Pollok, Gilmour, and Company was a

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

-based timber-importing firm established in 1804 by

Allan Gilmour, Sr Allan Gilmour Sr. (October 1775 – 4 March 1849) was a Scottish-born lumber merchant and shipowner. Born in 1775, Allan Gilmour Sr. was the son of Allan Gilmour and Elizabeth Pollok. He attended the Mearns parish school in the 1780s and early 17 ...

and the brothers John Pollok and Arthur Pollok. The company soon became the leading British firm in the North American timber trade.

British North American operations

The Miramichi operations, established by

Alexander Rankin Alexander Rankin (December 31, 1788 – April 3, 1852) was a Scottish-born merchant and political figure in New Brunswick. He represented Northumberland County in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1827 to 1852. Early life He w ...

, had originally been conceived by Allan Gilmour as a means of beating

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's Continental System, which prohibited lumber exports to Britain from the

Baltic countries The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

Robert Rankin Robert Fleming Rankin (born 27 July 1949) is a prolific British author of fantasy comedy, comedic fantasy novels. Born in Parsons Green, London, he started writing in the late 1970s, and first entered the bestsellers lists with ''Snuff Fictio ...

, Alexander's brother, established another branch of the firm, Robert Rankin and Company, in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John () is a port#seaport, seaport city located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. It is Canada's oldest Municipal corporation, incorporated city, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign ...

. The Saint John branch soon became the most successful operation in Pollok, Gilmour, and Company's empire. Pollok, Gilmour, and Company was a vast North Atlantic concern which by 1838 operated 130 vessels in the timber trade – making it the largest British shipowning firm at the time – and employed no fewer than 15,000 men in its sawmills, on its wharves, and in the forests; it owned as well 2,000 horses and oxen for draught purposes. In the early 1830s the firm shipped out annually over 300 cargoes of timber.

Rankin, Gilmour and Company

A dispute among the founding partners erupted in 1837, and in 1838

returned to Glasgow to settle the dispute. Robert maintained the helm of the firm throughout his remaining years, renaming it as Rankin, Gilmour and Company, and moving the headquarters to

Liverpool, England Liverpool is a port city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population of (in ), Liverpool is the administrative, c ...

.biographi.ca: "RANKIN, ROBERT"
/ref> In order to employ its large fleet fully in the winter months, branch houses were opened in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, and

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

, where the company entered the rapidly expanding cotton trade. The diversification into cotton brought great profits, and by 1851 Rankin was a member of the Dock Committee of Liverpool.

References

Bibliography

*John Rankin,
A history of our firm: being some account of the firm of Pollok, Gilmour and Co. and its offshoots and connections, 1804-1920
', publ. 1921]

External links

Gilmour and Rankin Collection
at Harriet Irving Library, University of New Brunswick Defunct forest products companies Defunct companies of Scotland {{agri-stub