His paternal grandparents were Andrew Agnew (a son of Sir Stair Agnew of Lochnaw, 6th Baronet) and Hon. Martha de Courcy (the daughter of John de Courcy, 19th Baron Kingsale).[4] His maternal grandparents were the former Agnes Murray Elliot (a daughter of Gov.Andrew Elliot) and Sir David Carnegie, 4th Baronet.[5] The office of Sheriff of Wigtown was hereditary in the Agnew family for more than 400 years, until 1747, when the 5th Baronet was compensated £4,000 for the abolition of the office. The first three baronets successively sat for the same county in Parliament, with the 3rd Baronet also being a member of the Convention of the Estates of Scotland, summoned by William III in 1689.[6]
On 17 April 1835, he was commissioned, with the rank of Ensign, in the service of the 93rd Foot, fighting in the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1838. On 18 May 1841, he was made Captain, followed shortly thereafter by Captain in the 4th Light Dragoons on 8 July 1842.[7]
Henry de Courcy Agnew (1851–1910), who married Ethel Anne Goff, daughter of Capt. Thomas William Goff, MP for Roscommon, and Dorothea FitzClarence (a daughter of the Rev. Lord Augustus FitzClarence and granddaughter of King William IV). After his death, she married Edmund Charrington in 1911.[9]
Louisa Lucia Agnew (1852–1913), who married Duncan MacNeil in 1877.[9]
↑Townend, Peter. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 18th edition. 3 volumes.London, England: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1965-1972. p. 190.