THE REIDS OF RINMORE AND BEYOND 

REID

Reid is a prolific surname in Scotland, originally indicating red hair or a ruddy complexion. In Latin charters it is often rendered Rufus, in Gaelic Ruadh.  The name is borne by many families who do not have a common ancestor.  'Red' is found as a surname at Kildrummy, Aberdeenshire in 1317. In our own part of the Reid family we have a stone in Kildrummy churchyard inscribed Alexander Reid, Cults interred here Ihone Reid, New Mill died 1563, James Reid, New Mill.  This stone is engraved on the inside wall of the ruined church and unfortunately is now open to the elements.

Down through the centuries Reids have distinguished themselves in many walks of life. In our own family we have at least two distinguished gentlemen Sir Alexander John Forsyth Reid major general in the Indian Army and his brother Professor Robert William Reid who was Professor of Anatomy at Aberdeen University from 1851-1937. Their father William was Minister of Auchindor and Kearn for many years.

An equally distinguished lady was born to Adam Reid, Adam was the grandson of Peter Reid and Mary Dingual of Baltimore, Glenbuchat and brother of my great, great, great grandfather James. Adam left the glen in 1884 for the United States of America and settled in New York City. He married an American lady and they had five children. Ada Chree Reid was their second daughter born in 1896 in Connecticut (Chree was Adam's mother's maiden name) and was a pioneer woman doctor in Manhattan. In the 1920 census for the U.S., Ada was aged 24 and a pathologist, but by 1930 she was head of her own household and was a 'medical physician'.  Ada was to champion equal rights for women in medical education programmes and the armed forces and was a prominent member of the National American Women's Suffrage Association. In 1929 she published a medical paper entitled "The Value of the Fluoroscope as an Adjunct to Routine Physical Examination of the chest" in the American Revue of Tuberculosis.  Dr Ada Chree Reid also served on the Committee for the World Heath Organization and was secretary of the Women's Medical Association of the City of New York ; she was also a member of the Medical Women's International Association. She was still alive in 1974 where she features on the Board of Directors for World Health Inc and living in Niantic, Connecticut, but she never married dedicating her life to medicine.

 But the vast majority of 'our' Reids were farmers, mainly in Glenhuchat, Glenkindie, Kildrummy, Alford and surrounding areas.

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GLENKINDIE

The view from just below East Rinmore

Rinmore, Glenkindie, Alford, Aberdeenshire.  Rinmore (the name derives from Gaelic) is about 2 miles north up Glen Kindie from the A97 Alford to Strathdon road through Kildrummy and Glenbuchat. This road hugs the River Don as it meaners through the valley. Just after leaving the village of Glenkindie look for a turning on the right (signposted Rinmore) which leads up the glen. Here the Kindie Burn  tumbles gently down through the glen on its way to join the River Don at Inverkindie. It is from Rinmore that our branch of the Reid family descend.

Once Glenkindie was a thriving community of at least 500 souls, as supported by the 1696 list of Pollable Persons, with 295 males, 232 females and 12 indeterminate. Now it is a tragically depopulated glen, with the topmost farms derelict and forlorn, and the desolation gradually creeping down. It is isolated and the soil and landscape would not have made farming easy. They would have reclaimed as much land as possible from heather, broom and whins and drained land from bog and rough moss, which they converted into barley or corn growing fields. In the old days the fields were separated by wooden fences, wire was not used until much later. Other than the eldest son, who would normally inherit the farm providing he lived long enough, work had to be found for the others, therefore many children of the glen emigrated to Australia, Canada or the USA.  In my grandfather William's generation alone, four of his siblings emigrated to the New Word.

Illicit distilling at one time seemed to have been a regular industry in the glen.  It is rumoured that an illicit still was piped down to Lochrie, one of the topmost farms in Glenkindie. 

The glen did not get electricity from the grid until 1981/82, until then it had to be generated by individuals.

It was here that the Reid family lived, worked, loved, married, procreated, played, learned, worshipped, cried, laughed, dreamed, walked, farmed, ate, slept and died from at least the 16th century until the time of the First World War. 

