Sir John Rae Reid, 2nd Baronet (1791–1867) was a Scottish merchant and financier. He was a

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1830 and 1847.

Early life

Reid was the son of Sir Thomas Reid of Ewell Grove and his wife Elizabeth Goodfellow. He succeeded his father in the baronetcy in 1824''Debrett's Baronetage of England'' (1835)
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Political life

Reid was the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

, Kent from 1830 to 1831 and from 1832 to 1847.

Slave ownership

According to the ''

Legacies of British Slave-Ownership The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, formerly the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership, is a research centre of University College, London (UCL) which focuses on revealing the impact of Britis ...

'' at the

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, Reid was awarded compensation in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 with the Slave Compensation Act 1837. Reid was associated with seventeen different claims, he owned over 3000 slaves in

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, St Kitts,

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

and the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Brit ...

. He received over £62,000 in compensation from these claims (worth £ in ) .

Career

Reid was head of the firm Reid, Irving & Co., and later a Director (1820 to 1847) of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

, except when acting as Deputy Governor (1837 to 1839) or

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

(1839 to 1841). In June 2020 the Bank of England issued a public apology for the involvement of Reid, amongst other employees, in the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

following the investigation by the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership at UCL.

Personal life

He married Maria Louisa, the daughter of Richard Eaton of Stetchworth Park, Cambridgeshire with whom he had 2 sons and a daughter.

References

External links

* 1791 births 1867 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Governors of the Bank of England UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1832–1835 UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 UK MPs 1841–1847 Tory MPs (pre-1834) Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dover Anglo-Scots Scottish slave owners Recipients of payments from the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 19th-century Scottish businesspeople {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1790s-stub