John Rankine

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Dianne Jones on 14th February 2021

1844, 12 June: A lengthy account of the committal proceedings was published in the Sydney Morning Herald, p2. Below is an excerpt: “COMMITTAL OF THE MURDERERS OF THE LATE MR NOBLE. “Soon after James Martin had been committed by Captain Innes, the Acting Coroner at the inquest, to take his trial for the murder of Mr. Noble, he was conveyed to gaol, and after being there a few days, he expressed a desire to communicate with Mr Keck, and made such disclosures to that gentleman as induced him, near the hour of midnight, on the 5th instant, to repair to Mr Miles, Commissioner of Police, who accompanied him to the house of a ticket-of-leave holder, named Rankin, residing on the west side of Kent-street, a few doors south from King-street, when Rankin and his son were instantly taken into custody; on being separately brought before the Chief Commissioner, they individually made the following statements, which were committed to writing.” [On 8 June] the statements of John Rankin and his son John Jnr were presented. John Rankin Snr said he had sold a pistol but no ammunition to a Joe Crossthwaite who had stopped at his home for two days in June. He denied knowing Mr Noble or that a meeting between a servant of Mr Noble’s and Joe Crossthwaite had taken place in the Rankin house. John Rankin Jnr confirmed that a pistol shown to him looked like one his father had owned. The newspaper report continued: “After the Rankins had been secured, Messrs Miles and Keck proceeded to Hyde Park Barracks and left such instructions with the porter at the gate as caused a convict named Mukohn, then in Hyde Park Barracks, to be secured and forwarded to Woolloomooloo Gaol…Soon after [George] Vigors and [Thomas] Burdett had been captured, they were forwarded to Woolloomooloo Gaol, and on Saturday last a Court was opened there before Captain Innes… “Mrs. Noble… gave the following additional testimony: The man who snapped the pistol is one of these men; my husband tried very much to hold the man who snapped the pistol; they scuffled together; my husband not being able to succeed in holding him, turned round and laid hold of [James] Martin, I have no doubt he is the man, and I believe he was the last man that entered the house and shut the door; the prisoner [George] Vigors is the man who entered the House and presented the pistol; he was the man my husband first laid hold of; I assisted my husband in detaining [James] Martin; I cannot swear as to any of the other prisoners. “Cross-examined by [George] Vigors:-I am sure you are the man who told me not to be alarmed, and held the pistol to me; I know your appearance, your voice, I know your face.” Other witnesses included Robert Malcolm, bond, per Lloyd, 14 years, who said on the Saturday before the murder George Vigors had asked him to purchase “a pistol or two” for him. Robert Malcolm bought one from John Rankin Snr and was told the second would be ready for him the next day, along with shot and caps. Robert Malcolm told Rankin Snr the pistols were for two men in Hyde Park Barracks, Vigors and Martin. The next day, Malcolm took James Martin, George Vigors and Thomas Burdett to the Rankin house to collect the firearms. Robert Malcolm continued: “As I was going away, Vigors said, ‘I have dropped my knife, it must be in the room where we were, go and look for it for me, I did so, and found it on the chair where Vigors had sat. It was a shoemaker’s knife with a wooden handle and worn at the point, I would know it again, I gave it to him. I am convinced that Rankin knew the men were going to do a robbery, he knew the men were all wrong, that is, runaways, for I told him they were, and but a short time from Norfolk Island. Rankin told the men he had an empty room, and he could have it ready for them, and would give them the key of it.” George Whitfield, a gunmaker, living in King Street, swore that Rankin Snr had purchased some percussion caps from him on Sunday 26 May. The committal hearing continued on 11 June. Among the witnesses was Henry Hynes, sergeant in the Sydney Police, who deposed: “The trousers I now produce were given to me on the 30th May, as being the trousers worn by the deceased Mr Noble when he was stabbed; there is a cut in the waistband as if pierced by a knife, the inside of the lining round the cut is saturated with blood; they were in the same state when given up to me.” Robert Malcolm was recalled, and deposed: “The knife, now produced, is the one alluded to in my statements; it is the one Vigors sent me back into the room for; that is the knife; I took it out of the chair and gave it to him.” Dr George Fullerton, who treated Mr Noble after he had been stabbed, deposed: “I consider the shoemaker’s knife to be the most likely one to have pierced the trousers, but the knife produced at the inquest was one more likely to have inflicted the wound on the liver.” James Martin’s statement followed: “On the Friday previous to the murder, Vigors proposed to me and Burdett that we should go out on Sunday and do some robbery; he also said he had a ‘place put up’ where money was to be got; it was at a Mr Noble’s in Clarence street, with a brass plate on the door. Robert Malcolm, attached to Hyde Park Barracks, received a sovereign from Vigors, for which he said he had purchased three pistols, powder, and shot; two of the pistols, with a portion of the powder and shot he said he had left with a man named Rankin, in Kent-street, in order to be ready when required. He brought the third pistol he had bought into the Barracks on Saturday, and gave it to Vigors, with some powder and shot; the shot were about the size of a pea. On Sunday when the gangs went to church, we, Vigors, Burdett, Malcolm, and myself accompanied them to the church door but did not go in; we dressed in the barracks in the clothes we were taken in, but put our slops over them, we left the slops in an old privy on Church Hill. When at Rankin’s, Malcolm, Vigors, and Rankin left the room where Burdett and I were sitting, they went into a back room or yard, on their return Malcolm said it was all right, meaning that the pistols were ready, and that we could be harboured there. It was then arranged that after the robbery was done we were to come back and stop there all that night, as Rankin said he had a place down in the back yard where he could put us away, and we would be safe from the police. Rankin fetched three half-pints of rum, one he paid for and two Malcolm, paid for. We remained there till half past six by a clock in the room where we sat. Vigors said, ‘It is high time we were off, as it is getting dark.’ It was Vigors who wrote the letter that was handed to Mr Noble; he wrote it on the Saturday night; I saw him write it; he also wrote a letter to Joe Ward (This letter to Ward, a constable in the Sydney police was written at the dictation of Burdett, who had been apprehended by Ward previous to his, Burdett’s, being transported to Norfolk Island for a robbery; it contained a request that Ward would endeavour to obtain for him, Burdett, a pass to see some of his relatives, on the Sunday of the murder. Ward received the letter on Saturday, but paid no attention to it until after hearing on Monday, in the Police Office, that Burdett was one of the men concerned in the murder, when he called to mind the letter, and handed it over the same night to Mr Miles, who has it in safe keeping for the trial.) I do not think Burdett can write. “Vigors planned the part we were each to take when we got into the house. Burdett was to have gone to the back door to prevent escape, but he did not go as the alarm was instantaneous. I was to have taken charge of the front door, and Vigors was to have bailed the people in the house up with the pistol. Vigors never said to me who put up the robbery, but he said the money was kept in a chest of drawers in the sitting room, that there was a roll of notes and several 20s packages in silver. It must have been put up by someone very well acquainted with the house. When we got to Mr Noble’s Vigors knocked at the door with his knuckles, it was opened by deceased, when Vigors handed him the letter he walked towards the light, and we all then followed him. I shut the door, before Mr Noble had time to read the letter Vigors presented the pistol, and desired him not to be alarmed, but to stand. Mrs Noble then screamed, when Vigors presented it at her, and snapped it at her. I saw it loaded, it was loaded with care, the cap exploded with such a report that I thought the pistol had gone off, and when I saw the deceased wounded in the hand, I thought the shot intended for Mrs Noble had hit her husband, as they were close together after the report. Mr Noble sprang at Vigors and seized his arm; when the pistol flew out of his hand, he then seized him by the collar and held him for a short time. It was then I am certain that the stab was given by Vigors, as he had a shoemaker’s knife on his person when he left Rankin’s house. I would know the knife again - it was much worn, and tapering to a sharp point (that is the knife). “Burdett then went over to get Vigors out of the grasp of Mr Noble, and they escaped by the back door; deceased then seized me, and I became so weak from fright, thinking the pistol had gone off, that I was unable to follow, and made very little effort to get from deceased. I never knew Mr Noble was stabbed until informed of it by Mr Miles at the watchhouse. When we were leaving Rankin’s to go to Mr Noble’s, we asked him for the two pistols left by Malcolm, but he said Malcolm did not leave them there, but if we wanted arms he could supply us, on the following Monday; he told this to Malcolm before he went away; Malcolm left us in time to meet the gang coming from church, and to go into the barracks with them. Vigors was very much vexed at being deceived by Malcolm, and that we had not each a pistol; he asked Rankin to get him a few caps, which Rankin did at some near neighbour’s house, and gave them to Vigors. Vigors had twice before absented himself on Sunday from his gang by not going into church, but joined the gang as it was returning to barracks. I remember Vigors calling to Malcolm as he was going out, ‘I have dropped my knife in the room where we were, go and look for it’; he did so and brought it to Vigors, who put it in his trousers pocket, with the handle sticking out. When he left the house to go to Mr Noble’s, I observed the knife in the same pocket; I have not seen it since.” In a further statement, James Martin said he knew Joe Crossthwaite, as they were at Hyde Park Barracks at the same time, and Crossthwaite had been with him, Vigors and Burdett at the Rankin house. “We had no conversation as to what we were about to do before him,” he said. But it was a different story with Malcolm “who most positively was the person who brought us to Rankin’s, and seemed very intimate with him…Malcolm knew we were going to do a robbery, but I do not think he knew where; old Rankin well knew we were going to do a robbery, for we spoke of it before him; and we also told him we were going to do a robbery, and would be back in about an hour and a half or two hours; the son did not know of it…” The newspaper report continued: “The prisoner [James Martin] was then sworn to the truth of the above statement. The prisoner Martin, having been committed on the day of the inquest, was remanded to his cell. The other two prisoners, Vigors and Burdett, declined saying anything, and were both committed as principals in the murder. The prisoner Rankin merely asserted his innocence, and was also committed to take his trial as accessory before the fact in the perpetration of the same murder. The prisoners were then returned to their separate cells, where they had been confined ever since their apprehension.”

