Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hannay, Patrick
HANNAY, PATRICK (d. 1629?), poet, was probably the third son of Alexander Hannay of Kirkdale in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. His grandfather, Donald Hannay of Sorbie, had distinguished himself in border-warfare, and 'well was known to th' English by his sword.' Early in James I's reign Patrick Hannay, with a cousin Robert (created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1629), came to the English court and was favourably noticed by Queen Anne. About 1620 both Patrick and Robert received grants of land in county Longford, Ireland, and in 1621 Patrick visited Sweden. After his return he received a clerkship in the office of the Irish privy council in Dublin. Attempts, which were for a time successful, were made to oust him from this post, but Charles I reinstated him in 1625 on the ground of his 'having done our late dear father [i.e. James I] good and acceptable service beyond the seas with great charge and danger of his life, and having been recommended to us by our dear mother.' In 1627 Hannay became master of chancery in Ireland. He is said to have died at sea in 1629. He does not seem to have married.
Hannay is mentioned in John Dunbar's 'Epigrammaton Centuriæ Sex,' 1616. In 1618-19 appeared 'A Happy Husband, or Directions for a Maide to choose her Mate, as also a Wives behaviour towards her Husband after Marriage. By Patricke Hannay, gent. To which is adioyned the Good Wife; together with an Exquisite discourse of epitaphs … By R. B[rathwait],' 8vo. The 'Happy Husband' and Brathwait's 'Good Wife' were written in imitation of Overbury's 'Wife.' In 1619 Hannay published 'Two Elegies on the late death of our Soveraigne Queene Anne. With Epitaphes,' &c., 4to, with the title printed in white on a black ground. Three years afterwards he republished the 'Happy Husband' and the elegies, adding some new poems. The collective edition of 1622, 'The Nightingale. Sheretine and Mariana. A happy Husband. Elegies on the Death of Queen Anne. Songs and Sonnets,' 8vo, has the title within a border of thirteen compartments (engraved by Crispin de Pass), with two bars of music in the upper portion and the author's portrait below. Each of the five parts has a separate title-page ; the pagination is continuous throughout. 'The Nightingale,' a poem in stanzas of sixteen lines, has a edication to the Duchess of Lennox and commendatory verse by Robert Hannay, John Marshall, William Lithgow, &c. 'Sheretine and Mariana,' a graceful narrative poem in six-line stanzas, is dedicated to the Countess of Bedford. Before the 'Songs and Sonnets' there is a dedicatory epistle to a soldier under whom Hannay had served abroad, 'Sir Andrew Gray, Knight, Colonell of a foot regiment and Generall of the Artillerie to ... Prince Fredericke King of Bohemia.' From one of the poems in the 'Songs and Sonnets' we learn that Hannay had resided for some time in the neighbourhood of Croydon, Surrey. Some of the songs are smoothly written ; but the volume is chiefly prized for the frontispiece. In 1632 a copy of commendatory verses by him was prefixed to the first collected edition of William Lithgow's 'Travels.'
A facsimile reprint of the 1622 collection of Hannay's poems was issued in 1875 by the Hunterian Club, with a memoir of the author by David Laing. Mr. Huth has a fine copy of the rare original.
[Memoir by David Laing in the Hunterian Club's reprint of Hannay's Poems ; Corser's Collectanea Anglo-Poetica ; Cat. of the Huth Library ; information kindly supplied by Captain W. Hanna, E.A., a collateral descendant.]