Andrew Reid, Maltman in Glasgow

ANDREW REID

Bogus Genealogy

Andrew Reid, maltman burgess of Glasgow, is not the same person as Andrew Reid that son of Captain David Reid in Holehouse of Eaglesham whose baptism was registered at Eaglesham in Renfrewshire on 19 March 1699. He is in fact that son of Patrick Reid and Agnes Mitchell whose baptism was registered at Glasgow on 3 May 1686.

Maltman in Glasgow; Burgess of Glasgow; Guild Brother of Glasgow

Andrew Reid, here treated in the son of Patrick Reid and Agnes Mitchell. He was born before 3 May 1686, the date upon which his baptism was registered at Glasgow in Lanarkshire, Scotland. [National Records of Scotland, Glasgow Baptisms, reference OPR.644/1/7]

Andrew Reid, here treated, was a maltman in Glasgow. He was enrolled as a burgess and guild brother of Glasgow on 20 August 1717, having been admitted in right of being the second son of Patrick Reid, maltman, burgess and guild brother. Glasgow Burgesses, 1573-1750: 330 He was enrolled as a member of the Incorporation of Maltman of Glasgow on 23 August 1717. Chronicles of the Maltman Craft: 115

Death

Andrew Reid Maltman in Glasgow, died before 29 January 1741, the date upon which he was buried at Glasgow in Lanarkshire, Scotland. [National Records of Scotland, Glasgow Deaths, 1739-57, reference OPR.644/1/57] [

Marriage

Andrew Reid married Isobell Niven. The marriage was booked on 12 February 1727, at Glasgow in Lanarkshire, Scotland. [National Records of Scotland, Glasgow Marriages, 1687-1729, reference OPR.644/1/24]

Children

1. Agnes Reid
2. Patrick Reid
3. Margaret Reid

The Four Daughters of Andrew Reid and Isabella Niven

Andrew Reid (1696–1741) was a maltman (or brewer) in Glasgow, the son of Patrick Reid and Agnes Mitchell. On 17 February, 1727, he married Isabella Niven (1701–1739), the daughter of William Niven and Margaret Sheils. A printed family tree suggests Margaret was the granddaughter of another William Niven, the covenanter, who was imprisoned and then banished to the American plantations in 1684. Andrew and Isabella appear to have had seven children, but it is their four surviving daughters who prove to have led well-documented and interesting lives.

Agnes was the eldest of the daughters, born about 1728; Isabella, the third daughter, was born about 1732; Elizabeth, my 4x great-grandmother, was baptized 10 February, 1734 and the youngest daughter, Janet, was baptized 13 February, 1739, her mother dying immediately after birth.[i] Their father died in 1741, leaving four orphans aged between two and 13.

The four are described at this time as keeping house together at the south corner of Cow Loan (now Glasgow’s Queen Street). Robert Reid, Elizabeth’s son, who became a well-known historian of Glasgow, gives a vivid description in his autobiography of one episode in the Reid sisters’ lives there. It was December 1745, when Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie, arrived in Glasgow after his retreat from Derbyshire. Two highland soldiers were billeted on these unprotected young girls.

The soldiers so quartered on the said misses were two poor ragged creatures without shoes or stockings, who could not speak a word of English; but, fortunately, they were very civil, and gave little trouble to the misses, who, on their part, treated them kindly. All that these soldiers required was a bed, and liberty to dress their meals at the kitchen fire, which meals consisted almost wholly of oat meal porridge and barley bannocks.[ii]

The girls had the opportunity to watch the various regiments as they marched daily along the Westergate and turned up the Cow Loan right before the door of their home. Elizabeth recounted years later to her son that once, when Prince Charles was marching at the head of one such detachment of soldiers, she stood so close to him that she could have touched him with her hand.

She also stated that he was a handsome good-looking man, but that his countenance appeared rather sombre and melancholy.[iii]

None the worse, apparently, from this experience, the Reid daughters went on to marry and to live to the grand age of 83, 82, 82, and 84 respectively.

[i] Senex. [ii] Glasgow Past and Present, p. 165. [iii] Glasgow, p. 166.

Genealogy

1. Glasgow Past and Present by Senex. In three Volumes. Volume III (David Robertson and Co., Glasgow, MDCCCLXXXIV), 580 pp. including index. For the Biography of Robert Reid see pp. 491-96. For the four daughters of Andrew Reid and Isobel Niven see pp. 162-5
2. The Four Daughters of Andrew Reid and Isabella Niven