He was born in Laxton, Nottinghamshire, the son of John Reynolds, one month after the death of his father, and was brought up by his maternal great-uncle, Henry Revell of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.

Richard Huck advised him to settle in London, and in the summer of 1772 he took a house in Lamb's Conduit Street.

The fatigues of attending upon the king at Windsor, added to an exhausting examination on the king's illness, during which he had to stand for two hours before the House of Lords, broke down his strength; but it was with difficulty that John Latham and Henry Ainslie persuaded him in May to keep to his room.

[1] Reynolds died at his house in Bedford Square, London, on 22 October 1811 and was buried at St. James's cemetery, Hampstead Road.

He was much attached to the College of Physicians, and in his own large practice was known for his great care and lucidity, and for his skill in prescribing.