by Col. William Van Derpoel Hannay.
What is the historic meaning which seems to be attached to names? So much seems to be written on the meaning of names - your name, our name - or Smith, Jones, or Brown, or Tom, Dick, or Harriett, or any other family clan or Christian names. What`s in that name which we each and all have wished on to take us for the term of our natural lives - and hand it on to our children, if any, when we finish our spell on this exciting old world of ours.
Don`t suppose average man ever gives it a thought! Women seem to! I never did! Until it was suggested that having sketched this Cavalcade of our Families, I should also write this short, blythe history of the Hannay, Hannah, Hannia, our fellow Clansmen.
Someone said "What does the Oxford Dictionary of names say?" I hadn`t a clue but consulted same. It said, "Hannah or Hanna, significant `Grace`." I took a full-length survey of self in mirror and decided there was a certain amount of justification for.. Well, anyway, that graceful theory definitely had something - another look at the mirror, sorry! Dictionary said "Hannah or Hanna - Ancient Hebrew name". It also added, "Anna, Ann, are western forms, i.e. Anglicized or Aspirated forms of the Hebrew Hanna".
Aspirated! Anglicized! Isn`t it the Angles, i.e. English, who generally can`t aspirate their `aitches, and only pronounce "H" under educational pressure? So while the Welsh scratch, the Irish all pronounce the "H" in Hanna, and in Harlech, Haggis or Horoo! Isn`t it the Angles or English generally who" `it us `ard-`earted `annas on the `eads with `ard `ammers?"
So there it is according to authority. Hannah, Hanna, Anna and Ann are all one and the same Hebrew Hanna. The three scriptural Hebrew Hanna`s recorded are: 1) 1170 B.C. - Hannah, mother of Samuel, 2) Over 1000 years later, 100 B.C., Hanna the prophetess, and 3) Hanna, or Anna, or St. Ann, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The fact that the last two are both spelled Hanna, Anna, and Ann, in different scriptual translations, confirms the dictionary. They are all one and the same name. According to the dictionary the ancient Hebrew Hanna, Anne and Ann are still the most popular women`s names today, followed by four other Hebrew names, Mary, Elizabeth, Jane and Margaret.
It is interesting to consider how the name possibly came from Phoenicia or Isreal to Britan, remembering the foundation phrase of British History reads: "the Phoenicians traded and settled in Britan as early as 1000 B.C.
According to Scripture, Hannah, the mother of Samuel, was of the tribe of Ephrain, whose heraldic device was "The Unicorn of Ephraim" which is the identical Unicorn on our Royal Coat of Arms today, with the gold collar and chain of Joseph, Ephraim`s father. Incidentally, the Ephraimites evidently did not sound their `aitches or pronounce "Shibboleth".
True, Patrick McClellen was murdered away back in 1532 - and Patrick Hannay was acquitted. Our boy, Pat, bumped the other Pat off in self-defence. It says so in the evidence. Fifty years before, in 1488, Robert Hannay and his brother, William of Sorbie, were ordered by the Lords in Council to appear `on pain of rebellion`. They never even got in the `clink, but in 1560 we really did our stuff. Into the `cooler` at Cannongate Robert Hannah was thrust for getting all mixed up with the Robin Hood riots in Edinburgh in that year. That was 1561, so when you visit Cannongate in Edinburgh, as everyone does, you can say in a detached sort of way, "Our Ancestor, Bob Hannah, was chained up in that there spot there in 1561", and you will be so near the truth that it won`t matter.
So here is a list of just a few of the Hannays and what we know about them:
1566 - John Hannay must have been a bit of a loafer. He was under Royal patronage, baker to Mary, Queen of Scots. Don`t ask "Did he make any dough?.
1607 - William Hannay of Dumfries was charged with `tumult`. I love that word, `tumult`, it sounds so much softer than saying he was `drunk and disorderly`, or `blotto`. I suppose we can forgive him after 353 years for smudging the old escutcheon.
Going back to 1350, we get Patrick A. Hannah, mentioned by Judge Hannah, the historian from Ohio.
Back in 1296, Gilbert de Hannay of Sorbie, affixed his seal to "The Ragman`s Roll", swearing fidelity to Edward I of England, along with the other Border chieftans who all followed the lead of, and owed allegiance to, John Baliol, King of Scotland.(Baliol College, Oxford, bears his name). Believe it or not, the words `rag` or `ragtime` come I believe from that precise `Ragman`s Roll`.
1317 - William Hannay was a alderman of Lincoln, and was commissioned to arrange the decorations for the Coronation of King Richard II of England. It is from this branch, probably, that the Hannay who was a Crusader came, which is indicated in the Hanna Crest.
1424 - John Hannay of Sorbie was Chaplain to James I of Scotland, the forerunner of a long line of clergymen. Our clansmen do seem to inherit a deep, spiritual legacy.
1426 - Captain John Hannay, and a `right good Captain too`, was Master of King James I`s gallant ship "The Christopher of Aberdeen", and he commanded a `right good crew of 20 sailors`. No seagulls followed her to sea. (Waste of time! She came from Aberdeen!)
1466 - Gilbert Hannay, Chaplain to James II of Scotland, another padre.
1469 - Andrew Hannay and others of the clan were Royal Archers in the Bodyguard of France. The Scots sold their swords and services to every army in Europe, in every generation, and their descendants, the Von Hannas, and the Von Mackinsons, are in existence today. It is believed the Galloway Hannahs wore the Galloway tartan plaids.
