The Rankin Family of Essex

and my recently published book:

"Gummy's Story,
a history of the Rankin family"

Gummy was the pet name we gave to our maternal grandmother, Amabel Eliza Hilda Penny (nee Rankin). Born at Tottenham, London in 1874, she was one of the 12 children of Alfred Rankin and Emily English Cook.

Her grandfather, William Rankin (1767 to 1833) had lived and farmed at Lyons Hall, Bocking in the County of Essex, having moved there from the village of Littlebury, near Saffron Walden where his ancestors had resided since the early 1600s. In 1794, he married Elizabeth Crabb of Waltham-le-Willows and they had five children: Rebecca (b.1795), Eliza (b.1796), Mary (b.1797), William Hugh (b.1800) and Alfred (b.1808).

In addition to Amabel's many siblings she had fourteen cousins living at 'Broomhills', at Great Stambridge, in Essex, where her uncle William Hugh had, prior to his death, run a farm and watermill alongside the family home on the banks of the River Roach. My story revolves around these two large families, and also links to those of Ruggles, English, Cook, Mottram, Stock, Ingall, Penny, Crabb plus many others.

This site is intended to enable those with connections to these families to, initially, comment on the book, but also to pool their knowledge so that further information and history can be stored within its pages for the interest of all.

Martin Ingall.

This website was launched at the time of publication of my book, "Gummy's Story", in August, 2012 and was last updated on 29 October 2020.