Andrew Boyd Hannah (1864-1940) Scottish Footballer

 

Andrew Boyd Hannah was an early professional Scottish international footballer in the 19th century who played as a right back in both Scotland and England. Uniquely, he is the only player to have been captain of both Everton FC and Liverpool FC over his three separate spells in English football. He missed just two games in Everton’s 1890–91 English First Division title winning season.

He was born in Renton, Dumbartonshire, north west of Glasgow to Northern Irish emigrant parents from near Killinchy, County Down, Henry Hannah and Margaret Boyd. Henry worked in the Glasgow shipyards and eventually had his own dairy business to which Andrew was apprenticed. However, his penchant for the newly professional association football meant that he was signed for Renton FC.

He won the Scottish Cup twice with Renton and his team was even unofficial world champions after defeating English cup holders, West Bromwich Albion, in 1888. He was subsequently signed by WBA after they saw how good he was. By all accounts, he was an all-round athlete who also competed and won the ‘hop, step and leap’ in the Highland Games at Braemar.

Bizarrely, we also won a £10 wager by going into a Circus lions cage as a publicity stunt! He was married twice and had several daughters and a son. Some of his children emigrated to Canada. A few years ago his unmarked grave in Clydebank cemetery in Glasgow had a gravestone erected by representatives of Everton FC to which some of his descendants attended for its unveiling.

Shannon Bews from Canada is a Clan Member and his great, great, great granddaughter.

George Hannay (1631-1695) of Barbados

Excerpted from The Hannays of Sorbie, 4th Edition, available on Amazon.com in paperback or Kindle. All profits from sales go to the Clan Hannay Society.


George Hannay, the son of James Hannay, D.D., was born December 12, 1631. He fought, possibly along with his brother James, with King Charles II in the ill-fated Worcester campaign of 1650 and was taken prisoner by the Commonwealth forces after the battle. He did not receive the death sentence which might reasonably have been expected, but instead was transported as a slave to Barbados. However at the Restoration his fortunes improved and by 1672 he was “Deputy Provost Marshal (head of military police) of the Barbados to a certain Edwyn Steed.”

Barbados, mid-17th Century

In 1673 he is ordered to “search the ships and places in St. Michaels town and seize and deliver the provisions necessary to the Master of the Garland as she is at present retarded for want provisions.”

In 1682 Colonel Edwyn Steed recommended that his appointment of Provost Marshal be transferred to Hannay, whom he described as follows:

“The Marshal is much troubled by his fortune. I can call it by no other name for he is an honest man, who was sold out here as a slave for helping the King at Worcester and is resolved to make a vigorous protest of his position to England though it was a great risk for one who lived so long in a hot climate to expose himself to the extremity of the winter and the expense of the voyage must needs be great.”

The trouble was that Colonel Steed “was so much affected with the Gout that he cannot perform his duties without the help of his deputy that he prays that he may surrender the patent and that it be granted to George Hannay.”

In 1683 George left for England on leave, and on October 31 the Crown Law officers were ordered to prepare a bill constituting him Provost Marshal of the Barbados.

During his absence there was some trouble over the case of Samuel Hanson whom George had arrested in 1682. And as the common jail had been destroyed by the hurricane of 1675, he was forced to confine him in George’s house. This form of custody seems to have been pretty lax for persons of quality. But George seems to have been stricter than most, for when Hanson escaped on November 27, 1682, after giving his parole “the Lords find no blame in Hannay for Hansons escape for Mr. Hannay had refused to let him go and drink with his friends in town whilst in custody.”

Samuel Hanson and an accomplice, Richard Piers, tried to sue George for wrongful imprisonment in 1684, but the King in Council ordered the Attorney General, Sir Robert Sanger, to defend him from “Urgent and vexatious suits” brought against him by these two.

In Hanson’s statement he also appears to have tried to set the Governor Sir Richard Dutton against George for he complains: “That Dutton had ousted George Hannay out of the Clerkship of Bridgetown and put in Rawlins, one of the musicians he brought from England, in his place,” and continues that “no man who can leave the Island will stay while Sir Richard Dutton remains Governor.”

Dutton’s answer was that “he knew nothing of Hannay and the appointment took place a month after Dutton’s arrival, in any case Rawlins was not a ‘common fiddler’ but had been educated in the Law at the Temple.”

In spite of these tribulations, George maintained his position except for a short period, for in 1689 Sir George Eyles and Colonel Kendall petitioned for his continuance in the appointment and on June 11, 1690, the Council agreed to restore him to his appointment.

A curious insight into the West Indies in general, and the position of the aristocracy before the law is shown in a memorandum from George on June 28, 1690, in the case of Sir Thomas Montgomerie:

“Sir Thomas Montgomerie was committed by order of 28th Feb 1690 and delivered to my custody on March 1st having been caught trying to escape in a boat to the French. I gave him three rooms in my house for respect to his dignity and all good usage but such was his strange lewd behaviour that I could not enjoy quiet in my own house and was obliged to keep a guard over him at my own expense, while his behaviour was so bad that the court passed several orders to prohibit him from receiving visitors, news ink or paper. On Governor Kendall’s account he had great hopes of release but has remained to my house until his departure when he refuses to pay my fees whereupon I distrained on his property. On my return he attacked me with a sword. I am ready to release him on payment of my just fees.”

