John Rae Reid

Born in 1791 to the Chairman of the East India Company, Sir Thomas Reid, and Elizabeth Goodfellow, John Rae Reid would eventually serve as the Director of the Bank of England from 1820 to 1847, simultaneously serving as a Member of Parliament for Dover in the years 1830 to 1831, and again from 1832 to 1847. Prior to these prominent positions, Reid was partners with John Irving in Reid, Irving, West India merchants; however, when running for Parliament in 1830, Reid repudiated claims against his role in the slave trade, arguing he had ‘a temporary interest as mortgagee of an estate in the West Indies’. However, in actuality, Reid was the mortgage holder of estates across the West Indies. In Jamaica, Reid was associated with 4 estates, 3 of which he was the mortgagee; these were the Paradise, Smith’s Pen, Mile Gully, and Garbrand and Mullet Hale plantations, whereby 1,032 individuals were enslaved. In St Kitts, Reid was the mortgagee of the Conarees and Wingfield Manor estates, whilst also being associated with St Kitts 190; across these estates, 445 people were enslaved. Reid too was the mortgagee of the Plantation Thomas estate in British Guiana. In the Virgin Islands, Reid was associated with 6 estates encompassing 1,229 enslaved individuals, whilst he also had ties to the Milton and Enterprise estates in Trinidad, holding 71 enslaved individuals. Following emancipation, as well as claiming compensation for these plantations, Reid would claim too for the Bath and Rose Hill plantation in Dominica, where 136 individuals had been enslaved. Eventualy, Reid was awarded over £63,050 for his role as a mortgagee across these estates, tied to plantations responsible for enslaving 3,112 individuals, antithetical to his claims minimising his position as a plantation owner. As well as his ties to slavery in the West Indies, Reid also had strong ties to the East India Company; his father served both as Director and Chairman of the company, whilst in 1838, Reid would have shares in the East India Company, hosting a meeting for Proprietors of East India Company Stock himself.