Robert Rankin (31 May 1801 - 3 June 1870), the son of James Rankin and Helen Ferguson, and brother to Alexander Rankin, was a Scottish timber merchant and shipowner. His uncles, John Pollok and Arthur Pollok, were co-founders of Pollok, Gilmour and Company.
Rankin was born at Mearns, Renfrewshire, Scotland. Having obtained a good general education in Scotland, he joined Pollok, Gilmour and Company in 1815, and in 1818 was transferred to Miramichi, New Brunswick.
In 1822 he set up a branch firm, Robert Rankin and Company, in Saint John, New Brunswick. This branch became the most prosperous and successful of the Pollok, Gilmour, and Company enterprises.
By 1830 Rankin was Saint John's leading shipowner and timber merchant. Rankin had added there to his lumbering concerns the building of ships and the importing of textiles, foodstuffs, and building supplies on a large scale – reputedly for more than half of the numerous merchants in the town.
In 1838 he returned to Scotland in order to lead the reorganisation of Pollok, Gilmour, and Company, whose founders had fallen out. He renamed it Rankin, Gilmour, and Company, and moved the headquarters to Liverpool. By 1838 his firm operated 130 vessels in the timber trade – making it the largest British shipowning firm – and employed no fewer than 15,000 men in its sawmills, on its wharves, and in the forests; it owned as well 2,000 horses and oxen for draught purposes. In the early 1830s the firm shipped out annually over 300 cargoes of timber. In order to employ its large fleet fully in the winter months, branch houses were opened in New Orleans, and Mobile, Alabama, where the company entered the rapidly expanding and very profitable cotton trade. Rankin's prestige in Liverpool can be judged by his election in January 1862 as chairman of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, described as “the highest honour Liverpool has to bestow.” He maintained control of this business empire until his death at the age of 69.
In his later years Rankin’s public benefactions were numerous. He funded mechanics’ institutes, temperance societies, and orphans’ homes, and he contributed several large sums for the laying of the first Transatlantic telegraph cable in the 1850s and 1860s.
On 17 March 1829 he married Ann, daughter of John Strang, a prominent Scottish merchant of St. Andrews, New Brunswick.
Early in 1869 his health began to fail. The death of his daughter, drowned in Menai Strait, Wales, in August 1869, was a crushing blow to Rankin, who had already lost four of his seven children through childhood illnesses. In 1865 he had established his son, James, as a country gentleman, buying for him two large estates in Herefordshire. James was later created 1st Rankin baronets, of Bryngwyn in 1898.
Rankin died in June 1870 at Bromborough Hall, Cheshire, England.
According to his biographer David S. MacMillan, Rankin contributed greatly to the amazing growth of the shipbuilding and timber trades in 19th century Canada. [1]
Richard Hutchison was a New Brunswick businessman and political figure. He represented Northumberland in the House of Commons of Canada as a Liberal member from 1868 to 1872.
Sir James Rankin, 1st Baronet JP DL was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
Robert Rankin is a British science fiction and fantasy author.
Alexander Rankin was a Scottish-born merchant and political figure in New Brunswick. He represented Northumberland County in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1827 to 1852.
Joseph Cunard was a merchant, shipbuilder and political figure in New Brunswick. He represented Northumberland County in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1828 to 1833.
John Ferguson was a timber merchant and political figure in New Brunswick, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Council of New Brunswick from 1864 to 1867. Ferguson was called to the Senate of Canada for the Bathurst, New Brunswick division in 1867 and served until his death in 1888.
James Gilmour was a prominent Scottish-born entrepreneur, farmer, school trustee, justice of the peace, militia officer, and co-founder of both Douglastown, New Brunswick, and Gilmour, Rankin & Co.
Thomas Leavitt (1795–1850) was a Canadian businessman and banker who was the early president of the Bank of New Brunswick in his native Saint John, New Brunswick. Leavitt was also a diplomat, politician and powerful Canadian businessman with interests in the shipping industry.
Pollok, Gilmour, and Company was a Glasgow-based timber-importing firm established in 1804 by Allan Gilmour, Sr and the brothers John Pollok and Arthur Pollok. The company soon became the leading British firm in the North American timber trade.
Allan Gilmour was a businessman. He worked for a firm established by his uncle Allan Gilmour Sr.
Allan Gilmour Sr. was a Scottish-born lumber merchant and shipowner.
William Imrie was a Liverpool shipowner who owned the White Star Line. He was once known as "the Prince of Shipowners".
The Ottawa River timber trade, also known as the Ottawa Valley timber trade or Ottawa River lumber trade, was the nineteenth century production of wood products by Canada on areas of the Ottawa River and the regions of the Ottawa Valley and western Quebec, destined for British and American markets. It was the major industry of the historical colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada and it created an entrepreneur known as a lumber baron. The trade in squared timber and later sawed lumber led to population growth and prosperity to communities in the Ottawa Valley, especially the city of Bytown. The product was chiefly red and white pine.The Ottawa River being conveniently located with access via the St. Lawrence River, was a valuable region due to its great pine forests surpassing any others nearby. The industry lasted until around 1900 as both markets and supplies decreased, it was then reoriented to the production of wood pulp which continued until the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Sir Robert Rankin, 1st Baronet was a Liverpool shipbuilder, and British Conservative politician, who was elected a Member of Parliament for Liverpool Kirkdale in 1931 until 1945.
James Mangles was an English merchant and politician.
Robert Sellar emigrated from Scotland in 1853 and became a prominent merchant in Melbourne,
John Lindsay was a South Australian businessman and politician.
Fusi Yama was a composite barque ship of roughly 556 tons, built in 1865 by Alexander Stephen & Sons at Glasgow for Killick Martin & Company, London.
James Finlay & Co was formed in 1750 and under the leadership of Kirkman Finlay became one of Scotland's leading cotton manufacturers and merchants. In the 1860s the firm came under the control of John Muir and diversified into Indian tea plantations. The cotton business was eventually closed and, after an unsuccessful period of diversification, Finlay concentrated on its core interests of tea and other agricultural produce. In 2000, the firm was acquired by John Swire & Son.
John Mitchell (1786–1881) was a Scottish merchant and ship owner in Glasgow, known as "the Father of the Glasgow Town Council".