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

James Reid and Margaret Gunn

James Reid, the second son of William Reid and Janet Wards, was born the 18th of April 1859, in Calfsound at the North End of Eday. James' father William was a yachtsman. In 1866, while James was still a young child of 7, his father died, and the family was then supported by crofting activities carried on by his mother. By 1881, 21-year old James was a servant at Stenoquoy on Eday.

James somehow made his way to the Orkney Mainland and he married there in 1890, Margaret Taylor Gunn, born about 1862 in Orphir. In 1891, James and Margaret were living at Babylon in Stenness and James was a farm servant.

James and Margaret had at least four children:

• James Reid, born about 1892, in Stenness

• Maggie Reid, born about 1894, in Stenness

• William Reid, born about 1897 in Orphir

• Janet Reid, born about 1900 in Stenness. She married John Garson in 1919 in Stenness and later lived in Stromness.

In 1901, the family was living at Seattersquoy, Stenness, and James was employed as a farm worker or ploughman.

James died on the 8th of February 1927 in Kirkwall Hospital. He was buried in Stenness Kirkyard near where he lived most of his adult life.