His father was born in the West Indies, the son of a planter, but, being sent in his youth to England for education, settled there permanently, and married Reynolds' mother, Sarah Hunt.

[4] In 1797 he engraved a plate of The Relief of Prince Adolphus and Marshal Freytag after Mather Brown, which shows a complete mastery of the art, and during the next twenty years produced many fine works, including The Vulture and Lamb, The Falconer, Leopards, Vulture and Snake, and Heron and Spaniel, all after James Northcote; A Land Storm, after George Morland; portraits of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir J. F. Leicester, and Lady Harcourt, after Joshua Reynolds; portraits of Lady Elizabeth Whitbread and the Duchess of Bedford, after John Hoppner; The Jew Merchant, after Rembrandt; and The Rainbow, after Rubens.

[3] He also engraved a large number of portraits and compositions by Dance, Jackson, William Owen (1769–1825), Stephanoff, Bonington, Gregor MacGregor, Sir Robert Ker Porter, and others, and was one of the artists employed by J. M. W. Turner on his Liber Studiorum.

[5] Early in life Reynolds secured for himself and his family the friendship and patronage of Samuel Whitbread, and, through his connection with Drury Lane Theatre, became intimate with Thomas Sheridan and Edmund Kean.

An article, which appeared at the time in L'Artiste, describing Reynolds's extraordinary talents, is quoted by Beraldi in Les Graveurs du XIXe Siècle ("Engravers of the 18th century").

[3] Reynolds executed a considerable number of plates in France, including The Raft of the Medusa, after Géricault; La Bonne Fille, after Haudebourt-Lescot; The Massacre of the Innocents, after Léon Cogniet; Mazeppa, after Horace Vernet; a few fancy subjects after Dubufe; and some studies after Charlet.

In a humorous watercolour drawing by A. E. Chalon, representing artists at work in the gallery of the British Institution in 1805, Reynolds, seated at his easel, is a prominent figure.