Robert Rankin

Rankin, Robert

Rankin, Robert, timber merchant, shipowner (b in parish of Mearns, Scot 31 May 1801; d in Cheshire, Eng 3 June 1870). Rankin served in the office of Pollok, Gilmour and Co of Glasgow and in 1818 was selected to go out to the firm's Miramichi, NB, branch where he won recognition as a shrewd bargainer and advocate of the establishment of further branches, including one at Saint John. Under him, by 1838, the company operated 130 ships in the timber trade and employed 15,000 men in its sawmills. That year he bought out Allan Gilmour and reconstructed the firm, moving its head office from Glasgow to Liverpool, Eng, its name now being Rankin and Gilmour. He was the leading figure in the Anglo-Canadian timber and shipping trade of his time.