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#1
16-09-15, 21:46
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Who Do You Think You Are - Anne Reid 17th Sep
On BBC1 at 9 p.m., and repeated next Tuesday night at 11:35 p.m. also on BBC1.
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#2
17-09-15, 21:05
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Episode synopsis:
Anne Reid was born on the 28th May 1935 in Newcastle on Tyne, the youngest of four siblings. Her father Colin Reid worked on the Newcastle Chronicle, and his father Thomas David Husband Reid wrote for the Evening News. Anne's three brothers were all journalists. Anne had found out that her great-grandfather Thomas Reid was living with his grandparents David and Isabella Husband at Easter Forret in Fife (presumably on the 1841 census?) Thomas's parents were John Reid and Margaret Husband. Anne went to Easter Forret, about a mile from the village of Logie, and she then visited Logie Church where a researcher showed her the death record of Margaret Husband, the wife of John Reid, dated 4th Aug 1839. Anne was told that no record of John Reid's death could be found locally, but the death record of his son John jr showed that John sr was the schoolmaster in Logie. The school, which has since been demolished, was next to Logie Church. Anne was shown some entries from the Kirk Session records, stating that John Reid had been appointed assistant to the parish teacher Mr Rintoul in 1829, and elected as the parochial teacher after Mr Rintoul's death. The records said that for several years, John Reid had not discharged his duties satisfactorily, being absent from work many times, sometimes working on building houses. He had been "grossly intoxicated" on several occasions, and engaged in "riotous and disorderly conduct". He had contracted debts and been held prisoner in Cupar, and then again imprisoned there in 1841 on a charge of forgery. Anne went to Edinburgh to see records of the trial, from the National Records of Scotland. The records showed that John Reid was accused of forging and using a forged bill of exchange for £49 19s. One of the signatures on the bill was David Husband. John Reid's testimony was that the bill was genuine; David Husband's was that he had not signed it. David Husband's signature on his testimony did not match the signature on the bill. Anne went to the Supreme Court, where the case was heard in 1842. She saw the cell where John was held and the courtroom where his case was heard. The verdict was Guilty, and he was sentenced to 7 years' transportation. The records showed that he was sent to London to be held on a hulk ship for nine months, and then in autumn 1842 he was sent to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) on the ship "Earl Grey". Anne went to Hobart, Tasmania, where she was shown John Reid's arrival record with his physical description, and giving his age as 49. Colin Browning, the Surgeon Superintendent on the ship, had appointed John as Inspector of Schools for the voyage, i.e. he would have been teaching other convicts to read and write. When John arrived in Tasmania, the "probation system" was operating, which made sure that all the convicts were treated equally, first punished and then rehabilitated. Anne went to see where John Reid's labour gang would have built their "probation station" to live in and the "Convict Road" which they helped to build, from Buckland to Prosser's Bay, in the south east of the island. After two years John was eligible for a pass allowing him to work for a settler. Anne was shown an entry in the Hobart Town Gazette from 1844 listing John as going to work for Joseph Hayton at Iron Creek. Newspaper adverts from a few years later, 1848, named John as the Clerk and Secretary of the Carlton Agricultural Society. A muster roll from 1849 showed John as "Free". A later court record showed John prosecuting someone for stealing from his business - by then John was a "hawker" or general trader. Anne's niece Karen Disney, who was born in England but now lives in Australia, went to join her and they found the death record for John Reid, in the district of Clarence Plains, showing that he was found dead from apoplexy in the sea at Barilla Bay on the 15th Nov 1861. His age was shown as "about 60" but he would have been a few years older than that. Anne was shown Thomas Reid's marriage certificate dated 26 Dec 1864 (he married Elizabeth Evans) which said his father was "John Reid, clergyman, deceased". Anne and Karen went to Barilla Bay to see where John died.
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#3
17-09-15, 21:10
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Thomas Reid with his Husband grandparents in 1841:
http://search.findmypast.co.uk/recor...1%2f0018257424 David Husband Male 65 1776 Fife, Scotland Isabella Husband Female 65 1776 Scotland Christian Husband Female 35 1806 Fife, Scotland David Husband Male 30 1811 Fife, Scotland Ann Husband Female 30 1811 Fife, Scotland Alexander Husband Male 28 1813 Fife, Scotland Elisabeth Husband Female 25 1816 Fife, Scotland George Husband Male 25 1816 Fife, Scotland Isabella Husband Female 20 1821 Fife, Scotland William Husband Male 20 1821 Fife, Scotland Margret Heggie Female 15 1826 Fife, Scotland Christian Higgie Male 65 1776 Fife, Scotland Thomas Reid Male 5 1836 - Isabella Reid Female 4 1837 - David Reid Male 3 1838 -
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#4
17-09-15, 21:22
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I enjoyed this episode but Anne Reid got on my nerves. She seemed to think his criminal activities were trivial and her shouts for vengeance were at best misplaced! He was an educated man and would have been very well aware of what the punishment was for forgery but he went ahead anyway.
OC
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#5
17-09-15, 21:31
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Quote:
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#6
17-09-15, 21:33
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OC, she totally irritated OH and me. I agree totally with you. He took his chances and lost. He let down his wife, the school children, his own children, his in-laws and the wider community. As the researcher pointed out, a few years earlier he would have faced the death penalty. It wasn't just his father-in-law he cheated either.
His poor wife, she must have had a hard time. Anne Reid only considered him, and not the rest of the family.
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#7
17-09-15, 21:38
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Here are the convict musters for John Reid:
http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/11...nSearchResults http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/11...nSearchResults
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#8
17-09-15, 21:51
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#9
17-09-15, 21:58
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Quote:
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#10
17-09-15, 22:24
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I found Anne Reid's attitude ("I hope they all died horrible deaths" or something similar) very distasteful, especially having seen her hilarity at the fact that John Reid was a nuisance drunk. Unfortunately that rather put me off the whole programme.
And his poor wife: Marriage 28 Nov 1834 Thomas born 24 July 1835 Isabella born 8 Oct 1836 David born 29 April 1838 John born 2 Jul 1839 Her death 4 Aug 1839 If that is her baptism on Family Search, birth date 14 November 1800, she married relatively late.
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