Introduction / Margaret Gray and Thomas Reid / William Reid and Janet Wards

William Reid and Margaret Petrie

William, the oldest child of William Reid and Janet Wards, was born the 24th of December 1857 in Calfsound on the North End of Eday, where he lived virtually all his life. His father died of a spinal disease before William reached his ninth birthday. His mother was a "small crofter" at Upper Cott in Calfsound and, by 1881, William had become a fisherman. In 1883, William married, in Kirkwall, Margaret Petrie, born in Kirkwall & St. Ola Parish 11th May 1859 to Peter Petrie and Helen Patterson. Margaret had been a house servant in Kirkwall in the Grainbank home of Andrew Gold, the chamberlain. One of the other household servants was Margaret Reid, William's sister. Evidently William and Margaret lived a few years during the 1880s in Kirkwall where they were married and where their oldest son was born.

William and Margaret had three children:

• William Reid was born about 1885 in Kirkwall

• Peter Petrie Reid was born about 1887 in Eday, and he married there in 1911, Mary Jane Rendall. In the late 1920s he and his family were living in Aberdeen, however, he must have been back in Eday in 1935, at least temporarily, as he reported the death of his grandmother Janet Wards. Peter had two children, a son and a daughter.

• Margaret Jane (Maggie) Reid was born about 1889 in Eday

William and Margaret had returned to Calfsound by 1887, and they lived the rest of their lives at Cott, where Willie was a fisherman. Even after he had retired he went out "creeling" with his cousin Johnny Wallace (until Johnny died about 1926). Willie also had a very good singing voice and he often sang at weddings, funerals and the like. He even composed some of his own songs.

Willie's wife Margaret died in 1931 at age 71. William outlived her by more than 20 years. He died at age 95, still living at Cott, on the 16th of April 1953. Both Willie and Margaret are buried in the old Eday Kirkyard.