A George Rankin was the first of our family to come to Australia. He was the son of John Rankin, a farmer, and was born at Pettigoe, Co. Fermanagh, Ireland, now Northern Ireland. His exact date of birth is not yet known, but all the available evidence indicates that it was in 1818.(Note - on his arrival in 1838 he was recorded as being "21 Years in Dec. 1837. His father's name was listed as George Rankins and his mother Jane Graham - raising the possibility that he was marries to a cousin of his. He was healthy, literate, and a Protestant.)
He came to Australia in 1838, probably on the ship John McLillian, which left Portsmouth, England, on 30th May 1838, and arrived in Sydney on the 3rd of October the same year.
(Note - the vessel George Rankin and Mary Anne Graham arrived on was actually the "Parland", which arrived on the same day in Sydney, 03 Oct 1838. I have the section of the passenger list of the "Parland" which shows George as a farmer, bound to be employed by a Mr McDuill in Sydney, at the rate of £1 1s a week plus food. See also the Surgeon's report on the "Parland" - while it does not mention them by name, it gives a valuable insight into the voyage to Australia from Ireland. - JAR)
George was already married when he arrived in Australia. His wife was Mary Anne Graham. There are 2 stories about when and where they married. Family legend says they were married at sea, by the captain of the ship in which they were travelling to Australia. The captain is reputed to have remarked, when marrying them, that they both looked so young, that he felt that he should be giving both of them a piece of bread and jam, and sending them back to their parents, rather than marrying them. Family legend also says that Mary Anne was the daughter of an Army officer who was coming to Australia on a posting to run a government store in South Australia.
(Note - the register of immigrants from the "Parland" lists Mary very clearly as a native of Sydney - so although she was coming to Sydney from Ireland, she had also been born there. I am looking for further proof of this. Her father was Charles Graham, a soldier of the 48th Regiment, who had possibly served a posting in Australia where Mary was born, before going back to Ireland. Her mother was Fanny Patterson. Mary was described as a dairywoman on her arrival in Sydney, a healthy, illiterate Protestant.)Mary Anne was 19 at the time of the voyage - she was also pregnant, as her first child, Frances, was born on 30th January, 1839.
According to George himself, he and Mary Anne were married at Drumkeeran, Co. Fermanagh, in December 1837, at which time he would have been 20 years old and she just 16. This information was recorded nearly 23 years later, on the birth certificate of Robert Charles, his last son by his second wife. (Note - this is the information I have used on the genealogy - JAR)
The discrepancies between these two stories still have to be resolved. (I also intend to research further into the background and ancestors of John Rankin, his father)
For about the first 6 years of his life in Australia, George worked as a labourer in West Maitland, and his first 3 children were born there. By June 1845, the baptismal certificate of his fourth child (also George) shows that he had acquired land at Miller's Forest, near Raymond Terrace, and was then described as a settler.
He and Mary Anne had 5 children between arrival and 1845, the last of whom (Charles) died 3 months after being born. Mary Anne is said to have been gently brought up, and apparently found the rigours of life and child-bearing too much, in the harsh colonial conditions she encountered. According to family legend, she suffered a complete mental breakdown, shortly after the birth of her last child. She was certified insane, and committed to the lunatic asylum at Hunters Hill, Sydney, where she died on the 9th of October, 1847, aged 25 or 26.
George continued to live on his farm at Miller's Forest after the death of Mary Anne. On 18th of June, 1849 he married again. His second bride was Jane Griffen Waters, a native of Glasgow, aged 18. According to her death certificate, she had only arrived in Australia earlier the same year.
Jane "inherited" the four surviving children of George's first marriage, then aged between 4 and 11 years, and soon started producing her own family. They had 7 children together, one of whom (Rebecca) drowned in the Hunter River in about 1860 when she was 2. Soon afterwards, George sold the farm at Miller's Forest, and bought another at Maiden Brush, on Brisbane Water, near Gosford. Their last child, Charlotte Elizabeth, was born there.
In 1851, Jane's sister, Helen, then aged 18, arrived in Australia from Glasgow. It is not known where she went, or what she did, immediately after arrival, but it is possible that she went straight to her sister Jane at Miller's Forest. At any rate, she married Charles Munt, at Raymond Terrace, about 1854, and they moved to the Clarence River some time later.
George and Jane had prospered at Miller's Forest, but the farm at Maiden Brush was not a success. About late 1862 or early 1863, Jane paid a visit to Helen on the Clarence River. She wrote back such glowing reports of the Clarence River country that George immediately sold the farm at Maiden Brush and moved the family up to Grafton, where he arrived in May, 1863. It seems that none of the children of the first marriage accompanied him on this move, but that is not certain.
George quickly leased a good farm on Carrs Creek, and got some crops planted. He then started clearing more land, and was killed by a falling tree, on 4th August, 1863, barely 3 months after his arrival on the Clarence.
In the story of his boyhood William Edmund Rankin (my great-grandfather) has told of Jane's desperate plight following George's death, and of the measures she took to cope with it. She married again in March 1864, to Thomas Kane, bore him four more children, and died at Grafton on 14th November, 1871, aged 40 years. For more details of the last years of her life, see William Edmund's story of his boyhood (see link above) and the paper "Grandmother Jane Rankin - Her Story So Far." (I have not managed to trace this paper - if any of the family have it please let me have a copy for this collection)In the story of his boyhood, William Edmund has also told how, at the age of 12, he obtained a job with a drover, who was taking a mob of bulls to Queensland. The drover promised to return him safely to the Clarence within 6 months, all expenses paid, but instead abandoned him in Queensland at the end of the drive.
It is believed that William Edmund got back to the Clarence from his droving trip to Queensland about 1876, and worked for a while as a tinsmith at the Ramornie Meat Preserving Works. He married Sarah Jane Austen at Grafton, on 20th April 1878, and must have moved to the Richmond River somewhere about that time. HIs first child, Robert E., was born at Tomki on 29th May 1879. He spent most of the rest of his life in the Casino district, and eventually died there on the 14th October, 1934. His movements around the Casino district, prior to the acquisition of his farm "Dalburrabin" on the outskirts of the present-day Casino, still have to be investigated, so I will leave his story at this point.
As stated above, there is no evidence that any of George's first family accompanied his move to the Clarence River, nor is anything further known about any of them, except his secon son, George. William Edmund has recorded that the younger George came to the Clarence after his father's death. He evidently stayed, for he married Anne Crowther in Grafton, on the 11th of November, 1867. They moved to Tingha, near Iverell, soon afterwards, where George met with some success in the tin industry. About 1882, he bought a farm block on the break-up of Tomki station, and moved to Casino, where he spent the rest of his life. Anne died at Casino in 1916. George also died at Casino in 1918, aged 74.
There were 13 children of this marriage, one of whom died as an infant. Most of the others are said to have left the Casino district as they grew up. (See the genealogy pages for details of all the children.) As readers will be able to see, there are many details still to be filled in before the story is complete.
W. E. (Leigh) Rankin
Kalbar
15-1-1987
Note: I have added very little to this account yet, just transcribed it, edited it very slightly to correct some small typing errors, and added links to other data and papers that I have collected. While I am in the UK I hope to trace some more details of George Rankin and his father John, and their life in Pettigoe, Ireland. I will add these details when I can - and intend to research the Australian Rankins in more detail when I get there. Most of the historical detail I have owes everything to the considerable efforts of my grandfather, the author of the above. As always, if you can add anything to this story or suggest any corrections, I'd like to hear from you.
Alex Rogers - 17/11/98
