Hanna family genealogy

Of Ireland and Scotland

Arms: Ar. three roebucks’ heads az. collared or, with a bell pendant thereat gu. Crest: (Scotland) A cross crosslet fitchée issuing out of a crescent sa.; (Newry, Ireland) Hands clasping couped at the wrist sa.; (London) A wolf’s head erased sa. Other Crests: (Dublin Wills) A lion ramp. couped, his dexter paw resting on a cross crosslet fitchée; (Newry Will) A scallop shell. Mottoes, of the Kirkdale, Grennan, Knock, Cairnhill, and other branches of the family: Per ardua ad alta; of the Kingsmuir branch—Cresco et spero; of the Bellahouston branch—Per ardua in coelum; and of the Newry branch—Ad alta virtute.

Of old, this family name was spelled De Hannethe, A’Hannay, A’Hanna, up to about A.D. 1600; it is now Hanna, and Hannay. All bearing the name are undoubtedly to be traced to a Lowland clan in Scotland, whose chief had his residence at Sorbie Castle. Sir Bernard Burke says: “The family of Hannay, originally written A’Hannay, is of very ancient descent; and the estate of Sorbie in Galloway was the seat of the elder branch.” Berry ascribes the Arms to all bearing the name, although spelled in various ways.

The A’Hannays of Scotland, in common with other powerful native families, as the Mackies, the McDowalls, the McCullochs, and McClellans successfully held their own against Norman and Saxon adventurers; and the estates of Sorbie remained with the Laird until the 17th century.

The allegiance of the clan to Baliol, their bearing against the yoke of the Douglasses, and other notes of their history may be best gleaned from the works of Sir Andrew Agnew, and P. H. McKerlie, F.S.A., Scotland.

The earliest mention known is that in the “Ragman Roll,” A.D. 1296, where the name appears “Gilbert de Annethe,” as inscribed by the Norman clerk of King Edward I.; Gilbert attaching his seal—the mode of signature which was the custom in those far off days.

Then came John in 1424; Gilbert, chaplain, in 1466; Andrew and others of the Royal archer Body Guard of France, in 1469; Odo, in 1488; and afterwards numerously enough.

This Odo was the first owner of Sorbie; he was succeeded by his son, Robert, who was alive in 1484 and 1494; the line continuing through Patrick, member of the Scotch Parliament, in 1581, to Donald and Alexander.

The latter, about the year 1607, lost a large part of his lands through feuds and quarrellings; and this bad example was followed by his son, until at his death, in 1640, nought remained in their possession of the ancient property of Sorbie.

It is not within our scope to trace farther the history of the name in Scotland; it is enough to say that the name in various forms became more or less common in the shires of Wigton, Ayr, Dumfries, Dunbarton, Renfrew, and in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.

Many branches of the family are designated by their lands as Kirkdale, Kingsmuir, Grennan, Knock, etc., in Scotland; and to these families are traceable, as a rule, all bearing the name wherever scattered.

The loss of the lands of Sorbie seems to have brought members of the family over to Ireland; with which country, not to go back to their earliest Celtic origin, they had until now no connection. Thus we find that the Calendar of James I. has a grant from the King to Patrick Hanna, gentleman, Longford county, of certain lands in that county; and to Robert Hanna, of certain lands adjoining, “to hold to Patrick and Robert Hanna for ever, as of the Castle of Dublin, in free and common soccage by fealty.” This grant bore date 1621, and appears to be the first mention of the name in Ireland.

Then in the next reign, King’s letters were issued in favour of “Robert Hannay, one of the esquires of our Body,” conferring upon him and upon Thomas Maule the lands and mansion of Glancapp, in the co. of Wicklow, dated 8th May, 1629.

This same Robert, whose name is variously spelled Hannay, Hanna, and Hannagh, was knighted, and also created a Baronet of Scotland, on 31st March, 1630; and styled “of Mochrum,” with destination Haredibus masculis quibuscumque.

To recur to his Scotch ancestry, he was a relative of John, last mentioned of Sorbie; and he was a contemporary, and it is thought a brother, of Patrick Hannay, M.A., sometime of London, celebrated as a Scotch poet, who, in 1619 and 1622, published a book of poems[1] now very rarely seen.

