Thomas Reid (1791 - 1825)

Died 22 Jun 1825 at about age 34 in Pentonville, London, England

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Biography

Thomas Reid is Notable.

Thomas Reid, surgeon and author, was born near Eglish, County Tyrone, in 1791. He was one of five sons of Thomas Reid, a farmer at Cadian. In 1798, his father and his uncle John leased 14 acres in the townland of Carrowcolman for life. The lease names Thomas aged 7 years.^[1]

Thomas received his early schooling from the family Presbyterian pastor, Rev. Hugh Bell. Where he received his later education and MD is not currently known. He was appointed Assistant-Surgeon on the Canopus in 1810. He passed his examination at the Royal College of Surgeons in England on 7 May 1813 and was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1815.

At the instigation of Elizabeth Fry, he sailed to Australia as medical officer in charge of convicts on two occasions. The first voyage was on the Neptune to Sydney in 1818 with male prisoners. The second voyage was on the Morley to Hobart Town and Sydney in 1820 with female prisoners. It was to Fry that Reid dedicated his book, Two voyages to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.

In 1822 he travelled through Ireland on horseback, paying attention to the poor and to prisoners, and published his experiences in 1823, in a book, under the title of "Travels in Ireland."

He died at Pentonville, London on 22nd June 1825 and was buried at St. Giles Without Cripplegate, London.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ PRONI D2634/1 Book entitled "Old Leases on the Benburb Estate" Powerscourt Papers c1779-1801.
2. ↑ "England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JCFZ-NM9 : 15 March 2020), Thomas Reid, 1825.

• Latimer, W. T. The siblings, nephews great nephews of Thomas Reid. Dúiche Néill. Journal of the O'Neill Country Historical Society, No. 20, pp. 68-69. Citing University McClay Library Floor 1 (Special Collections) "Marginal notes" discovered in Rev. WT Latimer's personal copy of Thomas Reid's book Travels in Ireland in the Year 1822. h DA983/REID
• Willetts, Jen. Thomas Reid R.N. Convict Ship Surgeon Supertintendent. https://www.jenwilletts.com/thomas_reid_surgeon.html [accessed 14 September 2020].
• Richey, Rosemary. 'Reid, Thomas', Dictionary of Irish Biography, Originally published October 2009. https://www.dib.ie/biography/reid-thomas-a7621 [accessed 8 April 2021].