Reid

The clan of which one branch of the Reid family in this country sprang from were quite noted in Scotland in the last part of the sixteenth century and through the seventeenth century. Members of this noted family lived to the patriarchal age of 90 and 101 years, and baronetcies were conferred upon some of these patriarchs.

The branch from which our father and grandfather came were born in the County of Donegal, Ireland. The great-grandfather came from Scotland about 1770. In Scotland he was a manufacturer of soap and candles and was called a chandler. His sons, James, John and Thomas, were in the same business.

During the Irish rebellion, 1798, our grandfather, James Reid, was a soldier In the King’s army, a member of the yeomanry, and his brother, Thomas, a bugler in the same command. After the rebellion was crushed, our grandfather, James Reid, was married to Rebecca Spear, and six children were born to them, namely, William, James, Andrew, Alexander, Esther and Catherine. His second wife, our grandmother, was Isabella Barclay, a Scotch lady, born in Glasgow, but who fled from Scotland during the persecution of the Covenanters. From this union were born George, John, Mary and Isabella. The two boys, George and John, being born in Ireland; the two sisters were born in Canada.

Three members of this family came to the United States of America, they being Alexander, Mary and John B. Reid, the rest of the family remaining in Canada. All of those remaining in Canada married into the best families in the counties where they settled and raised large families. Their children became ministers, teachers, merchants and manufacturers, and in all callings were useful members of society in church and state.

(Source: “History and Reminiscences of Col. John B. Reid and Family” – HERE)

The Reid family married into the Lewis family in my tree via Catherine.

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