Originally transcribed as Agness Rankin
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Agnes Finnie Rankin was born in Balclutha, South Otago on 1 June 1867 – the daughter of Peter Rankin, a tailor, and Jane Crawford. (See 48 Jane Rankin)
She was appointed as a pupil teacher at Mornington School in Dunedin in 1882 and passed her final examinations in 1886.
Agnes was appointed head teacher of the small Tahakika School in the Owaka Valley in 1887. She appears to have been a popular teacher helping to organise concerts and balls in aid of the school.
Agnes played the violin and piano as well as singing. She also taught the Sabbath School at the Presbyterian Church and raised funds to buy books.
Agnes resigned in 1893 prior to her marriage and, at a local soiree, she was presented with a Singer sewing machine by the local parents, a silver tea pot by past scholars, a butter cooler and silver salt-cellar by present scholars and a black leather writing desk on behalf of friends in the district.
When she signed the suffrage petition, shortly before her marriage, she was living with her parents in Great King St, Dunedin.
She married James McCaw, a home missionary for the Presbyterian Church, on 31 March 1893 at Knox Church, Dunedin.
They had seven children and lived in Forest Hill, Pahiatua, Martinborough and Lower Hutt.
Agnes died on 8 June 1934 at Lower Hutt. Her obituary reads 'she was well known and respected. She was very active in all church circles in the Hutt, being president of the P.W.M.U., leader of the Young Women’s Bible Class, and for some time on the Home Mission Committee of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. She was also deeply interested in patriotic work during the war, and for many years worked for the Plunket Society, holding the rank of president in that organisation.'
James died in 1944, they are buried together in the Taita Cemetery, Lower Hutt.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Hutt City http://iportal.huttcity.govt.nz/
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions