Alexander Gardner, on the evidence of the 1841 census, was born in Renfrewshire c. 1786.

Alexander Gardiner and Jean Jakeson, ‘both of this parish were booked and proclaimed in order to marriage’ on 10^th December 1814 in Abbey Parish (Paisley).

He appears with his wife Jean Jackson as a farmer of Lincleve in the Paisley Abbey Parish Register in connection with the birth of lawful sons Alexander, on 21^st April 1828 and baptised on 21^st June 1828, and Matthew, born on 24^th October 1829, and baptised on the 22^nd, presumably of the following month.

The variants Lin Clove and Linclive also appear but it is clear that this location lay well to the west of the town of Paisley, within the quoad sacra parish of Elderslie.

He was still a farmer at Lincleve at the time of the 1841 census. His age was entered as 55. Resident with him were his wife Jean, 50, and his children:

Mary, 20, farm servant William, 15, agricultural labourer Janet, 15 Alexander, 10 Matthew, 10 Elizabeth, 9 John, 7.

He was also recalled as a farmer on the death certificate of his daughter, Jean Gardner.

Alexander did not appear in the 1851 census; his wife was entered as a widow. It can therefore be inferred that he died at some time between 1841 and 1851.