West Rinmore 2006

Along this glen are, or were, more than 12 houses all told.  They were all built to the same format probably around the late seventeenth/early eighteenth centuries . One enters the house at the middle into a small passageway with a room to the left, one to the right and one in front. Also in this small hallway is a cupboard and a cupboard staircase.  The room to the left is the main  living area combined with kitchen, this has a large open fireplace and sway.  Off this room was a scullery.  The other room to the right is the 'best room' or parlour, this also has a large open fire.  Upstairs (there are no spindles to the stairs) is an open landing, off of which on either side are two bedrooms with limited ceiling height. 

There is much inter-marrying of the families in these houses and I believe that Reids married in to the majority, if not all the families.


remains of one of the four houses called Ardler in the 19th c censuses

THE POLL TAX

In the 17th century, the Scottish Government had no regular method of raising money (needed to pay arrears due to the country and the army) so introduced the Poll Tax.  This was a tax on the ‘head’ of everyone over the age of 16.  In order to determine who these people were, a census had to be taken.  The first one, that there is still a record of, is “The Aberdeenshire Poll Book of 1696”. In the part that refers to the Laird of Glenkindie, and the dwellings therein, Rinmore and Tollafraike are not mentioned, but Leochrie, Larige and Ardlare (spellings of the time) along with others further down are, but they do appear on the map of the same date.  At Lochrie is a James Reid, tenant, and his wyfe…’, at Tornahatnach – Patrick Reid, tennant, and his wyfe…’, at Fermtoun - James Reid, cottar (no trade) and his wyfe…’ and at Cottertoun – Alexander Reid, cottar (no trade), and his wyfe…’.  

In the late 18th century, the ministers of every parish in Scotland were asked to provide information of their particular church.  The compilation was called the Statistical Accounts.  Rev. William Spence from Glenbucket wrote the following: 

“The soil is, for most part, of a light loam, on some farms mixed with clay.  The springs are in general backward and the vegetation advances very slowly at first.  The summers are, however, warm, as the parish is encircled by hills, so that the harvests are by no means so late as might be expected.  The crops are oats, for the most part of an early kind, and Scotch bear.  Artificial grasses are beginning, and only beginning, to be sown and the advantage of them to be unknown.  As there are, however, hardly any enclosures, and every farmer, almost every cottager, keeps some sheep, they are with difficulty guarded in the winter.  The turnips must indeed, in general, be taken up, as there is no preserving of them.  

The people are sober, and very industrious.  There are few that do not make their own ploughs and carts, and also their brogues or shoes. 

The parish is the property of one heritor, (the Earl of Fife); and contains, by a very exact list taken last winter, (1795), 449 souls; 229 males, 220 females.  The average of deaths, for eight years, is about 8.  The population, according to Dr. Webster’s account, in 1775, was 430.  The names of places, almost without exception, are derived from Gaelic.  There are no funds for the support of the poor, but the weekly collections, which are small.  Luckily there are seldom any that require constant supply.  Six or seven receive a few shillings twice or thrice a year. 

As the parish is small, so the stipend is perhaps the smallest in Scotland.  The kirk, manse, and offices, were all lately rebuilt.  The parish lies at a great distance from every market town.  Aberdeen, the post-town, is above 30 miles off.  To it, the people must carry whatever they have for sale, and from thence all their necessaries are procured.  None but those who have felt it, can imagine how inconvenient it is to be at such a distance from a post-office and market town, when, for six or eight weeks, sometimes all communication is stopped.”

In 1901, the Glenbuchat Estate was sold to James W. Barclay, he was appalled by the condition of the farm properties “only a few dwellings were slated, the rest were thatched and mostly in a condition more or less unfit for human habitation.  The housing of the livestock was correspondingly bad.  On many farms the land was in the lowest state of cultivation, with the outlying fields no longer ploughed but lying as pasture without grass”.  By that time Barclay began to make improvements. 

I am not sure if this was the same in Glenkindie, but on looking at some of the ruins, I would assume that it was.

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