In 1691 he went on leave to England again, and returned the next year. He was now a fairly old man, for in 1694 Lord Willoughby wrote to Sir John Trenchard begging the office of Provost Marshal for Captain Finney as Mr. George Hannay “the present holder is very infirm and aged.” He however seems to have held his post till his death in 1695, when on December 31 a warrant was issued to his son, James Hannay, as Provost Marshal of Barbados.

James took on where his father left off and was at once sued by one Ralph Lane regarding his imprisonment. His petition makes interesting reading:

“Petition to the Council of Trade and Plantations—I omitted to tell you in my last address that after the death of George Hannay I was released from jail and since December 1695 have been living in my own house though under restraint that I am liable upon any humour to be confined again in the common jail. This is such an awe to me that I have not ventured to seek for proofs of the wrongs I have sustained.

“I sent a petition to Governor Russell for copies of papers I required, but no answer was returned and I was told that if I made another attempt to attend you James Hannay will confine me with severity in the loathsome common jail. I am obliged therefore to remove my grievences to royall determination (i.e. London) dated April 29th, 1697.”

In 1701, James is also described as Marshal of the Court of Vice Admiralty, which dealt with the arrest of privateers. In 1709, there is an entry in the State Papers referring to George holding certain appointments. This might be a misprint for James as the appointments appear under James’s name elsewhere. They are the Marshal of Assembly, Marshal of Council of Court of Errors, Marshal of Court of Admiralty and Serjeant at Arms of the Court of Chancery.

There may have been another George as both James and George appear in 1709, together with a George Hays, as executing the office of Marshal of the Admiralty Court. So perhaps George was the younger son also holding a legal benefice due to his late father’s influence.[1]

James subscribed to the Loyal address to Queen Anne on May 18, 1702 when she was proclaimed at Bridgetown:

“We pray your Majesty may preserve the balance of Empire against the overgrowing and exhorbitant power of the French King and all other that shall attempt to disturb the peace thereof of any of your Kingdoms, especially on the score of the supposed Prince of Wales[2] whose pretention we abhor and renounce from the bottom of our hearts being ready to offer up the last drop of our blood and the utmost penny of our fourtunes in defence of yr majesty’s right.”

In 1705, James petitioned and was granted leave for one year by the Queen. On May 10, 1707, the Queen wrote to the Attorney General stating, “you are to prepare a warrent for George Gordon to be Provost Marshal of the Barbadoes and thereby revoking the patent whereby James Hannay was so constituted.”

James thus resigned his post and became a private gentleman. In 1709, James married Elizabeth Price. They had a daughter Elizabeth and a son George. James is described in 1714 in the list of Gentlemen proposed by President Sharpe for vacancies on the Council of Barbados on June 1 as “a worthy gent of good parts improved by a liberal education at Oxford, of great prudence, resolution and integrety and of very good estate.” He appears to have continued to serve on the Council until 1728. In this year he could not serve on the Grand Jury of Session on December 10, but it is stated that he was a “proper person to do so” as he owned a large number of slaves. The seventeen Gentlemen listed as “proper persons” owned 339 slaves between them.

The Provost Marshal General’s second son George may in turn have had a son, also George, for one is recorded as living from 1700 to 1783[3]. He married Jane Thompson and lived in Lunenburg County, Virginia. His son Andrew married Ann Cunningham and died in 1793. Andrew’s son, Captain George Hannah, served in the War of 1812 against the British, and in 1806 married first Betsy Brent by whom he had three children. Later after they had moved to Arkansas, his wife died and he married Lucy Morton and had a further three children. His son, also a Captain in the U.S. Army, George Cunningham Hannah, was born in 1817 and died in 1878.

George Cunningham Hannah

He married Ann Spragins in 1842; they had eleven children. His son Samuel Baldwin also served in the Army, and married, in 1874, Martha Elizabeth Hevener[4]. They had also eleven children, the most notable of whom is the Revd. Samuel Baldwin Hannah, who died in 1959 and was a noted Presbyterian divine in Virginia and also in Arizona.


[1] Stewart Francis, in previous editions of The Hannays of Sorbie, added:

“Supporting this theory, the Reverend James A.M. Hanna [1924-2007] of Oak Hill, Ohio, asserted that the second George was the younger son of George Hannay, the Provost Marshal General”.

The Reverend James, however, in his 1959 work Hanna of Castle Sorbie, Scotland and Descendants, also believed that Provost Marshall George was the son of John Hannay of Sorbie (d. 1640). James wrote that the younger George Hannay (or Hannah as spelled in the Rev. Hanna’s book), the Provost’s son, died in Lunenberg County, Virginia, in 1783. This implies a 143-year gap between the death of George and his grandfather. There is likely either one or more missing generations between Barbados and Virginia or a case of mistaken identity in conflating two different George Hannays. As noted later in this chapter, Stewart Francis believed that the George Hannay in Virginia was the grandson of Provost Marshall George.

[2] James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766), Prince of Wales until his father James II was deposed.  James Francis Edward was known as The Old Pretender and was the father of “Bonnie” Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender.

[3] although as noted later in this chapter, there was a contemporaneous George Hannay (1702-1776) born in the Barbados, who subsequently emigrated to the United Kingdom.

[4] In previous editions, Stewart Francis stated that Samuel’s wife was incorrectly listed as Elizabeth Andrew Stevenson.  This is possibly due to some records being improperly transcribed. For example, one census entry lists Samuel’s wife as “Elizabeth A. Hannah”, and it is plausible that “Hevener” was at one point misheard as “Stevenson”.

Jack Hanna

Jack Hanna

Jack Hanna has been the face of the Columbus Zoo for 42 years, bringing his unflagging energy to the promotion and preservation of his beloved animal world. 

John “Jack” Bushnell Hanna was born January 2nd, 1947, in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.  His great love for animals was fostered growing up on his parent’s farm. His father would joke that he was reluctant to go on vacation, lest he find new, exotic species in his pastures upon return.  At the age of eleven, Jack began volunteering with his family’s veterinarian, Dr Roberts, cleaning cages and observing animal care. 

After graduating with a BA in business and political science from Muskingum College in Concord, Ohio in 1968, Jack and his new bride, Suzi opened a pet store and petting zoo back in his native Knoxville.  A tragic mauling accident in 1972 resulted in the closure of his businesses. Landing on his feet, Jack was recruited by the Knoxville Zoo, learning management from the ground up.

Relocating to Florida, Jack was offered a directorship of the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford, in 1973, where he spent two years turning their fortunes around. In 1975, he left his position, citing family concerns. He returned, once again, to Knoxville, to take the helm as Vice President of Stan Brock Wilderness Adventures.   It was during this time, that his daughter, Julie, two, was diagnosed with leukaemia.

 In 1978, Jack, along with 40-50 other contenders, was approached by the Columbus Zoo to join their operation.  At 31, his relative youth was seen by some as a possible drawback, but he won the board over.  Medical treatment for Julie was a fortunate bonus, and after 4 years, she was in remission. 

From 1978 to 1992, Jack was the Director of the Columbus Zoo. During those formative years he transformed it from a simple, tired zoo to the acclaimed zoological park it is today.  He canvassed businesses for funds to replace caged displays with natural habitats, and instituted educational programs to raise awareness of the natural world. Every invitation to speak at schools and public events helped raise the profile of the ever expanding zoo.

In 1983, Jack Hanna, the media star was born.  After the birth of twin baby gorillas, an invitation by Good Morning America introduced him to the nation. This was followed by appearances on Late Night With David Letterman and Larry King Live, as well as countless news/variety shows.

Jack, the tireless showman was responsible for such events as showcasing circus performer, Enrico Wallenda (of the Great Wallendas) transversing a tightrope over a huddle of Bengal Tigers, and turning out a pocket full of cockroaches in a New York hotel lobby.  Being bitten by his animal ambassadors was a running joke.  One appearance with David Letterman resulted in an errant crow flying into the audience, disappearing from view. 

In 1992, now director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, he expanded his reach into television and print media.  From “Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures” “Jack Hanna’s Wild Countdown” and “Hanna’s Ark” on television to “Jungle Jack – My Wild Life”, and “Monkeys On the Interstate” in print, Jack has left an indelible mark on the animal conservation world. He is also on the board of PIC (Partners In Conservation) whose pet project is protection of Diane Fossey’s beloved mountain gorillas in Rwanda. 

On June 11th, 2020, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium formally announced that after 42 years of enthusiastic and tireless service, Jack Hanna is retiring, as of December 31st, 2020.

SOURCES

  • Barbara A. Schreiber, “Jack Hanna, American Zoologist and Television Personality”, Britannica.com (retrieved 7 November, 2020).
  • “Jack Hanna”, 10Tv.com, 19, May, 2016.
  • Jackhanna.com (retrieved 8 November, 2020).
  • “Jack Hanna”, TFP – TheFamousPeople, (retrieved 8 November, 2020).
  • Foster, Emily, “The Life and Fast Times of Jack Hanna”, Columbus Monthly magazine, November 1985 issue.
  • Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Press Release, 11 June, 2020.

Rob and Mary Hanna

Rob and Mary Hanna are luminaries of the equestrian world.

Rob Hanna was for many years the manager (chef d’équipe) of the Australian national equestrian team. Rob is himself a former competitive rider, but his wife Mary is a world-class athlete.

Mary Sutherland Hanna competed in five Olympic Games, most recently in 2016. Born in Melbourne in 1954, Mary started riding horses when she was two years old, and she’s still riding competitively! Currently ranked 86th in the world (as of 2020) in dressage, she likely has the longest ongoing career of any Australian equestrian (as well as being Australia’s oldest competing Olympian). In 2018, she was inducted into the Equestrian Victoria Hall of Fame.

Mary’s Olympic Games and ranking

  • 2016: 9th (team), 39th (individual)
  • 2012: 9th (team), 43rd (individual)
  • 2004: 39th (individual)
  • 2000: 6th (team), 34th (individual)
  • 1996: 24th (individual)

Up until 2020, Rob and Mary ran a breeding and training center in Victoria, Australia. They recently sold the 60 acre property to be closer to family.

Photo_by_Alan_Barber

Rob and Mary Hanna (photo: Alan Barber)

Sources

  • Fédération Equestre Internationale website, Mary Hanna member page (retrieved 27 Oct, 2020)
  • Australian Olympic Team website, Mary Hanna page (retrieved 27 Oct, 2020)
  • Rudall, Jenny, “Australian teams selected for Olympics”, article from Horse and Country News, 20 June, 2012
  • Statene Park Dressage Centre “About Us” page (retrieved 27 Oct, 2020)
  • Mayne, Nicole, “Melbourne buyers beat overseas interest to purchase Olympian Mary Hanna’s Bellarine property”, Geelong Advertiser, 4 Mar, 2020

Ted Hanney (1889-1964)

by Robert Keith Hanna, Clan Hannay Genealogist

originally published in the 2016 Clan Hannay Newsletter


Olympic Gold Medalist and Somme Veteran, Ted Hanney (1889-1964)

In a year that celebrates both the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in World War I, it is good to reflect on the life and career of Ted Hanney, Olympic Gold Medalist in 1912 for GB, and a veteran of the Somme battlefield. Terence Percival (“Ted”) Hanney (1889-1964) was born on 19 January 1889 in Reading, Berkshire, the youngest of three children born to John Hanney, the Quartermaster Sergeant of the Royal Berks Regiment, and his wife Henrietta. Hanney spent his early years at Reading’s Brock Barracks before moving to the Duke of York’s Royal Military Asylum in Chelsea aged 11 for his education. He then enlisted in his father’s regiment as a boy solider and would go on to serve eight years before leaving the Army in 1911 as a corporal to become a footballer.

He was a tall, dashing defender – tough, but also quick and skillful. After a number of England amateur caps, he was selected for the 1912 British Olympic squad for Sweden and played in Great Britain’s pivotal 7-0 win over Hungary. Sadly, he sustained an injury and was forced to watch from the sidelines as his team won gold versus Denmark (4-2) and he never received a medal despite his participation to that point.

1912 Great Britain Gold Medal-Winning Football Team: Back, f. l. t. r. Horace Littlewort, Dr. Ronald Brebner, Arthur Berry, Harold Walden, Vivian Woodward, Gordon Hoare, Ivan Sharp, Arthur Knight; Front, f. l. t. r. James Dines, Thomas Burn, Edward Hanney.

On returning to England in 1912 he signed professional forms for Reading FC and shortly afterwards was sold to Manchester City for a huge fee for the time, £1,250. Soon, though, the First World War came for Ted and all four of his brothers. From the prestige of a big money move to Manchester City, Ted enlisted in 1915 and found himself a world away at the battle of the Somme in northern France at a place called Delville Wood, nicknamed “Devil’s Wood” by fellow soldiers, where he had risen to the rank of sergeant. Delville Wood was a central point of the battle of the Somme that saw an unprecedented 60,000 British casualties on the first day of fighting alone, July 1st 1916.

Hanney was part of the British 2nd Division that was held back until the 27th July. With nine shells per second raining down and the stench of weeks-old bodies rotting in the French summer sun, Ted first survived a nearby grenade explosion which killed a fellow soldier but only left him dazed. He carried on regardless, but a shell then badly wounded him with shrapnel in the thigh, face and neck at 10.30pm on 28th July 1916. He had to remain out in the trenches without proper medical attention until 8.30am the next morning to avoid gunfire. Despite his injuries, Ted later said;

“The Germans counter attacked three times that night, and as I felt quite alright, I stopped and gave them a few extra rounds of ammunition. By gum, I saw some fights I shall never forget.”

In August he was sent back to England to recover, and after undergoing surgery to remove shrapnel from his face he was discharged from hospital in September and sent to the Eastern Command Depot at Shoreham, Sussex. In January 1917 Hanney was posted to Chatham, Kent where he remained for the duration of the war. He was finally discharged from the British Army on 25th March 1919. During active service he had suffered facial scarring, damage to the right shoulder and, most significantly for his footballing career, a torn adductor muscle in his right leg. He played for a time with Coventry City and then for Reading again before retiring in 1922.

Incredibly, a few years after his retirement, he coached in Germany with VfB Stuttgart, whom he led to the Württemberg-Baden regional championship in 1927, and FC Wacker München, where he also found some success. Hanney returned to Reading before the Second World War, during which he ran coaching sessions at his former club. He ended his days as the landlord of the Russell Arms public house, 2-4 Bedford Road, Reading, Berkshire (now renamed The Royal pub) and died on his way to hospital after collapsing at Reading’s Salisbury Club on the 30th November 1964. He never married.

