the succeeding February to be elected to the Council of State. With the expulsion of the Rump Parliament by Oliver Cromwell in 1653, Reynolds for a time disappeared from public life. In 1659 he sat in Richard Cromwell's parliament as member for Whitchurch, Hampshire, and distinguished himself by a long speech against the bill for recognising Richard Cromwell's Protectorship, while professing the greatest esteem for Richard's person. If proper constitutional securities were given for the rights of the people, he was willing to accept the new Protector. "Against the single person there is not one exception; not any other man in this nation would pass so clearly". After Richard's fall, Reynolds took his seat in the restored Rump parliament, and was elected a member of the Council of State on 14 May 1659, and again on 31 December 1659. He also became again solicitor-general, and on 18 January 1660 was raised to the dignity of attorney-general. As he had been one of the nine members of the Council of State who promised to assist George Monck in his action against John Lambert (General) (19 November 1659), "promoted Monck's policy by his action in Parliament, and laboured for the readmission of the members" to reconstitute the Long Parliament, he found no difficulty in making his peace at the Restoration, On 31 May 1660 Reynolds petitioned King Charles II for leave to retire with pardon and protection into the country. Charles granted his request, and even conferred the honour of knighthood upon him on 4 June 1660. Family Reynolds married, first, in 1635, Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Deards of Dunmow, Essex; secondly, on 23 May 1646, Priscilla, daughter of Sir Hugh Wyndham of Pillesdon, Dorset. His second wife remarried, in 1683, Henry Alexander, 4th Earl of Stirling, and died in 1691. Notes References Attribution Endnotes: A notice of Reynolds is given by Noble in Protectoral House of Cromwell, i. 418, in the biography of his brother, Sir John Reynolds; Le Neve's Pedigrees of Knights, p. 60; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, p. 19; Commons' Journals, vii. 725. Further reading Attorneys General for England and Wales Solicitors General for England and Wales Lay members of the Westminster Assembly Roundheads English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1648–1653 English MPs 1659 1601 births 1678 deaths Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge