157 



too much indulged in the island. These were chiefly connected with 

 slavery? illicit intercourse, and intemperance. He was not an un- 

 qualified opponent of slavery in all cases and under all circumstances; 

 and retained one slave with him in the United States to a very ad- 

 vanced ao-e, toleratino- and comfortino; manv infirmities and eccentri- 

 cities. The efforts and remonstrances of John Reynell in Jamaica 

 were not well received; and it was in consequence of this that he 

 ultimately settled in Philadelphia in 1728. 



In our city, he soon acquired the confidence of his acquaintance, 

 after a moderate interval, a solid and commanding character, and, 

 finally, a rapid success. After another interval he assumed a style 

 of liberal hospitality, and maintained a large establishment; and he 

 closed by an adequate provision for those dependent on him, damaged 

 only by the derangements in business caused by the war of the revo- 

 lution. By far the most important of these was the receipt of debts 

 in paper money; Reynell, in common with all Quakers, and many 

 others, not being willing to descend to the payment of his own obliga- 

 tions in the same imaginary representative of value. 



John Reynell was not an ambitious man ; and by no means betray- 

 ed eagerness to have his name freqiiently before the public in connec- 

 tion with politics or corporate bodies. It occurs in but few instances, 

 and he seems to have acted on the principle ascribed to Cosmo de 

 Medici and President JacUson, never to seek for public ofTice, but only 

 to accept it when the undeniable wish of their fellow citizens. Ho 

 may have been of opinion that his time was better bestowed, first, 

 upon his private afFuirs, and then upon institutions in such limited 

 number that he might feel confident of giving adequate attention to 

 the service of th(;ni all ; rather than upon a difilised mass of objects, 

 exposing him to the risk or certainty of occasional neglects. I have 

 found records of him in only two or thrpc of the incor[)orations of the 

 city. Of these, two were literary, and the third, charitable, the Ame- 

 rican Philosophical Society, the School Corporation established by 

 Penn, and the Pennsylvania Hospital. 



Of the body I have now the honour to address, he was a foundation 

 member; having been elected to the branch styled "The American 

 Philosophical Society," and of which the president was Governor 

 Hamilton, January 26, 1768; and becoming a member of the joint 

 society by the iniion of the two original bodies, January 2, 1769. By 

 this election of a man of sixty years of age, and much occupied with 

 private business and the affairs of a religious body, and that during 

 the short interval between the stam.p act troubles and the more imme- 