Thomas Peat’s Painting

by Robert Keith Hanna, Clan Hannay Genealogist

This article originally dates from June of 2011.  The chief, Dr. David Hannay, subsequently raised doubts as to whether this painting is indeed of his ancestor, as some of the dates mentioned by Mr. Wood in his research do not match family records held by the Kirkdale branch of the Hannays.  Further study into this matter continues as of June, 2020.


Artist: Thomas Peat
fl.1791 – 1831

Portrait of an officer with his dark bay charger, here identified as Sir Samuel Hannay of the 2nd Life Guards outside Kirkdale House

 

Oil painting on canvas 28 x 36 inches and contained in a carved giltwood frame

Signed lower left “T. Peat” and dated “179(0 ?). It has been suggested that the final digit has been somewhat abraded and was originally an “8”

Thomas Peat was a London-based portraitist (he lived at 290 Holborn, near Great Turnstile and subsequently at 16, Rathbone Place), the majority of whose work is in miniature, both painted and enamel. He shared a house with his sister, who also painted portraits and sent them to the Royal Academy. Few biographical details remain about them, though a doggerel poem survives which praises:

In striking likenesses, those talents rare,
With the ingenious Peat few can compare;

Peat exhibited at the Academy until 1805 from his London houses, but seems to have been peripatetic, his work being recorded in Bath, Leamington Spa and Bristol.

The following is a research report prepared by Stephen Wood MA FSA about the identity of the sitter in the painting:

“The uniform details of the sitter positively identify him as an officer of 2nd Life Guards during the period from the creation of the regiment in 1788 to approximately 1806. The defining factors of the uniform are the black and red plume on his cocked hat and the goat-skin covers to his saddle holsters: this was a combination, together with the rest of the uniform depicted, unique to 2nd Life Guards in the 1790s.[i] The sitter appears to be wearing an oval badge suspended from an orange ribbon below his shirt ruffle and hanging between the fifth and sixth button of his coatee: this is almost certainly the badge of a Baronet of Nova Scotia – which was of that size and shape and worn suspended around the neck from an orange, or ‘tawny’ ribbon.[ii] In the period 1788-c.1806, only one Baronet of Nova Scotia served in 2nd Life Guards: this was Sir Samuel Hannay, 4th Baronet of Mochrum and Kirkdale.[iii] It is thus very probable indeed that the sitter in this portrait is Sir Samuel Hannay, who was born on 12th August 1772. He was the eldest surviving son of Sir Samuel Hannay, Bart. MP (c.1742-90) by his wife Mary Meade (d. 1800).[iv]

The elder Samuel Hannay was descended from the Hannays of Kirkdale in Kirkcudbrightshire and made his fortune in the City of London as a chemist and druggist. With two of his brothers and in partnership with other Scots, he also invested and speculated successfully in the East India Company’s trade with India and China. Having made a fortune, Hannay spent lavishly on the appurtenances of wealth and social position: he lived at 31 Bedford Square 1783-89 before moving to Portland Place, he commissioned portraits of two of his children, Samuel and Mary, from George Romney in 1786 and 1790 and in 1786 he commissioned drawings from Robert and James Adam for a villa on Putney Heath that, in the event, was never built. In 1783, he successfully laid claim to the dormant baronetcy of Hannay of Mochrum and was created the 3rd baronet of that title. In 1784, he obtained a parliamentary seat, Camelford in Cornwall, and sat as one of the two members for that borough – the other member being one of his business partners, James Macpherson – until his death on 11th December 1790. A notable member of the ‘Bengal Squad’ in the House of Commons, Hannay voted with the government until the Regency crisis of 1788, when he went into opposition – a move for which he was much criticised and, indeed, mocked: his background as a chemist was ridiculed by his opponents, who made much of the fact that the medicine for which he was most well-known – Sir Samuel Hannay’s Original, Genuine and Only Infallible Preventative of a Certain Disease – was supposedly a protection against venereal disease. On Sir Samuel Hannay’s death, he was found to be immensely in debt, a position that may in part have resulted from his commissioning a mansion – Kirkdale House – from Robert and John Adam in 1787 but was probably also due to his reputedly heavy gambling. Although, under Scottish laws of inheritance, his widow was not left destitute – being allowed to retain one-third of his estate and its income – the remainder of his estate, including the house and contents in Portland Place, had to be sold to satisfy his numerous creditors. Thus, while the younger Samuel Hannay inherited his father’s title in 1790, becoming the 4th Baronet of Mochrum, he did not inherit anything else until he came of age on 12th August 1793.[v]

[i]     Lawson.

[ii]    Jocelyn. Only baronets of Scotland (called baronets of Nova Scotia) wore badges prior to 1929, when baronets of Great Britain were allowed to wear badges signifying their rank.

[iii]   Printed Army Lists of the period noted.

[iv]    Burke.

[v]     Byrne; Christie; Clarke; Gifford; Namier & Brooke; Philips; Rowan; Thorne; Ward & Roberts.

