..as published in the Weekly Scotsman Thursday January 17, 1963 by Allan Douglas.

Among the best documented families of Scotland, Hannays were long associated with Galloway, particularly with the lands of Sorbie in Wigtownshire, not far from Scotland`s "Cradle of Christianity," Whithorn, where one Fynlaus Ahanna was Canon in 1390.

That the family gave Scotland and the world many men of the church is not without significance, although nothing in their early history indicated an ecclesiastical origin.

The name of the Most Reverand Thomas Hannay is well known among Scottish Episcopalians, the late Edward J. Hanna was Roman Catholic Bishop of Los Angeles, and a branch of the clan in America has given the Presbyterian Church ( ----- ) clergymen!
Most accounts claim the family are Pectish origin. Earliest on record were Gilbert de Anneth and Gilbert de Hanneth. The two spellings appeared in 1296 on the Ragman Roll of Lowland and Border barons who swore fealty to England`s Edward I at Berwick.
Hannays probably recognized Edward`s nominee, John Baliol, as king of Scotland; but later their allegiance was to the Stewarts.

UNKNOWN

Exactly when the lands of Sorbie became their home is unknown. But so powerful were they in Wigtownshire, an entire district of that country was once known as "Machers Hannay"-- from "machair," Gaelic for grazing lands. Nowadays this area is called "The Machers."
Sorbie was their family seat before; and one Dougal Ahanna served as one of the king`s falconers.
Odo Hannay is the first laird of Sorbie on record. He was succeeded by his son, Robert Ahannay, who lived in 1494. Alexander, a younger son of the Sorbie laird in the year 1500, was a burgess of Wigtown who married a daughter of Stewart of Garlies, ancestor of the Earls of Galloway, and purchased the lands of Kirkdale in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.
From this family came the famous soldier-poet, Patrick Hannay, author of "Two Elegies on the Death of Queen Anne" (London, 1619); "A Happy Husband" and "Songs and Sonnets" (London, 1662). As a soldier of fortune, he reportedly fought in the service of the Queen of Bohemia.

Among the poet`s friends was one John Marshall, himself a poet, who referred to Hannay`s grandfather as being "well known to the English by his sword."
Much of the Sorbie land was lost in debts incurred in the early 1600s during a feud with Murray of Broughton. John, the last Sorbie laird, revived the quarrel with his Broughton contemporary, only to lose more of the estates. Upon John`s death about 1640, Sorbie passed to Stewart of Garlies and thence to the Earl of Galloway.
Hannays embraced almost every major Christian denomination; for during the Reformation, those in Galloway became ardent reformers. Some were among the early Quakers.
About this time of the :Ulster Plantations," the name appears spelled as Hanna and Hannah among those Protestants who went to Northern Ireland and there after to America.
During Charles I`s period of "government without Parliament" (1629-1640), William Laud ruled church affairs, causing all who would not support the Episcopal Church to be fined.
In Scotland, James Hannay was appointed Dean of St. Giles in 1634 and was instructed to introduce Laud`s Church Service Book. This action sparked the famous Jenny Geddes Riot of 1637.
Here is how the riot scene was described in the "Annals of Edinburgh":
"The dean, arrayed in his surplice, had no sooner made his appearance and opened the service book, then a tumult arose; and an old woman named Janet Geddes started up and exclaimed, `Out, out! Does the false loon mean to say his black mass at my lug?` and then threw her stool at the dean`s head. This was the signal for a general uproar."

Hannays attained the estates of Kingsmuir, Fife, about 1700; and a representative of this family has commemorated the Jenny Geddes incident by placing a plaque inside St. Giles.
The plaque reads: "To James Hannay, D.D., Dean of This Cathedral, 1634-1639. He was the first and the last who read the Service Book in this Church."

Members of the Clan Hannay Society, active in Great Britain, North America, and Australia, are presently considering partial restoration of Sorbie Castle as a rallying-point for clansmen from all parts of the world.