Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/318

  and dismissed the service. The finding of the court was generally thought to have been vindictive, and it was subsequently quashed on the ground of informality. Hannay was not, however, employed again, nor did he seriously seek for employment. From 1846 onwards till his appointment as consul in 1868 he worked on the press and at literature. His first engagement was as a reporter on the 'Morning Chronicle,' in which capacity he relied more on his remarkable memory than on his knowledge of shorthand. In the meantime he was reading zealously in the British Museum. At the end of 1847 he worked with Mr. H. S. Edwards on 'Pasquin,' a very short-lived comic paper, and the forerunner of the somewhat happier 'Puppet Show,' which lasted from 1848 to 1849. In 1848 he began using his naval experiences, and wrote the first of the stories which were afterwards collected in his 'Sketches in Ultramarine,' published in 1853. In 1848 he first made the acquaintance of Thackeray and Carlyle, to whom he was proud to acknowledge his obligations. He soon improved his literary connection, and worked for papers of good position, for the quarterlies and magazines, till he became editor of the 'Edinburgh Evening Courant' in 1860. During these years he published his best work, his two naval novels, 'Singleton Fontenoy' (1850) and 'Eustace Conyers' (1855), and the volume of lectures on 'Satire and Satirist,' delivered at the Literary Institution, Edward Street, Portman Square, in 1853, and collected in book form in 1854. It was during these years also that he began to write the essays to the 'Quarterly,' afterwards collected into a volume, and that he taught himself to read Greek. In 1857 he contested without success the representation of the Dumfries boroughs in parliament. He stood as a tory, and was defeated by [q. v.] From 1860 to 1864 he edited the 'Edinburgh Evening Courant.' The zeal with which he attacked conduct and persons he disliked caused his management of the paper to be somewhat conspicuous. In 1864 he returned to London, and remained there till he was appointed consul at Brest by Lord Stanley, 1868. During these years he published his 'Studies on Thackeray ' (1869), his 'Three Hundred Years of a Norman House ' (1866), a portion of a history of the Gurney family, and his 'Course of English Literature' (1866), a reprint of articles contributed years before to the 'Welcome Guest.' Hannay did not proceed to Brest, but exchanged this post for that of Barcelona in Spain. Although he continued to write for papers and magazines, chiefly for the 'Pall Mall Gazette' and the 'Cornhill,' he published no more books. His death occurred very suddenly on 9 Jan. 1873 at Putchet, a suburb of Barcelona. Hannay was twice married, first, in 1853, to Margaret Thompson, who died in 1865; and then, in 1868, to Jean Hannay, a lady of the same name, but of no traceable relationship, who died in Spain in 1870. He had by the first marriage six, and by the second one child, who survived him.



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 &hellip; 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 