Robert Hanna, Esquire         

     At the left are two biographical sketches from one of John Newton Boucher's (1854-1933) book titled Old and New Westmoreland, Volume 2, Pub. 1918.  The first is short biography of Robert Hanna and the second is an excerpt from the biography of William Crawford who was one of the first justices appointed to the Westmoreland County Court when the county was first established.   Hanna and Crawford may  have served side by side from the same bench. Hanna, in later years, seems to have retired from the bench at the Hannastown Courthouse.
    Boucher wrote that there were few records to be found concerning Robert Hanna's career as a Justice.

  Today, with the help of the internet, we can locate a few more records which can be found at:
                           http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/
As a matter of fact, Robert Hanna served as one of the justices at the "Orphans Court" when the court appoints guardians for the children of Robert Miller after his death in  Oct. of 1775. This document is dated February 6, 1776. See excerpt below from partition book 3 of court records.▼

  Below is another document find when we visited the Westmoreland County Court House in Greensburg, PA in the summer of 2009.  It is the court record of Robert Hanna's will written on 19 Apr 1785 and proven on 2 May 1786.   We know that Robert Hanna's wife was Elizabeth Kelly, and from another document we find that one of his daughter's name was Jeannette or Jennet and from the will, he mentions his youngest daughter, Susanna.  Jennet and Mrs. Hanna were captured by Indians (some historic sources say that there were two daughters captured) at Miller's Blockhouse the same day that Hannastown was sacked in April 1782, They were returned in December of 1782.  After Jennet/Jeanette/Jane was returned, she married Lt. David Hammond.  See this page for more details about the Hannas and the Hammonds.