James Blakeslee Reynolds (1754-1834)
Privateer & Tavern-Owner, of Woodbury & West Haven, Connecticut
He was a privateer during the Revolution and is reputed to have brought the first tippet muff and umbrella to America. After the war, he opened a tavern in the former home of Lamberton Painter, near the present corner of Campbell Avenue and Main Street in West Haven that soon became the general meeting place of the villagers to, "pass the time of day". The portraits of him (shown with a brass tobacco box with a hinged lid on a book beside him) and his wife were painted circa 1789 by Reuben Moulthrop and are now in the collection of the Museum of American Folk Art, New York.
