Introduction - General Background



Records show that families of the name Rankin were known to be farming in Glencoe in 
Argyll in the early 1600's amid the McIan's (a sept of the Clan McDonald).  The glen 
achieved notoriety in 1692 when the Massacre of Glencoe took place and the glen became 
known as the Glen of Weeping.  According to John Prebble's book "Glencoe", the first 
person to die at the hands of the Campbells was a Rankin.  However some must have 
escaped through the snow across the hills because through the next 150 years the number 
of Rankin's grew over an area of Argyll and Inverness-shire stretching initially from 
Glencoe in the south to Inverness in the north and out to the islands in the west.  The bulk 
of this history is based around this area.  Of course, in more recent times, freedom of 
movement has caused people to migrate and the family is now truly global in extent.  In 
fact, for the whole of the nineteenth century, this family was centered around 5 adjoining 
parishes stretching the length of the Great Glen.  In the twentieth century, the family 
became more global as it is today.

The story covers the approximate period of 1775 - 2000.  Although some information is 
available prior to this date, it has not yet been possible to verify completely certain 
elements of the data.  The main hiatus centres around the parents of John Rankin.  His 
story is fairly complete ending in his early death in the Peninsular War in 1809 but, until 
the lineage can be proved, the detailed story will start with him – although some 
information on his parents has been included for completeness.  It is interesting to note 
that John Rankin Snr appears to have been born only about 10-15 miles across the hills 
from Glencoe and was born about 50 years after the Massacre.  This adds credence to the 
belief that the family originate there although records are rather scarce.

The occupations in the family move from the military in at least 2 generations in the 
turbulent 18th Century through the more rural (farming and stone masons) in the 19th 
Century to predominantly professional in the 20th Century.  Linguistically, the family also 
changed from predominantly Gaelic speaking to English speaking.  The last bilingual 
families were those at the end of the nineteenth century – the last bilingual family member 
was Andrew Rankin who died in 1980. 

All the data shown has been obtained from National Census data, birth certificates, 
marriage certificates, death certificates and from headstones in various graveyards. Data 
on the descendants of Angus Rankin and those of Marjory Rankin (Hessling) was supplied 
by Henry Rankin and Eleonora Budden respectively. 

It is of course as yet incomplete but as information is gathered it will be expanded – 
backwards into history, outwards to include other branches and, if future generations take 
up the challenge, forwards into new generations.