Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reynolds, James (1805-1866)
REYNOLDS, JAMES (1805–1866), orientalist, born in 1805, was the younger son of Cornwall Reynolds of Clapton. The father, a naval surgeon, had sailed with Lord Nelson, who stood godfather to his elder son. James, after being educated at a private school, entered St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, as a sizar. He graduated B.A. in 1826. In the following year he was ordained deacon, and in 1828 took priest's orders. He acted for some time as chaplain to the first Earl of Munster [see Fitzclarence, George Augustus Frederick], through whose influence he was appointed, on 27 Oct. 1837, perpetual curate of St. Mary's Chapel, Great Ilford, Essex. In the same year he became secretary to the Oriental Translation Fund of the Royal Asiatic Society, to whose publications he contributed. He died at Great Ilford on 19 April 1866.
Reynolds, who was a good Persian and Arabic scholar, published: 1. ‘The History of the Temple at Jerusalem, by Jalal-addin-al-Sinti, translated from the Arabic, with Notes and Dissertations,’ 1836, 8vo (Oriental Transl. Fund, xlv.). 2. ‘Brief Discourses on certain of the Epistles and Gospels,’ 1856. 3. ‘The Kitab-i-Vamini: Historical Memoirs of Amir Sabaktagin and Sultan Mahmûd of Ghuzni,’ translated from the Persian version of the Arabic Chronicle of Al Utibi, 1858, 8vo (Oriental Transl. Fund, lxix.). Reynolds also superintended the publication of Sir Gore Ouseley's ‘Biographical Notices of Persian Poets’ in 1846, and wrote the prefatory memoir of the author (Oriental Transl. Fund, lxi.).
[Annual Report of Royal Asiatic Society, June 1866; Foster's Index Ecclesiasticus; Crockford's Clerical Directories; Allibone's Dict. Engl. Lit.]