Studying under future Hampden–Sydney College president Dr. Moses Hoge, Reid was licensed and ordained about 1808.
[2] William Reid married Clementina Frances Venable (June 6, 1782 – August 11, 1841) in 1807.
A member of one of the First Families of Virginia, Venable was the daughter Samuel Woodson Venable and Mary Scott Carrington, and the granddaughter of Nathaniel Venable (member, House of Burgesses, the Virginia House of Delegates, and a State Senator).
Clementina's father, Samuel, and uncle, Abraham Bedford Venable studied at Hampden–Sydney College and at Princeton College, and Abraham served in the U. S. House of Representatives and as a State Senator.
William and Clementina Reid had a total of thirteen children.