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Relatives: Husband of Agnes Reid Stone Condition: Sound Material: Granite Height: 2 Breadth: 0.98 Depth: 0.45 Inscription Condition: Mint Inscription Technique: Incised Mason: W. Scott, Cathcart Pre 1855 no. N/A ( What's this? )

Monument Inscription

ERECTED BY
AGNES REID
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
HER HUSBAND
JAMES GILMOUR
WHO DIED 4TH NOVEMBER 1888
IN HIS 78TH YEAR

THE ABOVE AGNES REID
DIED 16TH JUNE 1902, AGED 81 YEARS


AT REST.

Family History

The couple commemorated on this memorial were both employed as farm servants before their marriage. Farm servants, as their title suggests, were jack-of-all-trades about the environs of the farm, able to turn their strengths and skills to most tasks. Female farm servants were often used in outdoor work particularly at harvest time and were expected to work alongside their male counterparts.

James Gilmour was born to a farm servant named Thomas Gilmour and his wife Janet Fleming in Mearns in 1812. This couple came from the village of Carmunnock and were married there in 1807. James was never to take tenancy of a farm in his own right but worked for his uncle Andrew Gilmour at Townhead Farm in the village of Newton. Townhead Farm as its name suggests was situated on the Eaglesham Road just east of Mearns Cross. The farmhouse was a stone built single storey building the farm acreage was approximately eighty-three acres in extent.

Also working at this farm as a farm servant was the woman whom James Gilmour was to take as his wife. Agnes Reid was born to John Reid, also a farm servant, and his wife Janet Watson. The marriage took place at Townhead Farm on 12th June, 1866 and was conducted by the Rev. D. MacKellar, minister at Mearns. The witnesses were Andrew Gilmour (uncle of James) and Elizabeth Russell. The groom was fifty-six years of age and the bride was forty-four years of age at the time of the marriage.

Both persons despite their undoubted hard working life survived to the advanced ages of seventy-eight and eighty-one years.