4th Great Grandmother

8th Generation

Born - 7 Apr 1827 • Cambusnethen, Glasgow, Lanarkshire
Died - 15 Sept 1890 • Kinning Park, Glasgow

Mary McGill Reid was born in 1827, she was the youngest of James Reid and Helen White’s 8 children. She was born in Cambusnethen. Originally, the name Cambusnethan or Camnethan referred to the whole of the Wishaw area. Cambusnethen grew massively alongside its neighbour, Wishaw, during the Industrial Revolution, with industries such as railways, textiles, quarrying and in particular, coal mining. This established Cambusnethan’s importance to the Scottish economy. Eventually, both Wishaw and Cambusnethan grew so large that the boundaries between the towns faded and both settlements became one large urban area.

Cambusnethan Priory was completed in 1820s. Mary McGill’s father, James, was a “House Painter”, this could very well be where he worked in, or similar.

Image below of the priory

Painters are known for their white uniform and legend has it that back in the late 19th century union painters adopted the all white uniform to set themselves apart from the non-union painters. This became their symbol of professionalism and they often added a black bow tie just to enhance the professional look.

Ellison was the first born sibling in 1811 and his birth record has the sex as unknown. That isn’t because they didn’t know he was a boy, the church records of Rutherglen (where they lived at the time) just didn’t record whether the child was male or female! Robert was born in 1813 followed by James in 1815, William in 1817 and John Meikle Reid in 1819. 5 boys before the girls followed, Margaret in 1821 Hannah 1824 and Mary McGill in 1827.

From the 1830’s Scotland industrialised very quickly and soon outpaced the rest of Britain, coming to be known as the ‘Workshop of the World‘. It was this rapid industrial growth that led to the mass migration of labour to the cities in search of work. This will be why Mary McGill headed to the Barony and where she met her husband.

I have no other records of Mary McGill before she was married to Robert in 1845. Mary McGill was married to Robert for 45 years and had 3 children, she lost one of her sons when he was only 11 years old. Mary was close to her 2 remaining sons, Robert & John. The census records show that Mary and Robert moved between Lanark and Glasgow for work the same as her sons, between the years of 1851 and 1881 as the men were all Iron puddlers. In the 1881 census below her son John is newly married and they are living next door!

Mary died 9 years later in Kinning Park. Kinning Park was originally a separate police burgh founded in 1871 and didn’t become part of Glasgow until 1905 (15 years after Mary died) It was the smallest such burgh in Scotland at just 108 acres although densely over populated.

Above are some pictures I have found of Kinning Park (1890) and Henderson Street (not sure of date) where Mary McGill was living when she died. Her son Robert signed her death certificate and the record shows he was also nearby.

Husband – Robert Rae

Son – John Rae