AN HISTORICAL OUTLINE

OF THE ORIGINS

OF THE FAMILY HANNA GENERALLY

AND THE DESCENDANTS

OF

ROBERT HANNA

WESTMORELAND COUNTY

PENNSYLVANIA

 

by Theodore Allison Hanna

 

A quote from the writing of the Reverend James A. Mac C. Hanna, in his book "Hanna of Castle Sorbie and Descendants"; seems a very appropriate way to start this historical outline of our origin, history and descendancy: "The Hanna family, is so ancient that its earlier years are hidden in the mists and moors of the homeland. We have many reliable records from the 13th century to the present date that this Celtic family has been an honorable one in every phase of human activity. What, indeed, a great name and heritage to pass on to our descendants!".

 

For more complete history of our family’s development through the ages, this writer refers to reader to the above publication, and the works of Stewart Hannay Francis, "the Hannays of Sorbie". This was never intended to be a scholarly work, but merely an outline to familiarize the reader with the origins of his race, heritage and the background leading to the descendancy of our particular line of the family Hanna. Both of the above named publications are available from the Clan Hannay Society, Great Britain; The Clan Hanna Societies in the US, and are registered with the US Library of Congress, for copies of the manuscripts.

 

Hanna family legend holds that one Patrick A’hannay, who lived around the time of 1150 AD, was the first known to use the surname Hanna. He is therefore assumed to be, and is accepted as the progenitor of our race. He would have been the son of the "Hanna", the last man to have a given name only. Further identification to have been his occupation, place of birth or abode, or some physical characteristic.

 

There is earlier record of a priest named Hanna, who may have been a Bishop, who was alive around the year 1098 AD. The thought that he may be one of our ancestors is extremely dim, though quite possible. There is a long history of our men in the clergy.

 

The first appearances, of record, of the name is a document know as the "Ragman’s Roll", of 1296 AD. When England’s King Edward I had his Scottish Barons swear fealty to him by signing this roll of landed gentry. Gilbert De Annethe and Gilbert De Hannethe were signators of record. They were the owners of record of the lands of Sorbie (about the year 1250 AD), in the county of Wigton, Halloway, in southern Scotland. The two Gilberts may have been father and eldest son. The son would have been heir.

 

The thirteenth century seem to be the time when surnames came into common use in Scotland.

 

Our family is considered to be of the Pictish/Gaelic origin. The Picts and Gaels were both Celtic (p. Keltic) peoples. The Celts originated in the Alpine headwaters of the Danube River in central Europe more that 8500 years ago. The Celts at that time had already developed the oldest European culture that has continued through the ages to the present; predating the Greek and Roman civilizations by thousands of years. They spread eastward to central Anatolia (now known as Turkey) and were known, in biblical times, as the Galatians. These people were well known to the ancient Greeks who called them Keltoi, their word for barbarian.

 

The first human settlements in Scotland date back some 8500 years. These were pre-Celtic, stone-age peoples, dark skinned much like the Mediterranean people. These first settlers were food gatherers (foragers) and possibly fishermen. Later, came the Celts, with the discovery of metals and the development of alloys with which to make tools for clearing the dense forests, hunting and still later, farming societies came into being.

 

The Celts spread westward across what is now southern Germany, Belgium, northern Italy, France, and much of Spain and Portugal, and had settled in the British Isles long before the roman Empire arose. There are ancient cairns (stone burial chambers) located on the Hannay estate at Kirkdale, built by the Celts, that date back some 3500 years. Celtic migrations to, and settlement of, Britain commenced at least 1000 years ago. They conducted trade with Greece and the Phoenicians and other Mediterranean civilizations. Timothy, in his pre-apostolic days, traded with the Belgic tribes of Britain, for tin to be alloyed with copper for the making of bronze.

