Robert Rankin (May 31, 1801 - June 3, 1870) was a timber merchant and shipowner. He contributed greatly to the amazing growth of the shipbuilding and timber trades in 19th century Canada.[1]
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He was born May 31, 1801 to James Rankin and Helen Ferguson at Mearns, Renfrewshire, Scotland. Between 1807 and 1813 Rankin received a good general education in Scotland.
In 1815 Rankin joined the office staff of the timber-importing firm, Pollok, Gilmour and Company. The firm had been founded in Glasgow in 1804 by Allan Gilmour, Sr. and Rankin's uncles John Pollok and Arthur Pollok. Rankin's elder brother, Alexander, had served it since 1806. On December 15, 1816 he was transferred to the head office in Glasgow, where he soon gained the approval of Arthur Pollok through his competence as book-keeper and accountant, and was appointed cashier of the firm at age 16.
Young Rankin was clearly regarded as a "coming man" in the firm, and a possible future partner. He soon gained a reputation as a skilful administrator and a shrewd bargainer with timber contractors. He was transferred to Miramichi in 1818. In 1820 he made a "prospecting trip" to the Saint John River to assess the timber of the area and recommended to the head office that another branch-firm be founded at Saint John.
Rankin's career as an independent entrepreneur began early in 1822 when Pollok, Gilmour, and Company decided to set up the branch-firm in Saint John that Rankin had recommended. He had made an arduous overland journey from the Miramichi to Saint John in the spring of 1821 to transfer his capital in bullion form, but on arrival decided that the time was not quite ripe for commencing operations.
A year later, however, he judged correctly that there would be a new timber boom and set up the firm of Robert Rankin and Company in Saint John. Within ten years, by his shrewdness in purchasing timber and dealing in imports of foodstuffs and lumbering stores, he made this branch-firm the most prosperous and successful of the Pollok, Gilmour, and Company enterprises, which also flourished in Bathurst, Chatham, Montreal, Quebec, Restigouche County, and on the Miramichi.
On March 17, 1829 he married Ann, daughter of John Strang, a prominent Scottish merchant of St. Andrews, New Brunswick.
By 1830 Robert Rankin was regarded as the leading shipowner and timber merchant of Saint John. He became the guiding intelligence in the colonies of Pollok, Gilmour, and Company, a vast concern which by 1838 operated 130 vessels in the timber trade, making it the largest British shipowning firm. At Saint John, Rankin had added 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. His success in Saint John was so great that by the early 1830s he was even influencing affairs in the head office in Glasgow.
His plans were altered by a crisis in the affairs of the firm in Glasgow in 1837, following a bitter quarrel among the founders. Since all parties considered that only Rankin could settle the dispute and take the leadership of the over-all concern, he left Saint John in the summer of 1838 with his wife and family. In Scotland he speedily arranged to buy out Gilmour for £150,000 and to reconstruct Pollok, Gilmour, and Company. Rankin, his brother Alexander, and Allan Gilmour Jr. of the Quebec branch now became the controlling partners.
At Rankin's instigation, the head office was moved from Glasgow to Liverpool, to take advantage of the greater commercial opportunities there, particularly in the lumber trade, and a new subsidiary firm was established under the name of Rankin, Gilmour, and Company. In order to employ its large fleet fully in the winter months, branch houses were opened in New Orleans and Mobile, where the company entered the rapidly expanding cotton trade.
By 1851 he was a member of the Dock Committee of Liverpool, the "inner ring" of influential merchants and shipowners. He had purchased the large estate of Bromborough Hall in Cheshire, where he engaged in cattle breeding and other rural pursuits.
In 1857 he toured Canada and the United States with his family and was accorded what has been described as "an almost Royal reception" in many places, particularly in New Brunswick. Until his death in 1870, he remained in active control of the Pollok-Gilmour-Rankin "empire." His 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. In 1865 he set up his son James as a country gentleman, buying for him two large estates in Herefordshire.
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 Atlantic cable in the 1850s and 1860s. Early in 1869 his health began to fail, and despite a long Mediterranean trip the decline continued. The death of his daughter, drowned in Menai Strait, in August 1869, was a crushing blow to Rankin, who had already lost four of his seven children through childhood illnesses. He died the following June at Cheshire, England.