The McHardy Family of Corryhoul Website

Photographs - other family members

Sophia Pearson nee McHardy 1841 to +/-1929

Who Am I ? - Sophia was the seventh child of James McHardy and Ann Simpson of Burnside of Corryhoul. She was the grand-daughter of John McHardy and Margaret Dauney of Easter Corryhoul. She was a brother to Big Wullie, and a first cousin to Colonel Alexander MacHardy.

Big Wullie was not the only member of the Burnside family to end their days in the north-west of England. His younger sister Sophia also travelled south. Sophia was christened on 07/03/1841. The fact that she walked from Scotland to England is still talked about within her southern family. In England Sophia married William Pearson and is recorded as living in Beetham, Westmorland on the 1881 census with her husband and children, Annie, John and Sophia. Also living with them are her husband William's parents and younger brother and sister. At some point it is known that Sophia worked on the Dallam Tower Estate. Based on the information below she must have died +/- 1929.

Sophia is last recorded at home in Corgarff on the 1851 census. Her brother James spent a period in the Parish of Fintry west of Aberdeen working as a gamekeeper for Lord Sempil. James was my great great grandfather. His family can be found at Fintry on the 1861 census. Closeby at the estate home farm on the census is a 20 year old domestic servant called Sophia McHardy. Could this have been Sophia above, working on the same country estate as her brother James prior to her move to England ?

The picture and the following text is from a photocopy of an old unsorced newspaper clipping which came into my hands when the Corgarff Folk Museaum was closed.

Sophia Pearson - nee McHardy
 
"The last of the McHardys, of Burnside, Corgarff, Strathdon, in the person of Sophia Pearson, widow of the late Wm. Pearson, died last week at her home, Dunedin, Storth. She was in her 89th year and left Burnside about 62 years ago [so she was +/- 27]. There have been McHardys of Burnside without a break of seven hundred years.

The last surviving cousin of Mrs. Pearson is Colonel McHardy, New Barnes, Forfar, now in his 90th year. Mrs. Pearson's death is deeply regretted by all who knew her. She was a woman of great independence of thought, and strength of character. She had a wonderful memory and friends listened with delight to her vivid reminiscences of events occuring round Sandside and district long ago. A son and two daughters survive her."

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