Robert Reid (1784 – 1837) is widely acknowledged as the creator of the modern form of the Northumbrian Smallpipes. He lived and worked at first in Newcastle upon Tyne, but moved later to the nearby town of North Shields at the mouth of the Tyne, probably in 1802. North Shields was a busy port at this time. The Reids were a family with a long-standing connection to piping; Robert's father Robert Reed (sic), a cabinet maker, had been a player of the Northumbrian big-pipes,[1] and an associate of James Allan, his son Robert was described later by James Fenwick as a beautiful player as well as maker of smallpipes, while Robert's son James (1814–1874) joined his father in the business. Robert died in North Shields on the 13th or 14 January 1837, and his death notice in the Newcastle Journal referred to him as a "piper, and as a maker of such instruments is known from the peer to the peasant, for the quality of their tone, and elegance of finish".[2] He is buried in the graveyard of Christ Church, North Shields. His wife Isabella died in 1849, of cholera.[3] There were repeated outbreaks of the disease at this time especially in the poor 'low town', near the river, where the Reids lived.
After Robert's death, James continued the business alone, in particular maintaining pipes, although there are a few sets made solely by James, who was also a piper. Robert's daughter Elizabeth, Elizabeth Oliver after her marriage, was a piper too, the first known female Northumbrian piper, and was, together with James, an informant of the Ancient Melodies Committee when they were collecting material for the Northumbrian Minstrelsy. She later wrote to J. W. Fenwick, and he stated that the set of "Dorrington Lads" was as played by Robert Reid, and his son James, also his daughter Elizabeth Oliver; in a letter to Fenwick in 1883, she said it was "most likely the same copy that poor Will Allen was trying to play when his Spirit was called Home to a more blissful rest." Given the similarity between this version and that in the William Dixon manuscript, she may well have been right. An identical version had appeared in the Rook manuscript, of 1840, suggesting that Rook learned it from the Reids, perhaps from Robert himself. As the two texts are note for note identical, despite a gap in time of more than 40 years, it can be seen that Elizabeth was a very careful informant. A complex variation set on "Maggie Lauder" in Fenwick's manuscript collection, not in his hand, is stated by him to be Mrs. Oliver's copy, 'as she had learned it from her father'. She seems to have had a significant collection of manuscript music from her father, but it is not known to have survived. A number of tunes from James Reid also appear in Fenwick's manuscript; in all there are 12 tunes there with a provenance from one or other of the Reids.[4]