Ann Hardie 1848 - 1915

Owned by Liz Hardie
Last updated: Apr 22, 2015

Ann Hardie (1848 - 1915)

Ann Hardie was born on 24 Mar 1848 at the families property in Marklemain, Prestonkirk, East Lothian, she was christened in the same parish on 16 Apr 1848. She was the eighth, and youngest child of David Hardie and Christian Black.

Ann grew up at Marklemains, and was only 8 when her father died in 1856. Little is known of Ann between the time of her fathers death in 1856 and her marriage twenty years later, however it is most likely that she continued to live with her mother Christian at Marklemains.

For women of her time, Ann married late when on 13 Jun 1876, at the age of 28 she married Thomas John Dewar in Prestonkirk, East Lothian.

Thomas John Dewar was the son of James Dewar and Janet Duncan. He was born on 5 November 1846 in Virgina USA. His family moved back Scotland in about 1856. James Dewar had apparently bought a new photographic process back from the United States to Glasgow and made a large amount of money from it. Thomas was raised a gentleman, he was educated at Glasgow University where he recieved a gold medal for his knowledge of French. When his father died - prior to 1876 - he inherited a seat on the Glasgow Stock Exchange and a number of tenement properties. At the time of his marriage, he was an accountant in Barony, Lanark, and a quite an affluent young man.

Ann and Thomas had 6 children (2 boys and 4 girls)

  • Thomas Dewar born 7 March 1877 Died 26 January 1886, age 8 years.
  • Lucy Dewar born 4 March 1878 . died in 1947.
  • Julia Dewar born 2 January 1880. died on 26 June 1953
  • Christian Black Dewar born on 8 August 1881 died on 4 November 1928
  • Hardie Dewar born on 10 July 1884
  • Annie Dewar born 7 January 1890 died July 1968

For the first few years of their marriage Ann and Thomas lead quite a prosperous lifestyle, however fate intervened. In 1878 the Bank of Glasgow failed bringing on a major economic depression. By 1881 the Dewars found themselves cash poor, but still resided in their large property - called Greenbank - in Dunoon & Kilmun Argyll, with their son and two daughters. Not long after this, the family sold the Argyll property and moved permanently to Glasgow, where they lived at 430 Argyle St, Glasyn, Glasgow, Lanark

By the mid 1880's, many banks and building societys had collapse with investors and depositors losing all their money. The family was further devastated when their eldest son Thomas died at age 8 in 1886. About this time, Thomas was the defendent in a law suit and the family found themselves in the position of having to sell everything - except their clothes, jewelry, silverware and dishes - to pay off debt.

Homeless and for all intents poor, Thomas - unaccustomed to any work other than that of a gentleman and suffering the early symptoms of the diabetes which would later kill him - found the experience very difficult. Ann's family thinking to give them a fresh start, paid for their passage to New Zealand, where two of Ann's brothers - James and Joseph - and her sister Catherine were all doing well despite the now global depression.

So in 1888 - exact date unknown - the family emigrated to New Zealand. The trip took 3 months, and it appears that at the end of it Thomas was marked worse.

It appears that upon their arrival, the family lived with Ann's brother James in Remuera. Thomas tried to get office work, but was not qualified so Ann's brother James bought them 20 acres at Omaru near Joseph Hardie in Matakohe. About this time, Ann and Thomas's youngest child Annie was born. Too ill to clear the land, Thomas worked as a gum digger, but his diabetes had gotten progressively worse, and he was suffering from extreme chills.

It was because of these chills that the family finally hit rock bottom. Thomas used to build very hot fires to keep himself warm, and some time in early May 1890 - just 4 months after the birth of his youngest child - a particularly hot fire got out of control and burned the families modest home to the ground, along with the last of their belongings - except a little jewellery that Ann had sent to James to be sold.

Joseph took in his sister and her children - who were very lucky to escape the fire - but by this stay Thomas was delusional and suffering from acute mania and dementia. After the fire, he refused to leave the property and lived on grass and maize for some time, until the police intervened, charging him with vagrancy and gaoling him.

On 23rd May 1890, Thomas was admitted to Avondale Lunatic Asylum, and not long after, Ann moved back to Auckland to live with her sister Catherine. Thomas suffered increasingly from diabetic dementia, and eventually died - most likely of a kidney infection that resulted from his diabetes - on 4 Mar 1891. He was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave on 6 March 1891 at Waikumete Cemetary in Auckland, New Zealand.

James again intervened to help his sister, purchasing passage back to Scotland for the family. And towards the middle of 1891, Ann and her 5 children left for Scotland aboard a steamer that travelled via the Suez Canal - a journey of 6 weeks.

When Ann arrived back in Scotland, it is most likely that she stayed with her brother John and his wife Jane in Edinburgh. It was here that her mother, Christian, was living out the last years of her life. Christian died in December 1891, leaving Ann an income until the baby - Annie - reached 21.

With the assistance of her brothers John and David, Ann and her family settled in a cottage in a small village on the Firth of Forth, called Limekilns, where they lived until 1895 when they moved to Dumferline. During this period Christine appears to have done charity work, and she kept a diary. The family later moved to Langside in Glasgow, where Lucy and Julia ran a dressmaking business.

In 1904, Ann and her daughters were visiting her brother John in Edinburgh, whilst there they went to an emigration exposition, where all the colonies had booths, selling the benefits of emigration. Ann's sole surviving son - Hardie - had moved to Winnipeg in Canada in 1905, where he built a house on Atlantic Avenue.

Ann - with her daughters Lucy, Julia and Annie - followed Hardie to Winnipeg in 1906. Christina Black emigrated a few years later.

Ann lived out the remainder of her life in Winnipeg, where she died on 12 January 1915 in Canada.

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