 Agnes is recorded to have had a major role in cultivating the family's five acres at Alloway's New Gardens, keeping poultry, growing vegetables and making cheeses using milk from her four or so cattle the family kept.When Agnes's husband William Burnes died aged 62 in 1784 she went to live with her son Gilbert, at Mossgiel, until 1798 and then lived at Dinning in Nithsdale for two years before they moved to Grant's Braes, East Lothian.Agnes died aged 87 and is buried in the churchyard in Bolton Parish Church, Bolton, East Lothian.