James Seaton Reid
James Seaton Reid [1]
an eminent minister of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, was a native of Lurgan, and the twenty-first child of his parents. He was ordained minister of Donegon, July 20, 1819, from which place he removed to Carrickfergus in 1823. In 1827 he was unanimously chosen moderator of the Synod of Ulster, and in 1830 was appointed its clerk. In 1838 he was chosen professor of ecclesiastical history of the Belfast Institution. In April 1841, he was nominated for the chair of ecclesiastical and civil history in the University of Glasgow, by the crown, which position he held until his death, March 26, 1851, in the fifty-third year of his age. He is the author of History of the Presbyterian. Church in Ireland (3 volumes 8vo). Dr. Reid spent about twenty years in collecting materials for the work, and putting it into print The first two volumes were published during his life. At his death he left, in MS., about seven chapters of the third volume. Dr. W.D. Killen was chosen to finish the work, which he did, and published the third and last volume in 1853. This work is a monument of historical research, and is valued not only for its ecclesiastical history, but also for reclaiming many civil facts which would otherwise have been lost.
