in 1771, he was assigned to Plymouth township, and in 1772, when the lands of Plymouth were allotted to the settlers there, he drew his share and at about that time established his home within the bounds
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of the present borough of Plymouth. He later acquired other lands in the same township, owning at the time of his death considerable real estate which eventu- ally became very valuable. In 1777, though nearly eighty years of age, William Reynolds enrolled himself as a member of the "Alarm List" attached to the Third or Plymouth company, Captain Asaph Whittlesey, of the Twenty-fourth regiment, Connecticut militia, all the members of the regiment being inhabitants of the Connecticut settlement at Wyoming, in what they named Westmoreland county. William Reynolds and his youngest son William were both in the bat- tle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778, and the latter was killed in that bloody conflict, while his aged father, with a friend and fellow soldier escaped and fled over the mountains to Bethlehem, and from thence to Easton, and from there to Fort Penn, now Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where they joined a detachment of their regiment, July 26, 1778, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Zebulon Butler, with which they marched to Wilkes-Barre, where they arrived Au- gust 4, and remained until October, scouting in connection with a small detach- ment of Continental soldiers, gathering the crops throughout the Wyoming Val- ley that had escaped destruction by the savages, and in erecting Fort Wyoming on the river bank, in Wilkes-Barre, below Northampton Street.
William Reynolds remained in Wilkes-Barre until January, 1780, and then retired with his family from the valley, presumably to his old home in eastern New York, and did not return to his home in Plymouth until about 1785. With the return of peace the struggle for supremacy and jurisdiction in the Wyom- ing Valley was resumed between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, known as the second "Pennamite Yankee War", the Susquehannah Company in a meeting, held at Hartford, Connecticut, early in 1785, declaring, "Our right to these lands in possession is founded in Law and Justice-is clear and unquestionable-and we cannot and will not give them up", adopted plans to induce other settlers to locate on their lands and urging those that had been driven out during the Revolution to return and maintain their rights. Then it was that William Reynolds and his son David and their families returned to their lands in Plymouth township, where William Reynolds died late in 1791, his will being probated January 6, 1792, and his property divided among his surviving children.
William Reynolds had married, September 18, 1729, in Rhode Island, Deborah Greene, born about 1700, daughter of Benjamin and Humility (Coggswell) Greene, of East Greenwich, and granddaughter of John Greene.
Benjamin Greene was a deputy to the General Assembly in 1698, 1700, 1701, and 1703; Surveyor of Highways, 1701; member of Town Council of East Greenwich, 1701, 1703, and 1704, and rate maker 1702. He died January 7, 1719. His wife Humility Coggswell, was a daughter of Joshua and Joan (West) Coggswell, and granddaughter of John and Mary Coggswell, who with their children John, Joshua, and Ann, came to New England in 1632, in the ship "Lion", and settled in Boston, where John Coggswell Sr., was made a free- man in 1634, and in the same year was sent as a deputy to the General Assem- bly and again in 1637. He was a member of the First Church of Boston, 1634, and later a Deacon. He removed to Rhode Island and in 1638 was one of the signers, at Portsmouth, for a plantation and a separate church, and was one of the signers of the compact at Newport in 1639. He was an assistant of the
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Rhode Island Colony, 1641-1644; Moderator, 1644, and President of the Colony in 1647.
Joshua Coggswell, the father of Humility, and the son of John above mentioned was in Portsmouth in 1654, was a deputy to the General Assembly, 1654-1668, and 1670-1672; assistant, 1669-1676; commissioner to treat with the Indians to prevent drunkenness among them, May 7, 1673. He became a Quaker and was persecuted for his faith in 1680.
Deborah (Greene) Reynolds died many years before her husband. They had seven children: Sarah, married Benjamin Jones in 1751; Caleb, of Connec- ticut ; David, of whom presently; Griffin, born June 11, 1737; Benjamin, before referred to, born October 25, 1740; James, born 1748; William, before men- tioned, born 1754, killed at the Wyoming massacre of July 3, 1778.
