AGNES WATSON (nee Kedslie)
This section overlaps with that of Alexander.
Agnes Kedslie married Alexander Scott Watson. She was from the Scottish Borders, an area where he too originated. Together they emigrated to Poland. While I know quite a bit of the circumstances their and much about two of their 8 children, I know very little about her.
There are some clues though.
In her book Agents of Change - Scots in Poland 1800 - 1918, Mona Kedslie McLeod mentions them marrying before leaving Scotland. Her cousin Andrew had emigrated in the early 1820s and her brother Alexander in 1829.
The author, herself descended from Garvies who also left Scotland for Poland, has a family link to the Kedslies and has Kedslie as her middle name.
Mona mentions that surviving Kedslie notebooks suggest that the family network was close both with the Kedslie and Watsons and contact maintained between the engineers and metallurgists. While her book has been compiled predominantly by documents inherited from her Garvie family, Kedslies and Watsons get mentioned often.
See Kedslie Alexander for her father and family.
Again quoting her book : By the second half of the century an education pattern had been established amongst the more successful. Daughters were taught ay home by relatives or a governess and were expected to become fluent in four or five languages. Several had 'positions' in aristocratic families. Peter Garvie's sister Margaret was in London with Countess Potocki in 1847 and Agnes Stevenson and Agnes and Catherine Kedslie were all employed as companions to 'young ladies' who seemed to spend winter in their town houses in Warsaw and summers in their own or their relatives' homes in the country.
The photo below of Agnes Kedslie in Warsaw is from my inherited collection. It is labelled as "cousin" presumably because it had been in someone else's collection. I have an almost identical one of Agnes Stevenson, also labelled "cousin" and from the same album (loose page), but do not know the relationship.
Further on it is noted that in 1865 Catherine was reluctantly released from employment to look after the Zyrardow household after the death of her sister Jane. Agnes Kedslie remained in employment until retirement. Considering that Agnes Kedslie would have been married at the time of arrival in Poland, was now Agnes Watson and had had 7 children, this is a considerable time to be so employed. She would be getting on and was by no stretch of the imagination simply a young woman employed as a companion to the young women of a aristocratic or wealthy family.
I wonder if this was due to the difficult economic times the family was experiencing. [Compare this to the live-in companion role that Daisy Crawford had in Belfast - my maternal side].
When looking at the photos in the inherited album of Poland, we need to be sure who is who as the names may be common to more than one person and the photos may cover considerable time. Also labels added well after the time, may be wrong.
Agnes Kedslie senior. This is Alexander's spouse's mother.
Agnes Kedslie junior. She was to marry Alexander Watson.
Alexander and Agnes have 7 children :
- James Watson Watson n 5th April 1835 Poland - my great grandfather
- Andrew Kedslie Watson n Poland; ob March 1836
- Alexander Skirving Watson n 17th June 1837 Poland; ob 29th November London - developed the dispensary in Hong Kong
- Agnes Catherine Watson n 27th December 1888; ob Lerwick 17th October 1913. She married Robert Thomas Charles Scott of Melby, Shetland
- Thomas Talbot Watson n 29th August 1840 Poland; ob 10th November 1911
- Janette Marion Watson n Poland; ob 18th September 1843
- Alice Harriet Watson n Poland