No details have been traced of the education of Sir Samuel Hannay, believed to be the sitter in this portrait: he does not appear to have attended any English public school or any British university of the period. Given his inheritance, it may be that a military career was one of the few open to him and so, the cost of living being lower in Ireland than in Britain at that time, it is not surprising that he was first commissioned in a regiment stationed in Ireland. He became ensign in 38th Regiment of Foot on 30th July 1791 but exchanged to another Ireland-based regiment, 5th Dragoon Guards, later the same year – becoming a cornet in that regiment on 31st October 1791. He clearly did not spend all his time in Ireland since he is recorded as attending the Prince of Wales’s levée at Carlton House on 27th February 1792: perhaps the prince remembered the tacit support given him by the young officer’s father at the time of the Regency crisis four years earlier. On 31st March 1793, Hannay was promoted lieutenant in 5th Dragoon Guards and remained in the regiment until the last day of 1796, when he exchanged with a lieutenant in 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot. It is unlikely that this exchange resulted in Hannay joining his new regiment, which was serving in the West Indies at the time, but it probably brought him back to Britain where, now that he had inherited his estate, he would have been able to preside over the sale of the most of the remaining lands, buildings and farms at Kirkdale which took place in January 1797.[vii]

The income resulting from the sale of the Kirkdale estate may have enabled Sir Samuel to increase his social status within the army since, on 24th August 1797, he sold his lieutenancy in the unfashionable 61st Foot and bought the rank of cornet and sub-lieutenant in 2nd Life Guards, a regiment of which his fellow-Scot, Lord Cathcart, had recently become colonel. On 17th January 1799, he purchased promotion to lieutenant and adjutant and acquired command of a troop, in the rank of captain and without purchase, on 3rd June 1801. During the short-lived ‘Peace of Amiens’, on 25th March 1802, Hannay exchanged from 2nd Life Guards into the relatively newly raised Queen’s German Regiment but, probably sometime in the following six months, went to Altona, near Hamburg, to fight a duel. As The Times reported, on 11th September 1802,

‘On Wednesday morning, Capt. MURRAY arrived in town from Hamburgh, accompanied by Major BLAIR and Colonel CALLAND. Capt. MURRAY went over to the Continent for the purpose of fighting Sir SAMUEL HANNAY, in consequence of some blows which passed some time ago at Steevens’s, in Bond-street.

The meeting took place at Altona. The parties fired a case of pistols each. Capt. MURRAY’s last shot was fired in the air, and put an end to the dispute. Sir SAMUEL HANNAY is not yet returned. It is said that he quits Lord CATHCART’s Regiment in consequence of this unfortunate affray.’

Since the date of the duel is not known, it is not possible to substantiate the suggestion that Hannay had to leave 2nd Life Guards as a result of it. Given the discrepancy in dates between The Times report and Hannay’s transfer out of 2nd Life Guards, as well as the fact that The Times incorrectly reported the ranks of Blair and Calland – who were both regimental captains, although Calland was a brevet major – it is conceivable that the gossip, as reported, was inaccurate. Since his antagonist, Captain The Hon. George Murray, and both of his supporters, were all officers in 2nd Life Guards at the time, the reason for the blows exchanged at Stevens’s Hotel in Bond Street may have been a regimental matter or, since all those named by The Times were Scots, some question of ancestry or birth.[viii]

It seems probable that Hannay remained on the European continent for some time after the duel since he appears to have been there when war with France resumed on 15th May 1803. He is recorded, together with his sister and brother-in-law, Mr and Mrs Thomas Rainsford, as being a prisoner-of-war in France after 1803. Given Napoleon’s reluctance to allow British prisoners-of-war to be exchanged, it is possible that Hannay – and the Rainsfords – remained as prisoners in France until 1814.[ix] Certainly, Hannay retired from the Army by sale of his captain’s commission in Queen’s German Regiment on 18th October 1803: this was an act that would have released some funds needed to make his imprisonment less unpleasant.[x]

Little more is known after 1803 of Sir Samuel Hannay. In the 1830s he is said to have been ‘in the service of the Emperor of Austria’ with ‘an official post at Vienna’ but no further details are available from printed British sources.[xi] He died of tuberculosis (‘Lungensucht’) in Vienna on 1st December 1841, as the Wiener Zeitung announced, 

‘Verstorbene zu Wien. … Den 1. December. Der hochwohlgeborne Sir Baronet Samuel Hannay of Mochrum, königl. Grossbritannischer Ober Lieutenant, alt 69 J., in der Plankengasse Nr. 1064, an der Lungensucht.’

Death notices subsequently appeared in the Annual Register and Gentleman’s Magazine.[xii] Although he neither married nor left legitimate offspring, he may not have spent his declining years alone since, in 1839, he settled his estate upon the dowager Baroness Schaffalitsky with remainder to his elder sister Mary Hastings Hannay – who had been painted by Romney in 1790[xiii]. The baroness dying soon after Hannay, the estate was then inherited by Mary, who died in 1850 and left it to her nephew, William Henry Rainsford Hannay.

