Person:William Reynolds (129)

William Reynolds’ origins have yet to be established. His first confirmed sighting is on 27th September 1787, when he married Margaret Knowles at Eccleshall in Staffordshire. At the time of their marriage he was said to be a minor, indicating that he was not yet 21 years old. The marriage register notes that he married “with the consent of his natural father”.

The following year William and Margaret had a son, Thomas Knowles Reynolds, baptised at Eccleshall. The family was living at Rue Barn, a farming hamlet a couple of miles south-west of the town. Thomas’s baptism appears to be the last sighting of the family in Eccleshall. As an adult Thomas gave his birthplace as Birmingham, suggesting they may have moved there when he was very small.

It is not clear what happened to William after the family left Eccleshall. There was an Esther daughter of William and Margaret Reynolds baptised at Barford near Warwick in 1796, who may have been the same couple. That Esther and William’s son Thomas both settled in the town of Warwick as adults and at different times lived on the street in Warwick called Coten End.

One possibility is that William was the “William D. Reynolds” who lived on Bowling Green Street in Warwick and died in 1835, being buried on 18th January 1835 at St Mary’s church in Warwick. William’s wife Margaret died a few months later in June 1835 in Warwick, having been living on Coten End immediately before her death.

1.   Burials register, in Church of England. Parish registers of St Mary, Warwick, 1538-1928. (Warwick: Warwickshire County Record Office).

   BURIALS in the Parish of St Mary Warwick in the County of Warwick in the Year 1835
   No	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   78	William D. Reynolds	Bowling Green St[reet]	1835 January 18	79 [1755/6]	C.E. Carles

   Possible burial. The age would make him about 32 when he married, which is too old – his marriage record indicates that he was not yet 21. A margin of error of 11 years on the age of an old person dying is not unheard of, but further evidence needed to confirm or disprove. The middle initial of “D” also needs explanation. William did have a grandson called William Dyke Reynolds.