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William Henry Reid

Canadian politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ8012129
Source-derived summary

William Henry Reid (1846–1912) was an Ontario farmer and political figure. He represented Durham West in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1894 to 1898 as a Conservative-Protestant Protective Association member and then from 1898 to 1902 as a Conservative member.

Biography

He was born in Clarke Township, the son of William Reid, an immigrant from Ireland. He was educated in Clarke and Newcastle. Reid served as a member of the township council for Clarke from 1889 to 1894. He married Margaret Mulligan. Reid later served as governor for Cobourg jail.

His son Albert ("Bert") went on to serve as reeve for Clarke Township and warden for the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham.

External links

Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history

Gemmill, J.A., ed. (1897).

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “William Henry Reid” as canadian politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Henry and Reid.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1846, 1912, 1894, 1898—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1846. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with William, Henry and Reid providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “William Henry Reid”, the useful work is to connect “canadian politician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8012129. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1846, 1912, 1894 and 1898.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Henry Reid”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Henry Reid primary sources, William Henry Reid archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Henry Reid”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from William Henry Reid” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.