Diaries, 1838-1939, of James Rannie Swinton, artist, his wife Blanche Arthur Georgina Swinton, née Fitzgerald de Ros, and his nieces, Katherine Margaret Campbell Swinton and Alice Susan Lucy Campbell Swinton, daughters of Archibald Campbell Swinton of Kimmeringhame, author.

James Rannie Swinton was the younger son of John Campbell Swinton of Kimmerghame, Berwickshire. He studied art at Edinburgh`s Trustee`s Academy before moving to London in 1840 and enrolling at the Royal Academy schools. Later the same year he travelled to Italy, where he remained for the next three years. On his return to London, Swinton became a fashionable portrait painter, in demand particularly with society ladies.

James Rannie Swinton married Blanche Arthur Georgina Fitzgerald de Ros in 1865.