James Reid of Castlehill

JAMES REID OF CASTLEHILL

James Reid of Castlehill, here treated, is the great-grandson of John Reid of Wester Kittochside and his wife Bessie Lambie

John Reid of Castlehill is the second child and youngest son of John Reid of Wester Kittochside and his wife Marie Hamilton. His date of birth is not known but his parents married before 8 September 1649, perhaps only shortly before, [National Archives of Scotland, HM General Register House, Ednburgh, Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark, reference RS40/5/ff.77v-78r] and, since his mother died in August 1658, it would seem likely that he was born during the period 1649-1658. [National Archives of Scotland, HM General Register House, Edinburgh, Commissariot Records of Hamilton and Campsie, Register of Testaments, reference CC10/5/7]

First Mentioned

James Reid of Castlehilll and his older brother John are noticed for the first time when their father gave up the testament dative and inventory of his deceased wife, Marie Hamilton, on 2 June 1664, The inventory was given up in name and behalf of her sons John and James.The Commissary Court granted confirmation at Glasgow on 13 December 1664. [National Records of Scotland, Hamilton and Campsie Commissary Court, reference CC10/5/7]

He purchases the lands of Castlehill

On 1 August 1676 General Thomas Dalyell of Binns, who had been given the feudal superiority of Wester Kittochside by the crown following the forfeiture of Mure of Caldwell, issued a charter confirming that James Reid had purchased a sixteen shilling eight penny land of old extent of Wester Kittochside from Bessie Couper. James took formal possession of this land later the same day and the instrument of sasine which followed from his infeftment was registered on 29 December 1676. His older brother John was present to witness the proceedings. [National Records of Scotland, Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark,reference RS42/6/folios 191v-192v] The land which James purchased was known as the Castlehill Quarter. It is first noticed by this name on 11 November 1567, at which time it was being farmed by Robert Cowper, the customary tenant of Sir John Mure of Caldwell and the probable ancestor of Bessie Couper. [Robert Renwick, Deputy Town Clerk of Glasgow, Abstracts of Protocols of the Town Clerks of Glasgow, volume five, Henry Gibsone's Protocols, 1555-1568 (Printed for the Subscribers by Carson & Nicol, 13 Dundas Street, Glasgow, 1897), protocol number 1572 on pp. 98-99]. The name Castlehill is derived from an ancient mound located on the land which is thought likely to be the site of a Motte.

The Covenanting Rebellion

James Reid of Castlehill took part in the Covenanting Rebellion and spent some time in prison for his trouble.The history of this period is quite complex, though, and it is thought best to treat this part of his life separately. An account will be given elsewhere.

Public Service

A minute of the Justices of the Peace for Lanarkshire, dated 25 October 1709, informs us that James Reid in Kittochside was appointed to serve as one of four Constables for East Kilbride during the six months ending in May 1710. [Charles A. Malcolm, M.A., Ph.D., The Minutes of the Justices of the Peace for Lanarkshire, 1707-1723 (Scottish History Society, Edinburgh, 1931), pp. 87-8]

Investment

James Reid of Castlehill lent £100 to Robert Miller, elder in Nuik. The exact date upon which the loan was made is not known but it seems that it was secured on Miller's land for his indebtedness is mentioned in an instrument of sasines dated 3 April 1716. [Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark, National Archives of Scotland, reference RS42/12/part 2/ff.445r-446r] and it seems that it may still have been outstanding on 3 March 1717 [Ibidem, reference RS42/12/part 2/ff.500r-500v]

Family Occasion

When his nephew, John Reid of Wester Kittochside, took possession of his deceased father's land on 4 May 1719 he was present to witness the ceremony of infeftment. [National Archives of Scotland, The Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark, reference RS43/13-1/folios 1v-2r]

Marriage

James Reid of Castlehill married Elizabeth Scott. In the marriage contract, which they signed on 29 January 1709, she is identified as the lawful daughter of the deceased Thomas Scott, baker in Glasgow. Following from the marriage contract, James gave his new wife one half of his land in liferent and she was given sasine by deliverance to her of earth and stone upon the ground of the land on the very same day.The ceremony of infeftment was witnessed by James's older brother, John Reid, junior, and his cousin, John Reid, senior, and his cousin's eldest son, yet another John Reid. [Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark, National archives of scotland, reference RS42/11/ff.455v-456r]. James Reid of Castlehill and Elizabeth Scott had no children.

Death

The date upon which James Reid of Castlehill died is not known. He was alive on 23 December 1724, the date upon which he transferred his lands in Wester Kittochside to his nephew William, but he probably died before William took formal possession on 2 June 1729.

Commentary by Michael Reid Delahunt

Michael Reid Delahunt reviews what the Reid family historian has already written about James Reid of Castlehill: Herbert Reid in his "Reids of Kittochside" (Part I, 1943, pp. 10, 13-14) wrote that James and his brother John Reid IV fought at the Battle of "Bothwell Brig on 22nd June, 1679, James being in command of the Kilbryd company [soldiers of that parish]. On seeing that the squabbling amongst themselves even when Monmouth and Claverhouse were thundering at the gates of the Brig — they were escaping from the field, when James descried [saw] their captured Kilbryd standard among a group of Claverhouses' dragoons. Drawing his broadsword he charged through their dumbfoundered [sic] ranks and, seeing the staff, he tore the silk flag from the pole and, wrapping it around his body, made his escape amid a hail of bullets.