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Dianne Jones on 14th February 2021

A MURDER AND ITS CONSEQUENCES: John RANKIN, as he is called in the newspapers, first enters their narratives on 12 June 1844. However, an earlier report of the murder of James Noble is included for context: 1844, 1 June: From the Maitland Mercury & Hunter River Advertiser, (Saturday) p3: “MURDER.- On Sunday evening last, about seven o’clock, three men called at the house of Mr James Noble, in Clarence-street, and on the door being opened they all entered, and while one of them presented a letter to Mr Noble, another of them locked the door, and the third, presenting a pistol at Mr Noble’s head, pulled the trigger, but it missed fire. Mr Noble instantly rushed upon the man, when one of the others stabbed him in the stomach with a knife. An alarm was given, and two of the miscreants made their escape, but Mr Noble, notwithstanding his wound, kept his hold of the man he had first seized until assistance came, when he was secured. On Monday evening, about eight o’clock, Mr. Noble died of the wound. An inquest was held on the body on Tuesday, and a verdict of wilful murder was returned against the man in custody, whose name is James Martin, an ‘invalid’ from Norfolk Island, and against two other persons unknown. On a report of the outrage reaching Hyde Park Barracks, on Sunday evening, there was a muster of the prisoners, when it was found that 25 were absent, and amongst them were the prisoner and two other Norfolk Islanders, who, as well as several others, were not reported as being absent, either at the gate, or to the police.” In its report of the same incident, the Weekly Register of 1 June, p613, said James Martin “has been about two months in Hyde Park Barracks, as an invalid from Norfolk Island.” 1844, 5 June: James Martin turned “approver”. He would testify that JOHN RANKIN had full knowledge of the intended robbery.

