Introduction / Westray Grays / George Gray and Margaret Seatter / Geroge Gray and Jean Reid / Robert Gray and Christian Harcus / George Gray and Ann Thomson

Jean Gray and Charles Reid

Jean Gray (b 15th February 1834 was the first daughter of George Gray and Ann Thomson. She was with the family at Dogtou at in 1841.

When she was thirty, she married Charles Reid (b. 24th January 1832) the son of Robert Reid and Ann Paterson from Millhouse. This was on 21st February 1861.

Charles had been married previously to Jane Harcus. This was in Eday on 18th December 1856. A memorial with inscriptions on three sides was eventually to record the deaths of Charles and both Jean Gray and Jane Harcus. The side with the transcription for his first wife indicates that she died on 13th January 1859. Charles and Jane had a son Robert Reid who died on 25th May 1858 at the age of only four months.

While Charles was born in Westray, his father was a Reid from Eday. His father was a stonemason and farmer with 12 acres some ten years previously but by the time of their marriage, Robert Reid was a miller.

Charles Reid was also a miller. He and Jean stayed with her parents, who were then at Brandies, immediately after they got married.

Jean and Charles were to have five children:

• James Reid b. 5th September 1862

• Robert Reid b. 3rd September 1863 who married Elizabeth Seatter Rendall (b. 4th September 1870), the daughter of Jeremiah Rendall and Jessie Mathieson from Ring in 1893.

• Mary Ann Linklater Reid b. 23rd February 1867 who married John Rendall

• John Reid b. 18th September 1870 who married Annie Drever

• Jane Reid b. 1st February 1873

By 1871, they were at the Westside Mill forming a household there alongside Charles's parents. Charles was by then a general merchant and joiner.

1871 - Mill, Westray

	Relation	Status	Age	Occupation	Born
Charles Reid	Head	Married	37 years	General merchant, Joiner	Westray
Jane Reid	Wife	Married	36 years		Westray
Robert Reid	Son		7 years		Westray
Mary Reid	Daughter		4 years		Westray
John Reid	Son		7 months		Westray

Their first son only survived a few hours. The same fate was to befall their youngest daughter Jane Reid who was born in 1873.

The family were to stay there for some time although the name changes according to the census from Mill (1871) to Upper Millhouse (1881) to Mill House (1891). Charles was throughout a general merchant and joiner.

The three surviving children were with their parents at the time of the 1891 census, all marrying in the period from 1893 to 1897.

Jane Gray and Charles Reid both died at Roadmire, Jane on 18th June 1914 at the age of eighty and Charles on 21st September 1919 at the age of eighty seven.