"His elder brother, John [IV], was not so fortunate, being taken a prisoner. "The Covenanters had erected gallows on the field, with a cartload of new ropes at the foot, in readiness for their enemies. With these same ropes, the 1,200 prisoners were bound two by two and marched to Lanark and Lang Whang and thence to Edinburgh, under great privations. As they entered the city the populace greeted them with cries of 'Where is your God?' The prisons being unable to hold them — their numbers having now swelled to something like 1,700 — they were penned in the old Greyfriars Kirkyard, where the National Covenant had been signed in 1638. Their condition was pitiable. Insufficiently fed on a ration of 4 ozs of bread a day, with no shelter from the pitiless, pelting sleet, their only bed a cold tombstone, many of them succumbed to hunger and cold. others were shot, and others transported to the West Indies to be sold as slaves. "It was John Reid [IV]'s fate to be included in a draft who were destined for the plantations, when the Duke of Hamilton intervened. "This was William Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, who married Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, and was created third Duke of Hamilton in 1660. He was the premier peer of Scotland, and later was to preside over the meeting of the Scottish Estates, held at Edinburgh on 14th March, 1689, when they tendered the crown of Scotland to William and Mary. "His Grace, being in Edinburgh at the date fixed for Reid's deportation, went down to Leith and arranged matters with Patterson, the skipper of the ship in which the draft was to sail. Then returning to Edinburgh, he was granted an interview with the prisoner, and so protracted the leave-taking that when the convoy set out from the Tolbooth, John Reid was in the tail. When they reached the quayside at Leith, the skipper (whose palm doubtless had been well greased by the duke), after 250 had been embarked drew the gangway and swore that not another man would be allowed on board. A good thing for Reid, as it happened! For the unfortunate vessel ran on the rocks at the Mule Head of Darness, Orkney. The sailors laid the mast from the ship to the rocks and clambered ashore; but Patterson, turning a deaf ear to the cries of the wretched prisoners, who were stowed in the hold under padlocked hatches, left them to drown like rats in a trap, only fifty escaping to land. When the ship had sailed from Leith, John [IV], with the seven-or-so others left behind, was marched back to the Tolbooth to face weary years of imprisonment. They were offered liberty to return to their homes if only they would forswear the Covenant. Some accepted the offer, but John was of sterner stuff. Then came the great day when William of Orange landed from Holland, and the last Stuart king left the shores of Britain, on 23rd December, 1688, never to return. The prison gates were thrown open and the sequestered lands were restored. A year or two before the revolution of 1688, the King, James II, to allay the alarm of his Scottish subjects, and at the same time to serve his own ends, had promulgated his "Indulgences" granting freedom of worship; the majority of the fugitive ministers returned to their Churches; and John Reid IV was released from prison in February, 1685. "But when John returned to Kittochside it was to find the old home in ruins. The hand of the despoiler had been busy in East Kilbride during his absence. In especial, one of Dalzell's minions, Duncan Grant of the Tree-leg — so-called because of his wooden limb — had mulcted the Clydeside folks to the tune of 1,500 Pounds, John Wilson, of Highflat, neighbor to Kittochside (the same who had stood trustee for John and James Reid), being forced to pay him 678 Pounds. It is some satisfaction to justice to know that, after the revolution, Grant was reduced to begging his bread from door to door and died a horrible death in a barn.

"At first John IV was so downhearted that he contemplated emigrating to another country, but the neighbours gathered around him, and with their help the old house was rebuilt. Shortly afterwards he married, and had four sons, John, born 9th September, 1688, and James, born 14th December, 1690; Robert and William."

In Part II, p. 7 (1945), Herbert Reid continues his account of James Reid, "I had often wondered what became of James Reid of Kittochside after he escaped from Bothwell Brig with the Covenanters' Flag, seeing that his brother John IV was imprisoned in the Tolbooth for six years for his part in that affair. "It seems that James was arrested and brought before the Lords of Justiciary charged with 'accession to the rebellion in 1679,' but was unanimously acquitted, and set at liberty. He was, however, again imprisoned by general Dalziell, who took from him his 'absolvitour.'

"After lying for twenty weeks in the Tolbooth he petitioned the Privy Council to be set at liberty on the plea that by the law of the kingdom 'panels once acquitted cannot again be proceeded against for the same crime.' The Lords of Council, finding that the petitioner had been clearly acquitted and that General Dalziell, when spoken to, had no fresh charge to bring against him, ordered his release in 1682, on condition that he would live peaceably and orderly and keep his parish kirk. And all the time the old warrior must have hidden away somewhere the Bothwell Brig Flag, which now rests in the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow!"

Michael Reid Delahunt continues with the observations of Julie Manierre Mann: She noted in her copy of Herbert Reid's book (Part I, p. 10) that James Reid willed the Covenanters' flag that he recaptured from Bothwell Brig to his nephew, William Reid, great-grandfather of the Williiam Reid who emigrated to the United States in 1840. Neil Reid Ford makes the following observation: William Reid of Castlehill (floruit 1695-1763) is the grandfather of the Wisconsin Pioneer not the great-grandfather.

Castlehill and the Kilbride Banner

Concerning Reid family tradition, Neil Reid Ford makes the following observations: There is no evidence of a last will and testament for James Reid of Castlehill, although he did give his land called Castlehill to his nephew William. The Kilbryde Banner (Covenanter's Flag) is not mentioned in the trust disposition he used to make this gift but there seems hardly any doubt that it was one of the personal possessions which passed to William when his uncle died. The Flag was taken to Wisconsin Territory in about 1840 by William's grandson, another William Reid.