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Dianne Jones on 14th February 2021

1829: On arrival in NSW, John RANKINE was 53. He was married with seven children and his occupation/trade was an agent. Also on board the Layton was his son Henry Johnstone Rankine, a cabinet maker and joiner who – along with his father – was given a life sentence for “receiving stolen spoons”. John Rankine was assigned to work for a company in Pitt Street (see NSW Convict Indents, 1788-1842; Bound Indentures 1829). 1838, 1 March: John RANKINE per Layton 1829 was granted a Ticket of Leave No.38/400 for the District of Sydney. A second ToL No.41/2345 was issued on 2 October 1841, the original having been returned mutilated. A notation on the original ToL says he had petitioned for a Conditional Pardon No.44/4074 in 1844 but this, along with his ToL, was cancelled [due to his involvement in a murder case, the details of which are outlined below] (see New South Wales, Australia, Tickets of Leave, 1810-1869; Ticket of leave butts (NRS 12202), Feb 1838-May 1838).

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Dianne Jones on 14th February 2021

1776: John RANKINE was born on 2 December 1776, in Muirkirk, Ayrshire, Scotland (family records). 1800: About this time, he married Christian Stewart (born about 1780, in Muirkirk, Ayrshire, Scotland) (see https://www.myheritage.com). Between 1801 and 1821 the couple had seven children. Christian Stewart or Rankine (wife of John Rankine) was sentenced to life in Edinburgh by the Court of Justiciary for theft on 15 December 1828 (see Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Other Fleets & Ships, 1791-1868; 1829-1830). 1828, 15 December: In the Edinburgh Court of Justiciary, John, Christian and their son Henry Rankine were convicted for theft and sentenced to transportation for life. Trial papers – relating to Peter Monteath, Henry RANKINE [son of John and Christian], John RANKINE, Christian STEWART or RANKINE and Charles Hendry for the crime of theft – provide more details of the crime (see National Records of Scotland site): “Libelled that the pannels broke into the house of Elizabeth White or Renny in Whyte’s or Taylor’s Close, Falkirk, and stole a great number of articles stored in drawers, desks, chests and trunks and also ‘two dozen bottles of homemade wine of a sweet or sweetish taste’. First day of trial: 15th December 1828, Charles Hendry failed to appear and declared a fugitive. Plea: Henry Rankine pled guilty of housebreaking; John Rankine and Christian Stewart pled guilty of reset of theft. Verdict: Guilty in terms of own confession. Sentence: Transportation for life. Papers include: Indictment; declarations of accused including Peter Monteath who was indicted to appear at the circuit court in Stirling with the other pannels during the Autumn Circuit [see JC26/1828/186]; list of assize; printed reward notice referred to in the declarations of Elizabeth and Isabella Renny, dated Falkirk 29th April 1828: ‘Reward of Twenty Guineas. Daring and Extensive Robbery’; list of articles belonging to Miss Renny stolen from her mother’s house; trial executions” (see http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/, JC26/1828/464). Of the five accused, Crown Office Precognition records for 1828 provide the following information: Peter Monteath, Age: 24, carter, Address: Falkirk, Stirlingshire Charles Hendry, Age: 27, clothes broker, Address: New Wynd, Glasgow Henry RANKINE, Age: 19, apprentice wright, Address: Laurieston, by Falkirk, Stirlingshire John RANKINE, Age: 50, merchant, Address: Laurieston, by Falkirk, Stirlingshire [Note: Family records give his year of birth as 1776.] Christian RANKINE, wife of John Rankine, merchant, m.s. Stewart, Age: 48, Address: Laurieston, by Falkirk, Stirlingshire (see http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/, Reference AD14/28/10).

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Dianne Jones on 14th February 2021

OCCUPATION: On Edinburgh Court records he is listed as a merchant, but appears as an agent on the Convict Indents, and, finally, he calls himself a carpenter and agent in his Conduct Record for Van Diemen's Land (see New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents, 1788-1842; Bound Indentures 1829).