 Agnes attended a dame school held in a weaver's cottage and learned psalms by heart, acquired basic reading skills, but did not learn to write, not even her own name.Agnes was at first engaged to William Nelson, a ploughman, with whom she worked, but she broke off the engagement after seven years, due reportedly to an indiscretion on Nelson's part.It is thought that Agnes first met William Burnes, 11 years her senior, a market gardener by trade, at the Maybole Fair in 1756.