Author: Ranken, William
Biography:
RANKEN, William (fl 1812)
No records that can be conclusively linked to this author have been found. The title page designates him of Leven, Fife, and the poems emphasise his connection to Leven. He was a member of Elgin’s Masonic Lodge, Leven. He seems to have been a ploughman, and one poem refers to being “immured” by poverty. The preface says he has a “helpless family” to support. The 1861 Census records a William Ranken, born in Lasswade in 1780, who is living in Edinburgh with his wife Mary and is a “pauper, formerly ploughman”—it is just possible this is him. One of the poems, “The Bonnie Lass of Levenside,” was written by David Drummond of Crieff although his name is not given in the book. Drummond worked near Leven until 1812 when he moved to Calcutta. (ancestry.co.uk 27 Aug. 2020; MSM [for Drummond]) SR