DAVID REYNOLDS, the third child of William and Deborah (Greene) Reynolds, was born in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, June 17, 1734. As previously stated, he came with his father to the Wyoming Valley in the early autumn of 1769. In November of that year, he was present at the surrender of Fort Durkee to the Pennamites by the Yankees, being one of the witnesses who signd the "Ar- ticles of Capitulation." He was then expelled from the valley with the other Yankee settlers and made his way to either New York or New England where he remained until about 1773, when he repaired to Plymouth and again took up his residence with his father in the Wyoming Valley. His name appears in the Plymouth tax lists for 1777 and 1778.
Although David Reynolds was in the valley at the time of the battle of Wyom- ing and took a prominent part in defending the settlement against the enemy, the records and data now in existence are so meagre and incomplete that it is impos- sible to state just what service he performed. However, a report made to the General Assembly of Connecticut in October, 1781, shows that he sustained, at the hands of the enemy during their brief occupancy of the valley, a loss of property valued at ninety-four pounds, two shillings. He escaped from the valley after the surrender of Forty Fort, but returned thither late in the autumn of 1778.
David Reynolds married (second) in 1779, Mrs. Hannah (Andrus) Gaylord who was born in Connecticut in 1746, and was the widow of Charles Gaylord, formerly of Plymouth, who died in July, 1777, while serving in the Continental army. In the latter part of January, 1780, David Reynolds and his wife accom- panied William Reynolds and numerous others in their departure from Wyom- ing, for reasons above stated. During their long and toilsome journey, made through an almost deserted country shortly after the passing of one of the sever- est snowstorms that had been experienced in the course of many years in Penn- sylvania, their son Benjamin was born to David and Hannah (Andrus) Rey- nolds. As previously stated, David Reynolds and his family returned to Plymouth about 1785. He died here July 8, 1816; and his wife, October 7, 1823.
By his first wife, David Reynolds had two children: Joseph, who died with- out issue; and Mary who became the wife of Levi Bronson. The only child of David and Hannah (Andrus) Reynolds was Benjamin Reynolds.
BENJAMIN REYNOLDS, the only child of David and Hannah (Andrus) Rey- nolds, was born February 4, 1780. He was brought to Plymouth by his par- ents about 1785, and there spent the subsequent years of his life. About 1811, he formed a partnership with Joseph Wright and Joel Rogers, of Plymouth,
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for carrying on a general mercantile business there under the firm name of Wright, Rogers and Company. This partnership was dissolved by mutual consent May 6, 1814. Shortly afterward Joel Rogers, of the late firm, and Henderson Gaylord, only son of Dr. Charles E. Gaylord, Benjamin Reynolds' half-brother, formed a partnership and carried on the mercantile business for about two years. Then Benjamin Reynolds, Henderson Gaylord, and Abra- ham Fuller, (Mr. Reynolds' brother-in-law) formed a partnership and carried on business under the firm name of Reynolds, Gaylord, and Company, until the death of Mr. Fuller, December 21, 1818. In January 1832, owing to the death of the sheriff of Luzerne county, the governor of the commonwealth ap- pointed Benjamin Reynolds to fill the vacancy in the office until the qualification of his successor, to be chosen at the next election. Mr. Reynolds performed the duties of sheriff very acceptably and retired from the office, January 7, 1833. In October 1832, there were five candidates for election for the office of sheriff, and according to the returns, Benjamin Reynolds stood fourth in the list, having received eight hundred and forty-six votes. James Nesbitt of Plymouth, the successful candidate, received one thousand five hundred and seventy-two votes and was therefore commissioned sheriff. This result of the election was proba- bly due to the fact that James Nesbitt was the candidate of the anti-Masonic political party which was almost at the zenith of its power in Luzerne county, at it was also in other parts of this country in 1832, while Benjamin Reynolds, on the contrary was a Free Mason, having been initiated into Lodge No. 61, F. and A. M., at Wilkes-Barre, January 4, 1819. The latter's step-brother and one of his brothers-in-law had previously become members of that lodge and later another of his brothers-in-law, two of his sons, and one of his grandsons united with the same lodge. By appointment of the governor, Mr. Reynolds held the office of justice of the peace in and for the township of Plymouth for many years, and for nearly half a century was one of the representative and in- fluential men of Plymouth. During his long and useful life he did much for the promotion of religion and education in his community. He died February 22, 1854.
