Joseph Reynolds

Joseph Reynolds (1719-1789) was the eldest child of Joseph Reynolds and Phebe Leonard. In 1744, he married Lydia Greenwood. Joseph and Lydia had ten children: Lydia, Joseph, Elizabeth, Mary, Mercy, Phebe, George, Hannah, Samuel, and Jonathan. In 1752, Joseph became an ensign in the Bristol Militia Company commanded by Bennet Munro. By 1754, he had been promoted to captain, holding that rank until 1759. In 1760, he became a member of Rhode Island’s General Assembly. Between 1763 and 1789, Joseph served as a justice of the Bristol County Court of Common Pleas. For the last two of these years, he was chief justice. In 1774, as part of a town-wide effort, he sent a sum of 18 shillings to support the people of Boston (that city’s port having been recently closed by the British). As of the 1774 Rhode Island Census, there were four black people (likely enslaved) living in the Reynolds household.