John Hannah

John Hannah D.D., called the elder (1792–1867) was an English Wesleyan Methodist minister. Life Born at Lincoln on 3 November 1792, he was the third son of a coal-dealer. His parents were Wesleyan Methodists in Lincoln. He received his early education from local teachers, mainly from the Rev. W. Gray, a senior vicar of the cathedral: he knew the classics, and studied French, mathematics, and Hebrew. Hannah helped his father in his trade, and at an early age became a Wesleyan preacher in villages around Lincoln, preaching his first sermon at Waddington. He expressed an interest during 1813 in Thomas Coke's mission to India, though the anticipated vacancy did not occur. In 1814 he was received into the Wesleyan ministry. In 1824 Hannah was sent to America to a Wesleyan conference. He was in 1834 appointed tutor of the Wesleyan Theological Institution, at Hoxton and then at Stoke Newington. From 1840 to 1842 and from 1854 to 1858 he was secretary, and in 1842 and again in 1851 president of the Wesleyan conference. In 1843 he was appointed to the theological tutorship of the northern branch of the Institution for training ministers, at Didsbury in Yorkshire, which he held till within a few months of his death.