John Reid

John Reid (1808–1841?) was a Scottish publisher, author and radical activist.

Life Born at Paisley on 2 April 1808, he was the second son of John Reid, M.D., by Jean McGavin, sister to William McGavin of Glasgow. After education mostly by his father, he was apprenticed to a firm of booksellers in Glasgow; at the end of the apprenticeship he went to London, and entered the service of Messrs. Black & Young, publishers.

In a few years Reid returned to Glasgow, where he started as bookseller and publisher on his own account. He became involved in social reform and politics, supported Polish exiles, and was one of those who wanted the Earl of Durham to lead a reconstructed radical party in parliament. His political associates included Lord Dudley Stuart, Sir Daniel Macnee the painter, William Weir who became editor of the Daily News, and William Motherwell the poet.

Reid published in 1835 a sketch of the Earl of Durham's political career. He contributed to periodicals and published Illustrations of Social Depravity, a series of booklets, Glasgow, 1834. He wrote a memoir for the Posthumous Works (1834) of William McGavin, and in 1840 published Turkey and the Turks, being the Present State of the Ottoman Empire.

Family Reid married, in 1836, Anne, daughter of Captain John McLaren, High Laws, Berwick on Tweed, with whom he had one daughter.