Benjamin Reynolds married (first), March 22, 1801, Lydia Fuller, born in Kent, Litchfield county, Connecticut, November 5, 1779, second child of Joshua and Sybil (Champion) Fuller, granddaughter of Captain Joseph Fuller, of the Eighteenth Connecticut regiment in the Revolution and a descendant in the eighth generation from Edward Fuller, a passenger on the "Mayflower."
DR. EDWARD FULLER, and his wife Ann, with their son, Samuel, came to Ply- mouth, Massachusetts, in the "Mayflower" on her first voyage in 1620, but died soon after his arrival, early in 1621.
SAMUEL FULLER, son of Edward and Ann, came with his parents in the "Mayflower" in 1620. He married, April 8, 1635, Jane Lothrop, daughter of the Rev. John Lothrop, who was baptized in the church of which her father was pastor at Edgerton, County Kent, England, September 29, 1614. Samuel Fuller died in October 1683. By his wife Jane Lothrop he had several children, and has left numerous descendants many of whom have taken a prominent part in public affairs in colonial and later days.
JOHN FULLER, son of Samuel and Jane (Lothrop) Fuller, born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, in 1655, removed to Haddam, Connecticut, and died there in
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1726. He married Mehitabel Rowley, born in Barnstable, January 1, 1660, who survived him and died at East Haddam, Connecticut, April 9, 1732.
DEACON JOSEPH FULLER, son of John and Mehitabel (Rowley) Fuller, born at East Haddam, Connecticut, March 1, 1699-1700, died at Kent, Connecticut, July 19, 1775. He married, December 22, 1732, Lydia Day, born April 11, 1698, at Hartford, Connecticut, died in Kent, November 2, 1763.
CAPTAIN JOSEPH FULLER, eldest son of Deacon Joseph and Lydia (Day) Ful- ler, born at Colchester, New London county, Connecticut, in 1723, removed with his parents to Kent, Connecticut, where he resided until his removal to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania in 1794. He was a cap- tain in the Eighteenth Connecticut regiment, and served with it throughout the Revolutionary war, hastening to the defence of Boston at the Lexington Alarm of April 19, 1775, and rendering active service at different periods later in the strug- gle for national independence. In 1794, Captain Joseph Fuller sold his land in Kent, Connecticut, and accompanied the family of his son Joshua Fuller to Lu- zerne county, Pennsylvania, where he died, July 13, 1795, and is buried at Center Moreland, in that county. He married, August 9, 1752, in Kent, Connecticut, Zerviah Hill, born April 13, 1732, who died before the removal to Pennsylvania, in 1794.
JOSHUA FULLER, eldest son of Captain Joseph and Zerviah (Hill) Fuller, born at Kent, Connecticut, July 11, 1753, resided there during the Revolutionary war, in which, like his father, he took an active part. He married in 1776, Sybil Champion, born at Salisbury, Litchfield county, Connecticut, July 18, 1755, eldest daughter of Daniel and Esther Champion. Daniel Champion, the father of Sybil (Champion) Fuller, born about 1721, was a soldier in Captain Samuel Durham's company, of Sharon, Connecticut, in 1756, and rendered active ser- vice in the French and Indian war. He resided successively in Sharon, Salis- bury, and East Haddam, Connecticut. He was a son of Lieutenant Henry Cham- pion, of East Haddam, Connecticut, and a great-grandson of Henry Champion, who was born in England and was a resident of Saybrooke, Connecticut, as early as 1647, and became one of the earliest settlers of Lyme, New London county, Connecticut. Joshua Fuller with his family and his aged father removed to the Wyoming Valley, in 1794, and settled in Kingston township, Luzerne county, within the present limits of Dorranceton. A few years later he removed to Dallas township in the same county, where he resided until his death, May 16, 1815, and is buried in the graveyard at Huntsville, Jackson township, Luzerne county.
