The Family of James Rankin (1803 - 1873)

James was born in 1803, the son of a soldier who was shortly to die while serving in the Peninsular War.  In February of 1829, he married Catherine Noble in the parish of Dores (on the south side of Loch Ness).  She was born in December 1805 and her parents farmed in that area.  On James death certificate, his occupation was stated as a stonemason.  Indeed he probably did initially earn his living as a mason in his earlier life but by 1851 he was farming a smallholding (9 acres) at Erchite Wood with the help of 3 of his sons.  He was still farming there in 1861 but seems to have moved into Inverness shortly after - probably after Catherine died in December 1861 having suffered from the palsy for 16 years.  James died in Inverness in 1873 some 2 years after a stroke had paralysed him.

They had 4 children - Andrew, Angus, James and John.  Although at the time of their subsequent death, both Andrew and John were shown as stonemasons like their father, John initially worked on his father's smallholding as did James and Angus.  By 1861 however the farm had reduced in size to only 6 acres and although James, Angus and John still lived at home, they were by that time employed as masons.  James became a grocer in Queen Street in Inverness and died shortly after his father at the age of 38 from an unspecified pulmonary disease.  Andrew moved initially a short distance along Loch Ness and continued to be employed as a mason.  Angus moved to the other end of the Great Glen and settled near Fort William where he had a small arable farm.  John remained unmarried and finally lodged with a distant cousin before he died in Inverness Poorhouse on December 31, 1889 after suffering a stroke.