The 1871 Census for East Cowes listed John McPherson as Assistant Land Manager, living in Arthur Cottage, a large Italianate house in East Cowes, with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Elizabeth. On the 3rd of May 1871, however, the Queen wrote to her eldest dauqhter, the Princess Royal:
          Good old Toward tho' better is obliged to retire, . . . He will be succeeded by McPherson who has been here for nearly 6 years as Gardener but intended for this, for he was Land Steward to a gentleman in England for 11 or 12 years. He & his wife are very nice people.

 
      By the 12 July 1871 the McPhersons had moved into Andrew Toward's former home, Barton Manor Farmhouse, the estate farm near Whippingham -- one of the farms acquired by Queen Victoria soon after purchasing Osborne House and its policies in 1844 -- where the Queen visited them that day. Barton Farm was Prince Albert's *'model farm*' where he had tried out all the latest advances in farming technology of the Victorian era up to his death in 1861.