John Rankine (3) was the eldest son of John Rankine (2) and brother of George, Charles and Robert Rankine. John Rankine spent time in England as an engineer with the Easter Counties Railway Co but by 1840 he was back in Falkirk and soon in severe financial difficulties. He had not other work than managing his properties. He was a heavy drinker and in 1850 he had problems in renewing the licence for the Assembly Rooms, when he undertook to stop public dancing. In 1850 he successfully challenged the terms of his brother, George's will, which named their brothers Robert and Charles (who pre-deceased George) as beneficiaries. The will was deficient in form for Scottish heritable property and therefore John inherited the Scottish heritable property as the eldest brother