Given that the sitter in this portrait is most probably Sir Samuel Hannay, 4th Baronet of Mochrum and Kirkdale, the house depicted in the background is most probably intended to represent Kirkdale House, designed by Robert and James Adam in 1787 and built between 1787 and 1789. It is not a scrupulously accurate representation of the house, which may not have been visited by the artist in any case, but its position adjacent to a body of water replicates the position of Kirkdale House close by the shore of Wigtown Bay. The artist may have worked on his depiction either from a sketch by Sir Samuel Hannay, who commissioned the house from the Adams, or from one of a series of plans for different versions of the house that the Adams produced for the third baronet around 1786-87, or from a sketch provided by the fourth baronet, the probable sitter in the portrait.

Since the date ‘1790’ cannot refer to the sitter in that year – since he did not join the Army until 1791 or wear the uniform shown before 1797 – it may be a retrospective use of the date indicating when the sitter inherited his title and became heir presumptive to the house and lands depicted in the background. The small gold key depicted on his shirt ruffle may be one of two things: a contemporary reference to his position as a military member of the British Royal Household – as an officer of 2nd Life Guards 1797-1802, or a later addition perhaps reflecting the position that he is said to have held – perhaps that of a Gentleman of the Bedchamber – at the Imperial Court in Vienna. “

[vii]     The London Gazette, passim, and The Times, passim; the Army List.

[viii]    Ibid..

[ix]   Bulloch et al. Thomas Rainsford had married Hannay’s sister Jane and served in 2nd Life Guards from 1791, retiring in 1799. Their son, William Henry Rainsford-Hannay, inherited the Kirkdale Estate in 1850.

[x]    The London Gazette 15632, 18th October 1803, p. 1437.

[xi]     Burke.

[xii]    Wiener Zeitung 2505, 5th December 1841; Annual Register, 1843, p. 241 and Gentleman’s Magazine, 1842, p. 425. Both the AR and GM death notices confuse him with his father of the same name

[xiii]   The Scottish Jurist 1852, pp. 221-222 (case 128 of 6th February 1852).

Mr Wood was formerly the director of the Scottish United Services Museum in Edinburgh and is now an independent military historian.

27th June 2011.

George Washington Hanna

Pioneer and Town Father, 1817- 1890

George Washington Hanna was born in White County, Illinois, on November 20, 1817. He was the third son of George Hanna and Mary Melrose.

His most notable achievement was founding the city of Waterloo, Iowa.

George Hanna and his wife, Mary departed Illinois for Iowa in May of 1845.  Their transportation was two yoke of oxen and a wagon.  They also had a few head of cattle. On July 1, 1845, the party reached the east side of the Cedar river at a point which would later become the town of Waterloo.  When his young wife, Mary, saw the site selected she looked across the river to the bluffs sprinkled with oak and maple and made her prophetic statement to her two young sons, “This seems to be the river of life and over yonder is Canaan.  Let’s cross over.  Boys, if you live long enough, you will see a fine town grow up in these hills.”

Hanna plotted out land for his farm on one of hills where the city library stands today.  There were no settlers in the area for the next five years.  There were no roads, only uncleared trails.  At that time, they thought what would be Black Hawk county would only support one hundred people.  No one dreamed of Waterloo as it is today with a population of 67,934. 

In February 27, 1851, George Hanna was elected justice of the peace and performed the first marriage.  He donated his land to the city for the dam, mill and school house.  Much later his house and land were donated to build a library.

Mary Hanna, wife of George Hanna

George Hanna was one of the original settlers and founders of Waterloo.  He led other settlers Charles Mullan and John H Brooks to their new home in the west. In later years he lived in comparative retirement upon his farm above the city on the Cedar Falls road.  This was the perfect spot for the old pioneer to watch the city grow.

Hon. James R. Hanna, Educator Politician and Entrepreneur

Born in Genesco, Illinois on June 12, 1866, James Hanna was the son of James Steele Hanna and the brother of Frank Willard Hanna.  At nine years old his mother died and the family moved west to the cattle country of Western Nebraska.  At thirteen James R Hanna began earning his own living.  He was employed as a farm labor in Jackson township and worked in construction of the trans continental railroad in western Iowa.  At eighteen he secured a teaching certificate and taught for 4 years in clay and Jackson townships.

In 1890 James entered Highland Park College where he earned a B.A degree in 1892. He did special work in Harvard College in 1893 and received  a master of arts degree in 1899. He also taught Greek and Latin for a number of years. In 1905 he was made head of his of English department at Highland Park College and Dean of the liberal arts college.

In 1910 he entered the mayor’s race as a reform candidate and was elected for three consecutive terms for his honesty and integrity.  He built a new city hall, wrote a building code for the city and revised the structure of government to the commission form of government.  When he ran the first time he felt the city government was corrupt and took his cause to the people preaching honesty and fairness. The current mayor speaks of him often and considers him a role model. He also chaired the first city plan campaign.

After his run as major he became President of the Iowa Bank and was responsible for a lot of small business starting in Iowa.  His farm is where the current Adventureland is today in Altoona. He built an air strip where he used to fly dignitaries into Des Moines. Mr. Hanna distinguished himself for his stand against dishonesty and political affairs. The Honorable James R. Hanna died in 1931.

