RANNIE & DUNDAS

I am attempting to trace back from Capt. David RANNIE, of Melville
Castle, d. 1764. Other dates, career history and spouse not known. He,
via two of his two daughters feature in a somewhat convoluted manner on
one of the Scottish sides of my ancestry.

CWatters...

Seems he went to India... .

web-search found...

"Letter concerning how to make a fortune in India, August 1760 from David
Rannie to Rev. Alexander Webster"

The above appears to be your David Rannie because in web-searchs cache is this
reference to the same letter....

"Scran - Letter concerning how to make a fortune in India, August 1760 ...
sent on 16 August 1760, by David Rannie of Melville in Midlothian to the
Rev. ... Who: Captain David Rannie (sender) East India Company (associated)
...
Supplemental Result - Similar pages"

A2A has...

andrew...

Colin -

Thanks for your thoughts and information. I had found the letter
concerning making a fortune, but unfortunately can not find a copy large
enough to read. SCRAN I found requires you to become a member at
somewhere about GBP 30 pa, the offer of membership I turned down.

CWatters...

Perhaps the National Library copying service...

I had forgotten about looking in A2A, well worth looking into.

Strangely enough the day I posted my query I was sent, by a non Genbrit
member, information on a number of Renny mariners of Angus, 1600 - 1700.
In addition I saw mentioned a David Rannie, mariner in Montrose, 1692.
This perhaps adds a little fuel to my thought that there may be a
possible Rannie / Renny link.

I particularly liked the entry on navigation in the Persian Gulf in the
mid C18th by Capt Rannie held at Mystic Sea Port (which is a delightful
place and well worth a visit). I posted a reference to this on a
maritime list I belong to, and was gently castigated for saying that
the Gulf was effectively unknown by European mariners at that time by a
Portuguese member, who said, quite rightly, that the Portuguese had
built a number of forts in the area a couple of hundred years before
Rannie was born. I had to tell him to take the matter up with my
ancestor, for they were his words and not mine.

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon

British Library, India Office Records: Home Miscellaneous [IOR/H/1 -
IOR/H/284]
East Indies Series - ref. IOR/H/93-190
FILE - East Indies Series 2. - ref. IOR/H/94 - date: 1755-1757
".... [Capt. David Rannie's] Narrative of the loss of Calcutta (about 4,000
words, printed in Hill's Bengal, III, 383)...."

British Library, India Office Records: Home Miscellaneous [IOR/H/605 -
IOR/H/864]
Printed papers copied for Sir George Forrest from the Madras Records - ref.
IOR/H/803-806
FILE - Papers from Bengal and Madras. - ref. IOR/H/805 - date: 1756-1785
"....Charles Douglas (6th Jan. 1758) and David Rannie (12th Jan. 1758) to
Bengal Council asking payment of Company's Bonds....."

One daughter, Elizabeth RANNIE, b.1750, married Henry DUNDAS on 6 Aug.
1765, (this making her 15 /16 y.o. on marriage).. Henry DUNDAS, 1742 -
1811, was elevated to the Peerage on 24 December 1802 as Baron Duneira
and Viscount Melville.

CWatters...

web-search suggested they may have later divorced..

The other daughter, Janet RANNIE, (no dates known), married in 1769
Hon. Archibald COCKBURN, of Cockburn, 1736 - 1820. He in turn was the
son of Archibald COCKBURN, of Cockpen, 1705 - 1748, who married in 1735
Martha DUNDAS, a daughter of Robert DUNDAS, III. of Arniston, 1650 -1726.

Just to square the circle, Henry DUNDAS, 1st Viscount Melville, was the
son of Robert DUNDAS, IV of Arniston, he being the son of Robert
DUNDAS, III of Arniston. Melville Castle was in the parish of Lasswade
which, I believe, adjoined that of Cockpen.

It is the RANNIEs that interest me at the moment, I have failed to find
anything more of the antecedents of these three. I see the name has an
historic presence on the east coast of Scotland which gives me a (very
unprofessional) thought that it may be linked with my second Scottish
family, my mother having been a RENNY.

Should anyone have any RANNIE information I would be most grateful if
they would share a morsel with me.

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon
We all maintained opinions on political subjects a little too liberal
for the dynasty of Dundas, then exercising supreme power over the
northern division of the island. Rev. Sydney Smith 1771-1854, Canon of
St. Paul's.