Author: Reynolds, John Hamilton
Biography:
REYNOLDS, John Hamilton (1794-1852: ODNB)
A prolific poet, journal editor, and contributor to periodicals, early in life he “gave promise of a brilliant career” (Examiner, 1852). Several of his poems were popular with contemporaries, but he is now remembered as the friend of John Keats and the brother-in-law of Thomas Hood (qq.v.). Reynolds was born 9 Sept. 1794 at Shrewsbury, Shropshire, the son of George Reynolds (1765-1853), headmaster of the writing school at Christ’s Hospital, and his wife, Charlotte (Cox) Reynolds (d 1846). He gained his early education at Shrewsbury grammar school and at St Paul’s School, London. From 1810 to 1817, he clerked at the Amicable Society for Perpetual Assurance. He was then bound for five years—from 4 Nov. 1817—as clerk to a Chancery solicitor, Francis Fladgate of Essex Street. On 24 May 1820, he transferred his bond to James Rice of Poland Street. (Rice later became Keats’s supporter and friend.) Following the completion of his indenture, 26 June 1822, on 31 Aug. at Holy Trinity church, Exeter, he married Eliza Powell Drewe (1793-1865) of Exeter. It was probably through Leigh Hunt (q.v.) that he first met Keats, his junior by a year, in Oct. 1816; their surviving correspondence dates from Mar. 1817. Reynolds introduced the editor of the Athenaeum, Charles Wentworth Dilke (q.v.), to Keats. Dilke in turn introduced Keats to Fanny Brawne. The law practice he established with his brother-in-law Arthur Symonds in about 1822 was dissolved by mutual consent in 1830. Devastated by the death of his only child, Lucy Hamilton, in Nov. 1834 (not 1835 as in ODNB), and his 1838 bankruptcy as a money scrivener (he had failed to “anticipate results on the turf”), he entered a period of depression. In 1847, he moved with his wife to the Isle of Wight. There he obtained employment as assistant clerk at the local courthouse. The 1838 bankruptcy shadowed his finances until July 1851 when he paid his final dividend. He died “after a long and painful illness” a year and four months later, on 15 Nov. 1852, at 36 Node Hill, Newport, Isle of Wight. He was buried there, in Litten cemetery. At probate, his wife’s estate was valued under £200. (ODNB 18 Jan. 2024; ancestry.com 18 Jan. 2024; Northampton Mercury, 4 Dec. 1852; G. Kim Blank, Mapping Keat’s Progress at johnkeats.univic.ca 18 Jan. 2024) JC
Other Names:
- J. H. Reynolds