William Hanna (minister)

Rev William Hanna LLD DD (1808–1882) was a Scottish minister, known as theological writer and the biographer of Thomas Chalmers, his father-in-law.

William Hanna, 1860s photo

The grave of Rev William Hanna, Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh

Life

Born in Belfast on 26 November 1808, he was the son of Rev Samuel Hanna, a minister there of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. He studied at the University of Glasgow, going on to the University of Edinburgh where he studied under Thomas Chalmers.^[1]

In 1834 Hanna was licensed as a probationer of the Church of Scotland, and was ordained to East Kilbride, a parish near Glasgow, on 17 September 1835. In 1837 he was translated to the parish of Skirling, Peebles-shire, near Biggar. During the controversy that preceded the Disruption of 1843, he took an active part on the side of Chalmers and his allies; and left the establishment, taking his congregation with him.^[1]

Having resigned his charge at Skirling, Hanna removed permanently to Edinburgh, where in 1850 he was called to be colleague to Thomas Guthrie, as minister of St. John's Free Church. He received in 1852 the degree of LL.D. from the university of Glasgow; in 1864 he was made D.D. by the university of Edinburgh. In 1866 he retired from the active duties of the ministry.

He died in London, 24 May 1882.^[1] He is buried in the Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh in the plot of his father-in-law, Thomas Chalmers (against the north wall).

Works

On the death of Thomas Chalmers in 1847, Hanna was asked to write his life, and arranged a temporary exchange so he could reside for a time in Edinburgh. The Life came out in four volumes (1849–52), to which was added a fifth, containing extracts of Correspondence. Hanna also edited the Posthumous Works of Dr. Chalmers, in nine volumes. In 1847 he was appointed editor of the North British Review, but did not hold the post long.^[1]

Hanna published (among other books):^[1]

• Wycliffe and the Huguenots, 1860 (originally two series of lectures at the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh).
• Martyrs of the Scottish Reformation.
• Last Day of our Lord's Passion, 1862 (this volume reached a circulation of fifty thousand).
• The Forty Days after the Resurrection, 1863.
• The Earlier Years of our Lord, 1864.
• The Passion Week, 1866.
• Our Lord's Ministry in Galilee, 1868.
• The Close of our Lord's Ministry, 1869.
• The Resurrection of the Dead, 1872.

Hanna edited in 1858 a volume of Essays by Ministers of the Free Church of Scotland, Charles Hodge's Idea of the Church in 1860, and in 1877 the Letters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen. He circulated privately a memoir of Alexander Keith Johnston.^[1]

Hanna was also a contributor to the Sunday Magazine, Good Words, The Quiver, and other periodicals.^[1]

Family

While at East Kirkbride, Hanna married Anne Simson Chalmers, eldest daughter of Thomas Chalmers.^[1]

They had a daughter, Matilda Grace Hanna, who married Alexander Watt Blackie.

Notes

1.  Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Hanna, William". Dictionary of National Biography. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Hanna, William". Dictionary of National Biography. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

References

• Mitchell, Rosemary. "Hanna, William (1808–1882)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12208. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)