Agnes Louisa Finch (1869-1952) and Robert Hardie (1866-1920).
My great-grand aunt and uncle.
Agnes spent much of her life in Scotland but was baptised on 21 November 1869 in St Matthew’s Church, Redhill, Surrey, England, the daughter of Isaac Finch and Phoebe Ann Ward.
The family lived in Chart Road and Glovers Road, Reigate, when she was young and by the 1891 Census she was working as a dressmaker, still living at home. She married Robert Hardie on 9 June 1898 at St John’s Church, Victoria Street, Edinburgh. He was living at Montgomerie Drive in Glasgow at the time, described as a butler but how and where they met is a mystery.
Robert was the son of coachman Robert Hardie Snr and Janet Bisset and was born on 21 January 1866 in Comrie in Perthshire, Scotland. Census records showed them in Forgandenny and Errol in Perthshire while he was living at home and before his marriage.
Agnes and Robert had four children and lived in Glasgow. The 1901 Census showed the family living at 1 Temple Gardens in the district of New Kilpatrick, Robert still working as a butler. In 1911 the census recorded them living at Tollcross Road in the city but Robert had become a self-employed confectioner and ice cream seller. A valuation record from 1915 recorded the family at 6 and 4 Tollcross Street, one a residence, the other a shop.
Robert could well have been a victim of the Spanish flu that raged across the world after the First World War for he died at home on 16 April 1920, the cause of death given as influenza and bronchitis. He died intestate but the value of his estate was later given as £405.
Agnes took control of the business and continued to live in Tollcross Street, as shown in the valuation records of 1925 and 1935. The Surrey Mirror reported her as one of the siblings at the funeral of her brother Jacob.
She died in Glasgow on 9 January 1952, from what was quaintly described as ‘cardiac weakness’. She was buried alongside her late husband at Sandymount Cemetery in the city.
Their children were:
- Mary Elizabeth Hardie (1899-1986). Mary was born in Glasgow on 26 August 1899 and married engine fitter and engineer Walter Carswell at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Glasgow on 28 November 1929. At the time she was working as a typist. They remained in the city, raised a family and both died in the same year, 1986.
- Chrissie Hardie (1901-1968). Chrissie was born in Glasgow on 19 December 1901, didn’t marry and lived with her mother and later her younger sister Nora, according to electoral records. She worked alongside her family as a confectioner. She died of cancer, still a resident of Tollcross Road, on 24 July 1968 in Glasgow and was buried in Sandymount Cemetery.
- Nora Elliot Hardie (1904-1963). Nora was born in Glasgow on 10 March 1904 and also remained single, living with her sister and mother in Glasgow and working as a confectioner. She died of cancer in Glasgow on 7 March 1963 and was buried in Sandymount Cemetery.
- Robert James Hardie (1906-1979). Robert was born on 19 July 1906 in Glasgow. An engineer, Robert married Margaret Winter McConnell in Blythswood, Renfrewshire, in 1935. By 1939 the couple were recorded living in Dagenham, Essex, England, where he worked for Ford and the couple raised their family. He died in hospital in Edinburgh on 13 September 1979 and was cremated on the 18th. Margaret died on 16 December 1986, her address at the time given as Ardleigh in Essex.
Sources:
Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns, Glasgow valuations and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk.
British Newspaper Archive, The Scotsman 15 September 1979 for Robert Jnr’s obituary.
Surrey Family History Centre (Woking).