Darryl Hannah

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Darryl Hannah was born December 3rd 1960 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, daughter of Donald Christian Hannah (1933) and Susan Metzger.

As an actor Darryl has starred in several movies, including Blade Runner (1982), Mermaid (1984), Kill Bill (2004) and the Netflix Series Sense8 (2016).

Darryl’s great, great grandfather, John Hannah, was born in Scotland 1837. His son James Hannah (1865) was also born in Scotland.

Both John and James emigrated to the USA between 1865 and 1890, ultimately settling in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where he had a son James A Hannah (1893-1985).

Darryl’s grandfather James A Hannah founded the tug and barge firm Hannah Marine in Lemont Illinois, USA.

Is John Hannah (1837) related to the Sorbie Hannays ?

Sources

Frank Willard Hanna, Educator, Engineer, Inventor

My grandfather died one year before I was born.  He was bigger than life.  My grandmother, Frances Hanna, told me all the stories.
Francis Willard Hanna was born on September 16, 1867 near Geneseo, Illinois.  He as the son of James Steele Hanna and Harriet Rouse Hanna.  He grew up on the trail to Nebraska.  When he was three years old the family went through Altoona, Iowa and stayed for a while.  There his mother died of pneumonia when Frank was three years old.  His father planted corn with an axe handle.

The Hannas traveled to Nebraska where the five Hanna children lived in a sod house.  At fourteen, Frank was purchasing cattle in the west and teaching in a county school house to make ends meet.

At twenty-six, he entered Highland Park College in Des Moines, Iowa.  He earned his degree while working his way through college.  After graduation, he stared as a professor at Highland Park College and became Dean of Engineering.  There was a saying at the college, “that anything done by a Hanna is done right.”  His two brothers also attended Highland Park.   In earned his BS in 1894, Masters in 1898 and CE in 1902.  He was a member of the faculty from 1894 to 1903.

During the summer of 1900, Frank W. Hanna traveled to Europe making studies of schools and engineering structure the Governor of Iowa,

In 1901, he married Frances Gore and started a job with the US government as a hydrographer in the US Geological Survey with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.  He was responsible for stream gauging and power investigations in the upper Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes region.

In 1905, he joined the Reclamation Service and worked respectively as designer, project supervisor and consultant engineer until 1721.  Projects included the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona, the Arrow Root Dam in Boise, Idaho and a dam in Hanna Wyoming.

During his stay with the Reclamation Service h also travelled back to Iowa, bought farm land in Ankeny, Iowa and designed the water tower for the small community.

Among the important works connected with his position with the Reclamation Service was designing of the Pardee Dam on the Mokelumnce River in California.  He was described by his colleague as being unassuming and soft spoken.  He had little to say about himself but a lot to say about engineering.
Hanna’s next project was the Soldier Settlement Investigation Northern Division.

Next came one of his biggest projects in 1921.  He was named General Manager of the Canada Land and Irrigation Company, co.L.T.D. In Medicine Hat, Alberta.   He was the administrative head of a sixteen million dollar irrigation company with 530,000 acres of Land and many head of cattle, horses, sheep and hogs.

In 1924, Hanna was hired by Mr. Davis as engineer of hydraulics and design for the Mokelumne Project.  He designed a big job in Alberta, Canada and designed the Pardee dam in California which is the tallest dam in the United States at the time.  Mr. Davis was very happy with his work or as one officer put it. “Hanna designed every project in the Mokelunme Project.”  Hanna is a technical genius as well as an administrative leader.  His technical knowledge was gained perhaps by intensive research while attending Des Moines University and later dean of the college.”

Mr. Davis appointed him general manager, East Bay Municipal Utility District in 1929.  He had 850 employees under him.  He headed a 13 million dollar concern doing a gross business of 4,700,000 per yearn selling water to nine counties of the East Bay Utility District.

In 1934, Frank Hanna retired in Ankeny, Iowa where he had begun his career in civil engineering.  He turned over the management of the farm to his son to begin writing a book called Designing of Dams by Hanna and Kennedy.  He was appointed to the corn alcohol board by Henry Wallace.

One evening, he received a call from Mr. Davis.  He had read the book on the design of dams.  The crew was having trouble setting the pilings for the Golden Gate Bridge and would Mr. Hanna come back to San Francisco.

Frank W. Hanna died suddenly at his home in Webster City in 1944.  At the end of his career he had a larger biography in Who’s Who in America than Franklin D. Roosevelt.

It was said that he was the one of seven men in the United States that understood and could keep up with Albert Einstein in Mathematics.

Publications:
1900- Logical Methods in Arithmetic
1913- Tables for Reinforced Concrete
1913- Measurement for Irrigation Water
1913- Irrigation in Agriculture
1919- The Agricultural Value of Peat Soils
1931- The Design of Dams, co-author

Inventions:

Angle Multimeter
Irrigation Water Meter
Stop and Release Valves
Source:  Who’ s Who in America 1932-1933