Lydia (Fuller) Reynolds died in Plymouth, August 29, 1828, and Benja- min Reynolds married (second) at Kingston, Ruey Hoyt, born in Danbury, Connecticut, February 14, 1786, daughter of Daniel and Ann (Gunn) Hoyt, for- merly of Danbury, Connecticut. then of Kingston, Pennsylvania. She died without issue, August 26, 1835, and Benjamin Reynolds married (third) at Wilkes-Barre, February 16, 1837, Olivia M. (Frost) Porter, born in Litch- field, Connecticut, September 3, 1791, daughter of Samuel Frost, and widow of Major Orlando Porter, born in Waterbury, Connecticut, May 8, 1787, died at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1836, burgess of Wilkes-Barre, 1833- 1834. Benjamin Reynolds died in Plymouth, February 22, 1854. His widow Olivia died April 22, 1854. His children, all by his first wife, Lydia Fuller,
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were, William Champion, of whom presently ; Chauncy Andrus Reynolds, ( 1803- 1868) ; Hannah Champion, ( 1806-1845) married 1827, Dr. Andrew Bradford ; Clara Champion, (1811-1876) unmarried; Elijah Wadhams Reynolds, ( 1813- 1859) ; Joshua Fuller Reynolds, (1814-1874) ; George Reynolds, (1817-1835) ; Abraham H. Reynolds, (1819-1890) ; and Emily Elizabeth Reynolds, (1822- 1896) who married in 1847, Dr. Robert Hamilton Tubbs.
The HON. WILLIAM CHAMPION REYNOLDS, eldest child of Benjamin and Lydia (Fuller) Reynolds, born in what is now the borough of Plymouth, Lu- zerne county, Pennsylvania, December 9, 1801, was reared on his father's farm in Plymouth, and was educated in the primary school and later in the academy there under the principalship of Thomas Patterson. He prepared for college in the Wilkes-Barre Academy, under Joseph H. Jones, and entered the sopho- more class at Princeton in 1821, but his health failing he abandoned a collegiate course, and engaged in outdoor employment until 1824, with the exception of one winter in which he taught school. His health recovered, William Champion Reynolds, entered into partnership, with his cousin, Henderson Gaylord, his father's business partner, and under the firm name of Gaylord & Reynolds, later Henderson Gaylord & Company, for ten years carried on an extensive mercantile business at the general stores at Plymouth and Kingston. The firm also engaged in mining, and in shipping farm products, coal, lumber, etc. Mr. Reynolds took charge of the branch store at Kingston in 1830, and looked af- ter the interests of the firm there until 1835, when he sold out to his partner and engaged exclusively in mining and shipping interests. In October, 1836, William Champion Reynolds was elected a representative from Luzerne county to the state legislature, and during the one term which he served in the law mak- ing body of the state took an active part in the legislation in the interest of inter- nal improvements then engrossing the attention of the people of Pennsylvania. His business experience had made him well acquaintanced with the need of better transportation facilities, and he advocated all measures relating to inter- nal improvements. Among the important measures introduced by him was one granting a franchise to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to build a railroad to connect the head of navigation on the Lehigh river with the North Branch Canal at Wilkes-Barre. This railroad, begun in 1838, and completed five years later was one of the first railroads built in that part of the State, and it contributed greatly to the development and prosperity of the Wyoming Valley. Although the course of Mr. Reynolds in the House was favorably recognized by his constituents in a number of public meetings where resolutions were adopted expressing high regard for his services, he declined a re-election alleging that he could not spare the time from his active business which a due regard for the duties of the office required. He was also urged to accept the office of pro- thonotary of Luzerne county, but declined. March 15, 1841, he was commis- ioned by Governor Andrew Porter one of the associate justices of the courts oi his native county, and he served on the bench as lay judge with dignity and honor for five years. He was from 1840, for several years the state representa- tive on the board of managers of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company. He was chosen one of the trustees of Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston in 1845, the second year after its establishment by the Wyoming Conference of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, and although a member of a different religious denomi-
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