Mrs Robert Cowie (née Agnes Goudy Halcrow)

Painted by one of Dunedin’s first professional portrait artists, John Irvine, in 1864, this grand oil painting depicts Agnes Goudy Halcrow. Agnes was born in Shetland, Scotland in 1831. She travelled to Australia at some point before 1859 when she married surgeon Dr Robert Cowie in Victoria. Agnes gave birth to two children in Australia, Robert and Marion Bain. Her husband then emigrated to Otago to work as a doctor in 1861. Agnes joined him the following year, leaving Melbourne on board the Accrington. Passenger lists do not reveal whether the children were on board the Accrington but one can assume they travelled with their mother.

The family settled in Dunedin, first living in George Street before moving to Hanover Street. Agnes and Robert had an additional two children in Dunedin, Euphemia and Charles. Like plenty of settler women, little is known about Agnes’ personal life in Dunedin. The wife of a busy surgeon, one can assume she would have experienced hardship raising four children in the fledging settlement of Dunedin. Unlike most households, however, the Cowies were wealthy and so Agnes was aided by domestic help. Contemporary newspapers reveal, for example, that the family advertised for a wet nurse in 1864 - a practice for mothers on the higher end of the social ladder in the 19th century.

Agnes suffered the loss of two children in her life time. Her first born, Robert, died as a three year old in 1863. She then lost her daughter, Euphemia, aged twelve in 1883. Her husband, Robert, had died three years earlier. Agnes lived the rest of her life as a widow. Joining first wave feminists, she signed the petition for women’s suffrage in 1893. She died at her daughter Marion Bain’s home in Ponsonby, Auckland in 1916.