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Reed of
Newcastle
Family tree: William Edward Reed ancestors
Mick’s Mum was born in the grandly named Arcot Hall cottages in Cramlington in Northumberland, the
eldest daughter of William Reed and his wife Martha Jackson Bell.
William was the youngest of a family of five, with parents Thomas Reed and Mary Ann nee Simpson. We
recently found that William’s older brother Thomas Simpson Reed immigrated to Australia with his
family.
Like his father and his grandfather, Thomas Reed (b 1852) was a miner. In 1901, Thomas is recorded
in the census as a rolley wayman, keeping the passage in good repair for the wagons and horses. His
mining took him to Guidepost, Choppington where some of his children were born, then later to
Longhirst Colliery. Thomas was also a local preacher of the ‘fire and brimstone’
variety.
The Reeds were all miners and most likely spoke the ‘pitmatic’ broad Geordie that everyone else
struggled to understand.
They were self-taught intelligent people.
Thomas’ parents were Edward Reed, born in 1832 in Jarrow and Isabella nee Johnson, born in Rainton
in 1832. Isabella died of phthisis (tuberculosis
) and
Edward
married his second wife only a few months after she died. He had 11 children in all—no wonder he
died of apoplexy at the age of 65!
Edward’s sister Mary Ann married John Bunn and his brother George, who had made good in Australia,
stood as sponsor for the family to travel on the ship
Northumberland
from Plymouth to Sydney in 1862. Although they moved back to England for a time, the family
emigrated once more in 1874 and this time they stayed.
Edward and Mary Ann’s parents were Thomas Reed and Barbara Nichol. Thomas died some time between
1835 and 1841 and Barbara married Daniel Gledding. Young Ralph Reed, Edward’s son, stayed with
Barbara and Daniel in 1861, just after his mother Isabella died.
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