Uncaught TypeError: no method ‘responsiveSlides’

I’m trying to implement the responsiveSlides plugin on a WordPress theme. I’ve got the necessary css, jquery and javascript files linked and in the order below and there are no other jquery/javascript plugins.

<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/responsiveslides.css" />
<script src="<?bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/responsiveslides.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

And then I included a script tag calling the function to initiate the slideshow but got the error

<script>
$(function () {

  $("#slider").responsiveSlides({
    maxwidth: 800,
    speed: 50
  });

});

Uncaught TypeError: Object [object Object] has no method
‘responsiveSlides’

I replaced “responsiveSlides” with “Hide” to test if jquery is working and it did. It appears that I have all the necessary files linked (responsiveSlides.min.js…etc) as shown in the browser developer tool and in the proper order. Not exactly sure why this is not working. If you can provide any pointer it is much appreciated.