Parents: Nancy Jane Cox and Hardin William Reynolds m. 1/31/1843

Siblings: Agnes Catherine Reynolds, Abram David Reynolds, twin brothers, Richard Joshua Reynolds, Hardin Harbour Reynolds, John Gilmore Reynolds, Lucy Burrough Reynolds Critz, Nancy Bill Reynolds, Earnest C. Reynolds, William Neal Reynolds, twin brothers, Walter Robert Reynolds, and Nannie Kate Reynolds

Spouse: Andrew Murray Lybrook m. 3/13/1867

Children: Phillip Hardin Lybrook, Samuel Murry Lybrook, William Abram Lybrook, George Richard Lybrook, Nancy Margaret Lybrook Lasater, David Johnson Lybrook, Mary Ellen Lybrook, and Lucy Lybrook Stedman

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While her gravestone says Mary Josephine, in the Reynolds family records and in family interviews, she is referred to as Mary Joyce. Because it was tradition for the Reynolds to give their children family names, it is highly likely Mary's middle name was given in honor of her paternal great-great-grandmother Joyce Thornhill Harbour.

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BACKGROUND AND TRAINING OF R. J. REYNOLDS

"The early education of five of the Reynolds children who reached maturity is documented to a degree by scattered tuition receipts among the papers of Hardin W. Reynolds. It may well be that Nannie J. Walker, who received pay for tuition of the Reynolds children apparently in 1866 and who was present in the Reynolds home on 11 July 1866, served as a governess at Rock Spring. On that day she witnessed the signing of a receipt for Hardin W. Reynolds's payment to a household servant for the year 1865. There is evidence though that the early education of the Reynolds children began at the Shady Grove School—a subscription school near Rock Spring only a few feet from what is now Patrick Springs railroad station. Fortunately their higher education may be traced with greater accuracy.

Of those who reached maturity, Mary Joyce no doubt received her early schooling from her mother or from the local subscription school sponsored by her father. On 2 November 1857 she entered Salem Female Academy, located a few hundred yards from where her brother's factories would one day stand. Completing the two-year course, perhaps the best education then available for women in the South, she left the academy on 31 May 1859. Then with her sister Agnes Catherine, she entered Danville Female College around 29 August 1859. At least Captain Hardin W. Reynolds held among his papers a receipt with that date for 'seventy five dollars in advance for the board and tuition of his daughters in D. F. College.' Moreover Abram D. Reynolds declared in an interview in 1915 that his sisters attended Danville Female College (now Stratford Hall). According to another receipt, it is fairly certain that Mary Joyce attended Danville Female College a second year. Abram also declared in his 1915 interview that Mary Joyce 'obtained distinction as a portrait painter.'

In 1867 Mary Joyce Reynolds married Andrew Murray Lybrook (18 January 1832—1 January 1899), a native of Giles County, Virginia. According to the catalogs of Emory and Henry College, Lybrook entered that institution in 1847 and received his B.A. degree in 1852. Soon thereafter he began to practice law in Patrick County and early fell under the influence of Hardin W. Reynolds. Lybrook, a bookish man, became a prominent citizen of Patrick County. He served as county judge, raised Company I of the 24th Virginia Regiment for the Confederacy, served as its captain, and represented his district in the Virginia state senate in the 1880s. In the senate he achieved statewide fame as a spokesman for the Readjuster movement. As a partner with his father-in-law for some years, Lybrook was closely allied with the manufacture of tobacco, and two of his and Mary Joyce's children later became associated with the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, one, George Richard, serving a number of years as secretary and treasurer."

CAPITAL

Reynolds stated in 1915 that he had a partner who evidently helped furnish his early capital. He bought the partner out two years later, which must have been early in 1877. In 1916 Reynolds said that the silent partner was A. M. Lybrook, his brother-in-law, but that the partnership existed only twelve months after which he bought Lybrook's interest and paid him the principal plus 25 percent—apparently the profit for that period. Fortunately, at least to a degree, there is evidence to settle this last discrepancy. In June 1876 Dun, Barlow & Company listed Reynolds' worth as $20,000 to $30,000, but in May 1878 it reported that he was "now alone" and worth only $10,000 to $15,000. It therefore appears that Reynolds bought Lybrook's interest at some point between June 1876 and May 1878. Yet in his ledger, Reynolds noted on 3 December 1877 that he owed Lybrook $1,826.24 and on 21 August 1879, $312.23, the former sum being marked "Transfd to Bills Payable" and apparently fully settled by 2 May 1881. From a separate sheet laid in this ledger it is clear that the $1,826.24 represented interest due Lybrook and that Reynolds later borrowed from his sister, Mary Lybrook, who, according to family tradition, did lend her brother money after her father's death. It will also be recalled that R. J. owed his father $1,674 at the time of the latter's death in 1882. Actually Reynolds borrowed and repaid rather modest sums so constantly that he most likely could not recall the facts accurately. The only conclusion possible is that R. J. constantly needed capital, but at first failed to find any but comparatively small sums in his own family.

Tilley, Nannie M. The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The University of North Carolina Press, 1 Jan. 1985.