Kane William Horneck Explained

Kane William Horneck (1726–1753)^[1] was an officer in the Royal Engineers.^[2]

Life

He was a son of William Horneck and a grandson of Anthony Horneck. He married Hannah Muggles (1727–1803) from Devon and they had issue:^[3]

• Catherine (1750–1799); married satirist Henry William Bunbury
• Mary (1753–1840); in 1770 traveled to France with Oliver Goldsmith and his family, to whom she was introduced by Joshua Reynolds;^[4] married Colonel Francis Edward Gwyn in 1778^[5]

He was close friends with Edmund Burke, who on Kane's death became his daughters' guardian.^[6] Just before his death Horneck had inspected the defences of Antigua - after his death his friend and fellow engineer officer Leonard Smelt worked up Horneck's sketches and memoranda into a full report.^[7] Hannah was also a friend of Samuel Johnson^[8] and Joshua Reynolds, who painted Hannah and both her daughters.^[9]

References

1. http://personalia.co.uk/HORNECK-William-1685-1746-military-engineer-ALS-to-the-Board-of-Ordnance-1733
2. Web site: Hannah Horneck (Née Triggs) - National Portrait Gallery.
3. Web site: Hannah Horneck (Née Triggs) - National Portrait Gallery.
4. Ralph Wardle, Oliver Goldsmith (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1957), pages 172-173
5. Norbert Schurer (editor), Charlotte Lennox: Correspondence and Miscellaneous Documents (Bucknell University Press, 2012), pages 386-387
6. Burke's Correspondence, VII. 64
7. Web site: Smelt, Leonard. 52.
8. The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume I: 1731-1772 (Princeton University Press, 2014), pages 339-340
9. Web site: Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92) - MRS. Hannah Horneck.