1470 - Douglas Hannay, King`s Falconer, was followed by several of his descendants as Royal Falconers. It is surprising to note the amount of money spent on the breeding and buying and training of hawks. Almost as expensive as racehorses!
1484 - Robert Hannay and William Hannay of Sorbie were ordered by the Lords-in-Council to appear at Wigton `on pain of rebellion` and evidently got off with a caution. No conviction - their luck was in!
1488 - Odo, Laird of Sorbie gets a passing mention in history. About this period, the present Tower was possibly built. Prior to that, they probably had the old-fashioned stronghold built of stone and reeds on the same site as Sorbie long before the Tower was built.
1492 - Sir Robert Hanna is mentioned as `as good a belted knight as ever was`. We don`t seem to know much more about him.
1507 - John Hanna married Isabel Stewart, daughter of Sir Alex Stewart of Garlieston, the port of Sorbie, where the test pilot Squires, flying faster than the speed of sound, baled out and floated ashore to make head-lines in the Press of the world in 1959. Isabel Stewart had been married five times already: Her record was good, we dare say, but would it have stood? In Hollywood it wouldn`t get a mention today! In passing, Garrilies, Wigtown, Withorne, are all clustered around Sorbie, and are soaked in Hanna history. There is a inevitable old story that a secret passage connects the dungeon of Sorbie and the Castle of Garrilies 2 1/2 miles away. A fox terrier disappeared down the dungeon at Sorbie, so they say, and came up at ... no, I won`t spoil the story!
1513 - Donald Hannay was slain in the grim Battle of Falloden with so many more of that gallant band of Scots who closed around the Royal Standard of James IV, and died fighting with the King. James, who could have flown from the feild, scorned to desert his troops and `they died fighting` and that`s the greatest tribute that history will always remember them by.
1527 - John Hannay gets a mention.
1528 - Ninian Hannay, Prior of Whithorne didn`t see eye to eye with his hot-headed clansman, Patrick Hannay; they got so heated up in an argument over an oatmeal mill that he, Pat, burnt it down. The Hannays of Stranraer still grind out the good, old oatmeal of Scotland not so very far from the original mill. Think it over, in 1528 to 1860 - it`s quite a while! It`s quite interesting to find near the Priory there are still Hannays. A bank manager, a chemist, a grocer. In Sorbie village there`s only one Hannay family, Andrew left an eye and one finger when he parachuted into the attach on Arnheim.
1529 - James Hannay, Master Gunner in the reign of King James, fought in the battles of Pinkie and Solway Moss. He was the first gunner mentioned. From then on in every war we find them in the Artillery. Three years later, in 1532, John, probably James`s son, installed `Jimmy Hannay`s Edinburgh Guns` in Dunbar Castle, and soon afterwards these same guns beat back the attack of Gilbert Hannay, Sheriff of Wigtown, and Gilbert, Earl of Cassilis, when they besieged the Castle against Mary, Queen of Scots. Which only goes to show, as all old P.B.L.`s will thoroughly understand, you can never be absolutely sure on whose sise the ruddy gunners (drop shorts) are actually fighting.
1543 - Patrick Hanna killed Patrick McClellen as we have already noticed, and was acquitted. Feuds and raids between the Kennedy Clan, the Douglases, the Homes, the Murray, and most other clans taking sides, were carried on year after year. Clan feuds were a grim and bloody business.
1547 - John Hannay (Smith Extraordinary), was actually Master of Ordnance.
1581 Andrew Hannay lost part of Sorbie, the result of being on the losing side in a feud. Raids and litigation weakened the clan`s hold on the old stronghold.
1625 - Sir Patrick (3rd) Privy Councillor of Ireland, and Master of the Chancellery in Ireland. Died at sea.
1628 - David was on earth going about his daily work.
1619 - Patrick. Now we come to Patrick the Poet, who cannot be brushed aside lightly. He seems to hold the stage and stand in the limelight more vividly than so many of the Hannay clan before or since. I have roughly sketched him reading one of his poems in Whitehall to King James, to Dueen Anne, to Prince Charles, to Princess Elizabeth, to Princess Arabella Stuart, and to Sir Walter Raleigh. Why this picture? Why these names? It is a rather grim, historic story which follows. Patrick later wrote the Ode to Queen Anne when she died so young of dropsy. Prince Charles, as King Charles I, knighted Patrick`s nephew, another Patrick Hanna. King Charles I of course was executed. Sir Walter Raleigh was also executed for plotting to put Arabella Stuart on the throne. Arabella died of a broken heart in the Tower. Later, Patrick and his younger brother were both fighting with the Scottish Regiment for the Scottish Queen of Hearts, that is Princess Elizabeth who now becomes Queen of Bohemia, and to complete the story, Elizabeth`s daughter, Sophia of Hanover, was the mother of George I who became King of England. So the people who say that the three Georges were Germans should remember that while a cat may have kittens in the baker`s oven, they are not necessarily biscuits! The Georges came to the throne because, though born abroad, they were Tudors and Stuarts. Incidentally, this period of James VI of Scotland is artistically portrayed in the book "Wreath for Arabella" written by Doris Leslie who is Lady Doris Hannay, wife of Sir Walter Fergusson Hannay of Harley Street. Patrick was not only handy with his pen. He later became General of Artillery to Gustave Adolphus, King of Sweeden, in all his hard-fought struggle in Europe, when King Adolphus conquered the whole of the East of Europe.