[1] He was born in Holyrood parish in Southampton, the son of Augustine (Austin) Reynolds, one of the customers of the city, and his wife, Bridget.

In 1622 he was appointed Preacher at Lincoln's Inn (where he is memorialised by his arms sculpted on a corbel supporting the roof of a Hall) from 1627 to 1628 served as the thirty-seventh vicar of All Saints' Church, Northampton, and in 1631 rector of Braunston, also in Northamptonshire; but with the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, he sided with the Presbyterians.

He refused the engagement (1651) and despite his promise of obedience to the law, but not subscription to the oath in Humble Proposals of Sundry Learned and Pious Divines (1649), this was insufficient to save him; he lost the vice-chancellorship in September 1650.

[2] He preached before parliament in January 1657, and the same year he became vicar of St Lawrence Jewry, London, but was restored to his deanery in 1659.

[2] In his later years Reynolds was severely affected by the stone and strangury, and he died on 28 July 1676 at his bishop's palace.