 

As the Roman Empire began to emerge, Rome had much contact with Gaul, as the Romans called the lands to the north. The Romans used the word that the Celts used to refer to themselves. There were times of peaceful trade; and times of warfare. Rome eventually conquered Gaul including Britain, with the exception of the Caledonian (Scottish) highlands. The Pictish tribe that the Romans met and conquered in Galloway were known as the Novanti. After several attempts to conquer the Highland Picts; Rome gave up in despair and built a wall, the Antonine wall built by and named for the future Emperor of Rome, North of a line drawn from present day Glasgow to Edinburgh, to seal the barbaric Picts out of the roman Empire. Many years later, Hadrian (later Emperor of Rome) gave up trying to control even the southern Picts. He built the wall, named after him, which runs along the present border between Scotland and England. Galdus, the last Pictish king to do battle against the Roman Legions, is know to be buried on the Hannay lands at Kirkdale. Pict, by the way, is the Roman word for, the northern Britons, meaning picture, as these people tattooed their bodies with a blue dye.

 

At about the time The Empire was commencing its decline, the Irish of the kingdom of Dalriada, in Ulster (Northern Ireland), started their invasions of the Hebrides Islands, the Western Highlands, Strathclyde and Galloway; to establish the Kingdom of New Dalriada. These Irish invaders were the Gaels who make up the Gaelic part of our Pictish/Gaelic ancestry.

 

These Gaels were named Scotii (meaning thieves) by the Romans. They eventually conquered the Picts and the new Kingdom of Scotland came into being. The Picts had been driven eastward into the Grampian highlands, where their culture and language eventually died out. The only thing we know of their culture today is their wonderful artistic designs of stylized animal and knotwork graphics and sculptures.

 

The Empire of Rome declined as the Germanic hordes came out of central Asia and eventually took over all of the territory that once was Gaul, with the exception of Brittany in northern France and the area in present day Spain known as Gallicia. Ireland, in all of this, managed to escape these invasions with the exception of the coming of the Gaels from Spain, many centuries earlier.

 

The Germanic tribes, Angles and Saxons, invaded and conquered most of southern Britain, including parts of southeastern Scotland, to establish Angleland (English) language. Celtica had been reduced to Wales, Cornwall, and most of Scotland, in Britain; the Isle of Man, Ireland; Brittany and Gallicia, on the continent.

 

In the second Century AD, St. Ninian, a Briton, founded his mission, Candida Casa, at the Isle of Whithorn, just a few short miles south from the Estates at Sorbie. It was the first Christian Church established on Scottish soil. An early outpost of the ancient Celtic Church, it later was adopted into the Roman Catholic Church. Pilgrimages to the shrine at Whithorn were made by Royalty and the faithful for more than a millennium thereafter.

 

In family lore, the Hannas were firmly established in Galloway in the ninth century AD.

 

It was in the ninth and tenth centuries that the Vikings from present day Denmark and Norway, conducted their bloody raids and began to establish settlements. The Vikings controlled the Scottish northern island groups of the Shetlands and Orkneys, the western Hebrides Islands; settlements all around the Scottish, Irish and English coasts.

 

The first cities in the Celtic lands of Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man were established by the Vikings. The Celts never established any know cities until after their conquering by peoples of other cultures. The Celts were, and still prefer to be agrarian and pastoral by nature, whereas the Mediterranean and Germanic peoples are more urbane. This is probably the reason that the Celtic peoples have declined in numbers over the centuries. Although a warrior race, with few exception, did they ever establish any community, over a small tribe, with sufficient numbers, to repel a conquering force, or; create a conquering force, of their own, to ensure their own survival.

 

In the eleventh century, through a series of bloody wars, England was defeated at the battle of Hastings in the year 1066 AD by William the Conqueror, the Bastard Duke of Normandy. The ensuing Norman kings granted large tracts of land to those Norman knights and Peers who swore fealty to the crown. Their Baronages included lands anywhere in the British Isles, not just England.

 

As a result, the de Vetereponts, a powerful Norman family, acquired the lands of Sorbie and are the first owners of record, in the ancient province of Galloway in southwestern Scotland, the heartland of our Hanna Family.

