James Reid (Piper) 1746

Reids from Angus and Aberdeenshire joined Lord Ogilvy’s Forfarshire regiment which joined the Jacobite army at Edinburgh in the autumn of 1745. They took part in the invasion to England and some remained as part of the ill-fated garrison at Carlisle. The regiment fought at Falkirk and Culloden. Other Reids from Perthshire joined Lord George Murray’s Atholl Men, who fought throughout the campaign. At the battle of Culloden Reids stood alongside Atholl Men & Lord Ogilvy’s regiment. Those with the Atholl Men took part in the fatal Highland charge and fought in the fierce hand-to-hand fighting with the men of the government left wing. Those in the second line supported them and tried to cover the retreat.

A number of Reids were left to guard the garrison at Carlisle when the Jacobites returned to Scotland in late December 1745. After heavy bombardment by Cumberland’s troops, the garrison surrendered and were taken prisoner.

One of the prisoners was James Reid of Alyth, Perthshire (a servant to James Smyth of Balhary), a piper in Ogilvy’s regiment. He pleaded for mercy, saying that he was just a musician. However, the court ruled that the pipes were ‘an instrument of war’ and Reid was executed in York in November 1746.

Like other Jacobite prisoners of war, Piper Reid, prisoner 2800, was tried in an English court because the authorities believed no Scottish jury would ever convict any Jacobite prisoner, which helps to put into perspective the continual parrot-cry that ordinary Scots hated the Jacobites and hailed their defeat as a great victory.

Piper Reid, after a spell in Lancaster Castle, duly went on trial at York on 2nd October, 1746. His defence claimed that he was only a piper and had never carried arms in the Jacobite cause, but he was duly found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

The English jury, itself sympathetic, recommended mercy but it was rejected by the Commission of Oyer and Terminer, headed by Lord Chief Baron Sir Thomas Parker. They ruled: ``No regiment ever marched without musical instruments such as drums, trumpets and the like; and that a Highland regiment never marched without a piper: and therefore his bagpipes, in the eyes of the law, was an instrument of war.''

James Reid was condemned and subsequently hanged then drawn and quartered. Full details of the case, which was held on the first day of the trials at York (the Geordies at Newcastle where the trials were to be held, were presumably adjudged too sympathetic to provide juries) are contained in the Baga de Secretis, in appendix two to the fifth report by the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records.

Seventy Jacobites were sentenced to death at York and were to be hanged in three batches of firstly, 13, of whom 10 were executed; and secondly 55, of whom 13 were executed. Piper Reid was in the third batch of four men sentenced to be hanged on November 15, 1746, 250 years ago.

Before the sentences were carried out, one man had died and two others had enlisted in the British Army, and were reprieved, leaving only Piper Reid to suffer alone.

What is not generally known is that another Jacobite piper, James Campbell, alias MacGregor, who served in Glengyle's Regiment, pleaded guilty at his trial in Carlisle on September 9, 1746, and was sentenced to death by the same judges. Piper Campbell/MacGregor, a native of Crieff in Perthshire, was however reprieved, possibly because he hadn't questioned the majesty of the court, and had his sentence commuted to transportation. He still tried to escape the night before he was to be put on board ship, but failed and duly vanished out of history.

Reid was one of three Pipers held at York Castle Prison. The other two were John Balantine of Lord George Murray's Regiment, and Nicholas Carr of Glenbucket's Regiment. At their trials in October 1746, they were both acquitted pleading that they had been forced into joining the Prince's army. Another prisoner at York was John Duncan, a drummer with Ogilvy's Regiment. He was captured at Carlisle and pleaded guilty at his trial. He was initially sentenced to death, but was then reprieved and transported.

There were other pipers taken prisoner and released later. Names include James Campbell, piper to Glengyle, Robert Jameson, piper to the Duke of Perth (and also Town Piper for Arbroath), John Sinclair of Ogilvie's and the unfortunate blind piper Allan MacDougall, who had marched piping straight into the hands of the enemy at the battle of Falkirk. (Ref http://glenbuchatheritage.com/picture/number407.asp)

The decision of those judges has echoed down through the generations. It was the first recorded occasion that a musical instrument was officially declared a weapon of war. For hundreds of years and many conflicts to come the bagpipes, when listed among the items captured in combat, was counted among rifles, sabers, and munitions.

It is interesting to note that bugles and drums were recorded as musical instruments, where the bagpipe ranked among the lists of weapons. This continued through the Great War. Perhaps a fitting place for the pipes, but a tragic legacy for the piper James Reid.

In 1996, after some disputes with authorities, a man known as Mr Brooks was taken to court for playing the pipes on Hampstead Heath, an act forbidden under a Victorian by-law stating the playing of any musical instrument is banned. Mr. Brooks plead not guilty by, claiming the pipes are not a musical instrument, but instead a weapon of war , citing the case of James Reid as a precedent. The unanimous verdict was that the pipes are first and foremost musical instruments returning them from a weapon of war to their rightful place as a musical instrument.

References:- S.P.D., 81-88, 79-26, 81-293, 88-124;

Scots Mag. 1746, 483-543, 485, 486; P.R., 3621-3

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