Samuel McDowell Reid (1790–1869), public official, was a native of Rockbridge County. He attended Washington College (later Washington and Lee University), studied law in Staunton, and served in the War of 1812 as an adjutant to Colonel James McDowell. Reid then returned to Rockbridge County, where he served as deputy clerk under his father, Andrew Reid, succeeding him as clerk of the county court, 1831–52, and clerk of the circuit court, 1831–58. He represented Rockbridge County in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1859–65. A trustee of Washington College from 1819 until his death, including service as secretary of the board, 1844–53, Reid was also a trustee of the Ann Smith Academy for fifty years and a member of the state’s Board of Public Works. In 1860 he owned real estate valued at $6,000 and a personal estate of $130,000. Reid died at his home in Lexington (Frederick Johnston, Memorials of Old Virginia Clerks [1888], 338–44; Washington and Lee University, Historical Papers 5 [1895]: 33–6; Washington and Lee University Catalogue description begins Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, 1749–1888, 1888 description ends , 37, 39, 66; Leonard, General Assembly description begins Cynthia Miller Leonard, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619–January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members, 1978 description ends , 471, 480, 486; DNA: RG 29, CS, Rockbridge Co., 1860; Lexington Virginia Gazette, 22 Sept. 1869; Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Express, 24, 25 Sept. 1869).

On 14 Aug. 1817 TJ had given his tenant Patrick Henry $6, of which $1 was for himself and $5 “to be pd. to the Sher. of Rockbridge for taxes past & to come” on TJ’s Natural Bridge property (MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, 2 vols., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1337).