 

How the Sorbie lands came into the possession of the Hannay family is unknown, but through the passage of many events that are beyond the scope of this outline, it did come to pass (refer to Stuart Hannay Francis’ book, "The Hannays of Sorbie"). It is known for many years the family in ownership called themselves Sorbie or de Sorbie, after the name of the estate. This is still a common practice today. However a family named Sorby did come into being, who today claim attachment to Sorbie tower. They may well have become the Hannays who were the next owners, while some retained the Sorby name. Documents dated in 1488 refer to Odo Sorbie, while his sons are clearly shown as Hannays.

 

Odo de Sorbie is the first known Hannay to own the Sorbie estate, and from him an unbroken line can be traced to the breakup of the Sorbie branch and then on to the present Kirkdale branch. Which is now the Chiefly line of the family.

 

Up to the mid 1600’s the Hannays were a most powerful influence in Wigstonshire ( shire = County). They held sway over Wigtown and the Machers (from Gaelic machair = pastureland). In fact, for many years they were known as the Machers Hannay, which cover a large area of the Wigton peninsula on the south coast of Galloway.

 

Through a series of economically devastating feuds (private wars) from the late 16th century to the mid 17th century, the Hannays of Sorbie came to their ruin. Branded as outlaws, many of the family found themselves in the Ulster Plantations. After selling off the estate to cover his indebtedness, John Hannay, last Laird of Sorbie found himself in Ulster, in 1640, where he died later in that year.

 

There is a legend in the family, that our line was under a terrible hex. However, no one in our line knew the cause of this "hex" as it is supposed that our predecessors intended that this embarrassment be buried and forgotten. Few in our line ever achieved anything of note, over the past 350 years, since the decline of Sorbie, due to the psychological effect of this hex.

 

The source of this "hex" has been discovered. In the Rev. Jas. Hanna’s Book; "Hanna of Castle Sorbie, Scotland, and descendants"; on page 60, in Chapter IV titled: "Descendants of James and Martha Hanna of North Ireland and Kentucky"; the first listing tells all, to wit:

 

17 James Hanna (1718-1798). (See Master Chart). He was a son a of Robert Hanna, grandson of Robert Hanna, great grandson of Alexander Hanna, great-great of John Hanna (died 1640) of Castle Sorbie. James was born in Ballybay, County Monaoghan, North Ireland. He married Martha __________, and they came with several older children to Pennsylvania about 1738. James Hanna had five or six brothers, and they came to America at various periods.

 

Turning to page 207, in Chapter IX; "Descendants of Robert Hanna of North Ireland and Westmoreland County Pennsylvania", we find the first listing to read:

 

17 Robert Hanna. He was a son of Robert Hanna of County Monaghan, North Ireland, town of Ballybay. He was in Lesarah Loch, Ulster, and died in Fairfield Township, Westmoreland County Pa. He came to America in 1738-1739. His known brothers were: James (1718-1798), Thomas (1720-1764), William (1723-1830), Alexander (1737-1809), John (1740-1800) There were other brothers and sisters of whom we can find no record.

 

Robert , born in 1725, then being a brother to James, is also a great-great-grandson of John, the last Laird of Sorbie.

 

Herein lies the secret of our "hex". We, in this Robert Hanna line are direct descendants of the last owners of the Sorbie Tower, who were declared outlaws against the Crown; for perpetuating those terrible feuds against John Murray of Broughton. For more than 350 years this has been hanging over our heads like a dark cloud.

 

This also explains the possible reason for the difference in spelling of our name. Part of the Proscription was that the outlawed Hannays of Sorbie could no longer use the Hannay name. If the "Y" was dropped, or an "H" added on, then that provision of the Proscription was obeyed; even if all of the spellings, in those times were pronounced alike.

 

It is believed, that our Robert Hanna is not the same Robert Hanna who established the first county seat west of the Allegheny Mountains at Hannastown, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

 

Being of the 17th generation of Sorbie, Robert was the last of our direct family in Ireland. Although he is not the progenitor of all of the Hannas in North America, as many different branches migrated here before as well as after him, he is the father of the first generation of our line on this continent. Our line is now entering its seventh generation here in the USA, covering over 260 years (1990). This seventh USA generation is the 25th of Sorbie.