Agnes was born in Dundee, the eldest daughter of John Ramsay L’Amy. Bonny, blue-eyed, fair and slender, she had many suitors; at 24 she married Rev James, the minister of Glamis and had ten children by him. A cultured woman of similar tastes to her Perthshire contemporary song writer Baroness Nairn (The Land o’ the Leal, Caller Herrin’ and The Laird o’ Cockpen), she showed equal indifference to a poetical reputation, She actually filled four MS books with poetry and verses, but she is famous for just one published song, Neil Gow’s Farewell to Whisky., Even that appears as anonymous in nearly all collections of Scottish song. In old age, it is said, “she retained much of the buoyant vivacity of youth, and her whole life was adorned by the most exemplary piety”.