Sir Robert appears to have settled in Ireland for good. On the 11th December, 1631, he was made Clerk of the “Nilhells,” in the Irish Court of Exchequer—a newly created office; and he surrendered the patent on the 30th May, 1639. His daughter, Jane, married Sir Charles Coote, who became first Earl of Mountrath; another dau. mar. Sir George Acheson, who (see p. 24, ante), is No. 3 on the “Acheson” pedigree. Sir Robert[2] is stated to have been killed fighting as a Royalist in the “rebellion” of 1642.

His son, Sir Robert, succeeded him. Whether, like Sir Charles Coote, he supported the Parliament, we do not know; but he evidently followed him in being a partizan of the Restoration intrigue, for he was shortly after, on the 19th March, 1660, made a Captain of Foot. He resided sometime at Moyne, county Mayo, and, dying, was buried beneath the ancient church of St. Michan’s, “in the suburbs” of Dublin, on the 30th April, 1689. His name, spelled different ways, occurs (see p. 391 of our Irish Landed Gentry when Cromwell came to Ireland, under the heading “The ‘Forty-Nine’ Officers”) among the long lists of Royalist officers to whom arrears of pay were due in the memorable year, A.D. 1649. His title lay dormant until the year 1783, when it was claimed by Sir Samuel Hannay, of the Kirkdale branch of Sorbie,—a gentleman living in London, whose male descendants again failed in 1841.

To recur to the early settlers of the family in Ireland, Patrick Hannay, sometime of London, received King’s letter, dated 28th May, 1625, “to have a clerk’s place in the Privy Council of Ireland,” “having done our late dear father good and acceptable service beyond the seas;” and on the 27th June, 1627, was further appointed “Master of Chancellarie in Ireland.” The Edinburgh register, styling him Sir Patrick Hannay, informs us that he died at sea in year 1629. Administration of his effects appears to have been granted to his nephew, Andrew Hanna, in 1629; and further to James Montgomery, in 1630.

That both in the cases of Patrick and of Robert these various notices refer from the beginning to one individual of each name, who were brothers, is extremely probable.

What became of their descendants, if any, is not known. A “Captain Hanna,” this time on the other side, is mentioned in a contemporary poem on that event, as taking part in the siege of Derry, in 1689. It is possible he may have been the “Robert Hannay” who signed the petition of inhabitants, praying for compensation for property destroyed.[3] However this may be, the name after this date is found sparsely in Dublin, Athlone, and Derry. But in two generations later, numerous colonies of Scots having come to Ireland, the name hibernicised to “Hanna” became more common in Down, Armagh, Antrim, and also reached Tyrone, Derry, Donegal, and Monaghan.

Many persons of the name Hanett, of an entirely different origin, and chiefly represented in Lecale, county Down, became Hanna, in the 17th century.

To come down to days nearer our own, various spellings of the name, as has been already noted, occur in Scotland; but more recent settlers of the family in Ireland have preserved one Scotch form, which had hitherto been lost. Such are, or were, the Halliday-Hannays, of Bangor; Rev. R. Hannay, D.D., Belfast; Colonel Hannay, of Ballylough. Older settlers of the family are represented to-day by W. T. Hanna, Esq., J.P., Whitehouse, Donegal; Rev. Hugh Hanna, D.D., Belfast. Such were also the late Rev. Professor Samuel Hanna, of Belfast, father of Rev. William Hanna, D.D., Edinburgh, author of Life of Dr. Chalmers, his father-in-law, whose son, John Chalmers Hanna, of Edinburgh, is living in 1888.

Notes

[1] Poems: A copy of that work has been sold at the extraordinary price of £96.

[2] Robert: Administration of his Will was granted in 1658.

[3] Destroyed: The London Hannas had a connection with Ireland. So far as we know, they are unrepresented at present. Alexander and his wife Elizabeth lived in Aldermanbury and Westminster; the former died in 1778, the latter in 1786, and they as well as their son, John (died 1814) are buried in Westminster Abbey. John died unmarried; he had four sisters. Alexander had a married sister, Jane Ditour; and a brother, John, of Athlone, Ireland.