by Stewart Francis F.R.S.A.
The origins of the family of Hannay are lost in antiquity. Some authorities argue that they may have been of Norse origin. It is well known that the sea raiders from Denmark and Norway harassed and eventually settled along the west coast of Scotland during the ninth century. They are known to have made use of the bays and inlets on the coast of Galloway to raid shipping using the narrow channel between Scotland and Ireland. The coast of Galloway lends itself to this sort of activity and one can easily imagine a fleet of longships laden with armed raiders pushing up the creeks and inlets to plunder, and eventually to settle there, and operate from these as a raiding base.
The name is found in various parts of Europe; in Moravia for instance, there is a district and a river named Hanna. The inhabitants are a Slavonian tribe called Hannako. In Poland, as well, there is a town Hannah, on the river Bug. In the Baltic probaby the original home of the family, there is off the coast of Sweden an island Hanno. In Guernsey there is another called Hannoys; and on the west coast of Ireland, near Rinveal Point, an island called Hannachrem.
The eding `ay is certainly of Norse origin. This is the Icelandic ending for an island - in Sweedish the `o as in Hanno also means the same. It is of interest that there were villages named Hanney in both Lincolnshire and Berkshire before the Norman Conquest, and from which the English family of Hanney comes. As Lincolnshire was people largely by Northmen also it is a fair assumption that a Norse chieftain settled here, and another probably from the same village in Norway, in Galloway.
It could be argued that the family first settled in Lincolnshire, and came to Galloway either in the train of Edward I or as a part of the plantation of Anglo-Norman families in the eleventh century. It is, however, considered that this is most unlikely, for tradition has it they were settled here in the ninth century.
There were a number of Anglo-Norman families, including of course Balliol, the Veterponts and the De Brus, to name just three in Galloway who were settled by the eleventh century; it is possible that the Hannays might have been among these.
Further suggestions have been made that the family might be of Irish origin, there were certainly Irish connections, but not until much later with the Scottish plantation of Ireland in the seventeenth century. The Norsemen settled on both sides of the narrow sea and no doubt families have the same roots on both sides, but it is considered tolerably certain that the first settlement was on the Wigtownshire Coast.
Watson, however (Dumfries and Galloway Archaeological Society, 1935), states that the name may come from Ap Sheanaigh (son of Senanh), rather than Ua Seanaigh, as is sometimes proposed. There is a suggestion that the name may bo of Pictish Gaelic origin from one of the following roots: A`hannah signifying "of the moorland"; A`hanne or A`hainne, meaning "of the circle", i.e., fort, or Ahannaid "of the church". This may certainly point to Pictish origin, for the A prefex is found in many Galloway names and suggests an early Welsh influence, as it seems to be a contraction of the Welsh Ap rather than the Galec Mac, but on the whole it is considered more likely that after settling in Galloway, the Norse invaders intermarried with the local population and gradually accepted their language, retaining certain Norse words, and that Ap Sheanaigh was the nearest to the local language got to Hannay.
The original property of the family is not known, but a whole district of Wigtownshire is known as the "Machers Hannay", so powerful were they.
The learned herald Nisbet, writing about 1700, states that the principal family name was A`Hannay of Sorbie and bore arms according to Ponts Manuscript of Arms as follows:
"Argent Three Roebucks heads coupled azure collard or, with a bell pendant there-at gules. The crest itself, a :Cross crosslet fitchee issueing out of a crescent sable," is illustrative of the opulence and antiquity of the family. Were the Cartularies of the Galloway religious houses forthcoming, the earliest generations of the family would be known in detail.