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Anne Rankine was the youngest daughter of a tenant farmer, John Rankine from Adamhill Farm that lay two miles from the Robert Burns's family farm at Lochlea. She married John Merry, an inn-keeper in
Retrieved : 2012-10-15
She maintained she was the Annie of 'The Rigs o' Barley' although she married in the same year that the song was written. She was sometimes escorted by Burns to her father's house, from festive gatherings in the neighbourhood. The poet was said to have been passionately fond of her and indeed he made her a gift of a lock of his hair and one of the miniature paintings of himself which she treasured all of her life, together with the song.Hill, Page 30 Burns himself is silent on the matter of the identity of the heroine.
The poet wrote ''"The Rigs o' Barley"'' quite early in his career with the chorus:
The song starts :
The song ends with:
It is said that Anne met the poet soon after the song was published in 1782 and said to him that she had not expected to be celebrated in print, to which he replied ''"Oh ay, I was just wanting to give you a cast among the lave!"''
In 1817 she was asked if she remembered nights with Burns among the rigs o' barley and she said ''"No!"'', adding however that ''"I mind o' many a happy night wi' him, though."''
Cumnock
Cumnock (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cumnag'') is a town and former civil parish located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water. There are three neighbouring housing projects which lie just ...
on 29 December 1782,Mackay, Page 72 and is buried in Cumnock
Cumnock (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cumnag'') is a town and former civil parish located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water. There are three neighbouring housing projects which lie just ...
old churchyard. She maintained she was the 'Annie' of Robert Burns
Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...
' song 'The Rigs o' Barley', however some maintain that she was merely trying to encourage business at their inn at Cumnock
Cumnock (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cumnag'') is a town and former civil parish located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water. There are three neighbouring housing projects which lie just ...
. Her father was brother-in-law to John Lapraik
John Lapraik (1727 – 7 May 1807) was a Scottish farmer and poet, and friend of Robert Burns.
Life
The family name is derived from the French 'Laprivick' or 'Lekprevick' and the first of the Scottish branch had accompanied Mary Queen of Scots to ...
the poet.Purdie, Page 19
Life and character
As stated, Anne was the daughter of a tenant farmer, a friend of Robert Burns, who is described by him as ''"rough, rude, ready-witted Rankine"''. She married an inn-keeper, John Merry, who died in 1802 and thereafter she ran the inn herself until she died in 1843, aged 84.Boyle, Page 1 Burns lodged at the inn in August 1786, four years after the song was written.Traditional Scots SongsRetrieved : 2012-10-15
Association with Robert Burns
She maintained she was the Annie of 'The Rigs o' Barley' although she married in the same year that the song was written. She was sometimes escorted by Burns to her father's house, from festive gatherings in the neighbourhood. The poet was said to have been passionately fond of her and indeed he made her a gift of a lock of his hair and one of the miniature paintings of himself which she treasured all of her life, together with the song.Hill, Page 30 Burns himself is silent on the matter of the identity of the heroine.
The poet wrote ''"The Rigs o' Barley"'' quite early in his career with the chorus:
Micro-history
The rigs referred to in the song were the traditional drainage system which was based on dividing fields into ridges around three feet high, and then ploughing them from end to end, the resulting furrows then drained excess water from the land above it, here planted with corn.See also
*Jean Armour
Jean Armour (25 February 1765 – 26 March 1834), also known as the "Belle of Mauchline", was the wife of the poet Robert Burns. She inspired many of his poems and bore him nine children, three of whom survived into adulthood.
Biography
Born in ...
*Lesley Baillie
Lesley Baillie (1768–1843), later Mrs Lesley Cumming, was born at Mayville, Stevenston, Ayrshire. She was a daughter of Robert Baillie and married Robert Cumming of Logie, Moray. Her lasting fame derives from being Robert Burns's 'Bonnie Lesle ...
*Alison Begbie
Alison Begbie, Ellison Begbie or Elizabeth Gebbie (1762–1823), is said to have been the daughter of a farmer, born in the parish of Galston, and at the time of her courtship by Robert Burns she is thought to have been a servant or housekeeper ...
* Nelly Blair
* May Cameron
*Mary Campbell (Highland Mary)
Mary Campbell, also known as Highland MaryBurns Encyclopedia
Retriev ...
*Retriev ...
Jenny Clow
Janet, Jennie or Jenny Clow was a domestic servant to Mrs Agnes Maclehose, née Craig (1759-1841), the Clarinda to Robert Burns' Sylvander.Jean Gardner
*
Jean Glover
Jean Glover or Jennifer Glover (1758–1801) was a Scottish poet and singer. She was the daughter of James Glover, handloom weaver and Jean Thomson, born in Townhead, Kilmarnock; was well educated for the time she lived in, clever and sharp-wi ...
*Helen Hyslop
Helen Hyslop, also Nelly or Ellen Hyslop was a 'noted local beauty' in Moffat and a strong local tradition maintains that Robert Burns was for some time a great admirer of her and that she had an affair with him. A daughter, also Helen, is said t ...
*Kate Kemp
Kate Kemp of Barskimming lived with her father at the Bridge House on the northern side of the single span Barskimming Old Bridge (Barskimming Auld Brig), River Ayr, Scotland. Both Robert Burns and James Andrew, the miller at Barskimming Mill, ...
* Nelly Kilpatrick
*Jessie Lewars
Jessie Lewars also known as Mrs. James Thomson,Westwood, Page 1 was the youngest daughter of John Lewars, a supervisor of excise. Following the death of her 69-year-old father in 1789, Jessie was only 11 years old, when she and her brother John ...
*Elizabeth Paton
Elizabeth "Betsey" Paton or later Elizabeth Andrew of Lairgieside (1760 – c. 1799) was the daughter of James Paton and Eleanor Helen Paton of Aird Farm, Crossroads, Ayrshire. Following an affair with Robert Burns she gave birth on 22 May 1785 ...
*Isabella Steven
Isabella Steven or Tibbie Stein was the daughter of a tenant farmer from Littlehill or Little Hill Farm (NS467305) that adjoined the Burns's farm at Lochlea.Boyle, Page 86 'Stein' is an alternative form of the surname 'Steven'. Littlehill had th ...
*Peggy Thompson
Margaret "Peggy" Thompson, later Margaret Neilson, was the housekeeper at Coilsfield House or Montgomery Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland. She married John Neilsen of Monyfee. The couple lived at Minnybae Farm near Kirkoswald. She was the 'charming ...
References
;Notes ;Sources # Boyle, A.M. (1996). ''The Ayrshire Book of Burns-Lore.'' Darvel : Alloway Publishing. . # Hill, John C. Rev. (1961). ''The Love Songs and Heroines of Robert Burns.'' London : J. M. Dent. # Mackay, James (2004). ''A Biography of Robert Burns. Edinburgh : Mainstream Publishing''. . # Purdie, David; McCue Kirsteen and Carruthers, Gerrard. (2013). ''Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia''. London : Robert Hale. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Rankine, Anne Robert Burns 18th-century Scottish women 1843 deaths