(17 September 1874 - 27 November 1912) (her death)
Emma Gifford met the writer Thomas Hardy in 1870 when he was working as an architect.
Hardy had been commissioned to prepare a report on the condition of the parish church of St. Juliot, near Boscastle in Cornwall. Their courtship inspired Hardy's third novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes. They didn't marry until four years later on 17 September 1874 at St Peters Church, Paddington, London. The ceremony was conducted by Emma's uncle, Edwin Hamilton Gifford, the Canon of Worcester Cathedral. The Hardys went on honeymoon to the Morton's Hotel, Queens Road, in Brighton then sailed to Dieppe and travelled by train to Rouen and Paris.