[5] On the return of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde to the Lord Lieutenancy in 1677, Essex before departing for England recommended Reynell to him as one of the few Irish judges who was a man of learning and was neither too old nor too frail to perform his duties effectively.

[5] Ormonde agreed: and as John Bysse, the Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was old and in failing health, the Duke proposed that he should be persuaded to retire and that Reynell should replace him.

However, the anti-Catholic hysteria engendered by the Popish Plot was then at its height and Reynell's tolerant attitude to Catholics told against him; nor, despite his aristocratic background, did he have much influence at Whitehall.

Reynell was however made a baronet (which was not a common honour for an Irish judge at the time) in 1678, and a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1682.

He was dismissed from the Bench in 1686; some said that the true reason for this was that his wealth and independence of mind had earned him the enmity of the new Lord Deputy, Tyrconnell.

He was elected to the post-Revolution Parliament as member for the family borough of Ashburton in 1690, his elder brother Sir Thomas Reynell having stood down as MP to accommodate him.

[3] In 1691,[6] having demonstrated his loyalty to the new administration, he received his overdue promotion as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, but he had a somewhat troubled tenure in that office.

[7] There was also the old charge that Reynell was excessively tolerant of Catholics, and on this flimsy basis, hysterical accusations were made by a Colonel FitzGerald that he was involved in a conspiracy to kill William III.

[5] Reynell, in his own defence, referred to the double burden of being Lord Chief Justice of Ireland while also having duties to attend to in England.

He was given something close to a State funeral: an impressive procession passed through London, and brought his body back to Devonshire for burial at East Ogwell.

[4] Reynell's professional success owed something to his upper-class background: unlike most Irish judges at that time, he could deal with men like Essex and Ormonde as social equals.