The Hone family is an Anglo-Irish family dating back to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland when Samuel Hone arrived with the Parliamentary army in 1649. The family is believed to be of Dutch extraction, although no connection to the Netherlands has yet been found.
History
Burke's Irish Family Records 1976 states that the Hones are of Welsh origin and that the name Hone is a variant of the name Owen. The earliest known ancestor of the Hones is Nathaniel Hone, living in 1632, who was a shoemaker in Marlborough. Nathaniel's second son, Samuel, went to Ireland with the Parliamentary army of Oliver Cromwell in 1649. In 1656, Samuel Hone was granted land near Carlow but he subsequently sold the land and established himself as a merchant in Wood Quay. Three of Samuel's grandsons are the ancestors of the various branches of the Hone family - namely Nathaniel Hone the Elder (1718-1784), Joseph Hone (1720-1799) and Brindley Hone (1734-1812), whose descendants often intermarried. The Hones, originally a merchant family, joined the ranks of the Anglo-Irish gentry in the early 19th century.
Progenitors
Nathaniel Hone the Elder, RA (1718–1784) Nathaniel Hone the Elder was the first Hone to enter the arts. He was notably one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Nathaniel married Mary Earle, who has been described in varying sources as either the natural daughter of John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll or as a 'nobleman's mistress'. Nathaniel and Mary had 12 children in total, 2 of whom, Horace and John Camillus (the subjects of many of Hone's early paintings), became accomplished artists in their own right.
Horace Hone (1756-1825), a prominent society portrait miniature painter, was appointed an associate member of the Royal Academy in 1779. In 1795, Horace Hone was appointed miniature painter to the Prince of Wales, then the future George IV. John Camillus Hone (1759-1836), another of Nathaniel's sons, was also a portrait and miniature painter. John had a flourishing career as a painter with exhibitions at the Royal Academy from 1776 to 1780 before he went out to the East Indies to refine his art skills. John Camillus Hone returned to Dublin in 1790 and was appointed to the office 'Engraver of Dies' by the Lord-Lieutenant the Earl of Westmorland.
Joseph Hone (1720–1799) Joseph Hone was a clothier in Dublin and a younger brother of Nathaniel Hone the Elder. He had two sons, Joseph (1747-1803) and Nathaniel (1758-1846), and a daughter Abigail (1752-1855) who married her first cousin John Camillus Hone (above). Nathaniel, Joseph's second son, had started life as a clothier but soon pursued a career in finance which culminated in his appointment as Governor of the Bank of Ireland in 1822. Joseph Hone, the elder son, had 9 children - 3 of whom had descendants: Joseph Hone (1775-1857), John Hone (1776-1836) and William Hone (1782-1859).
Joseph Hone (1775-1857) married Mary Crosthwaite, daughter of Leland Crosthwaite and Anne Maria Laban (whose mother was a Darby of the Leap Castle family), and had 10 children, having previously had 4 children with his first wife Elinor Maxwell. One of Joseph's daughters, Ann (1804-1896) married Brindley Hone (1796-1862), a grandson of Brindley Hone (1734-1812), and they had 13 children, including Nathaniel Hone the Younger (1831-1917). Brindley Hone (1796-1862) was the chairman of the Grand Canal Company as well as Director of the Bank of Ireland and had lived at Vevay House in Ballybrack which passed through the ownership of his many sons until it finally changed hands. Another of Joseph (1775-1857)'s sons was Nathaniel Hone (1807-1880), who served as Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff of County Dublin in 1870 and as Director of the Bank of Ireland. Nathaniel owned 1,687 acres of land in County Tipperary and built St Dolough's Park, which was later the residence of Nathaniel Hone the Younger.
John Hone (1776-1836) married Anne Crosthwaite, also a daughter of Leland Crosthwaite and Anne Maria Laban above. John and Anne had 16 children. The second son, Joseph Hone (1809-1872) was the father of 10 children including Charles Henry Hone (1866-1964) who lived at Tigh Lorcain Hall in Stillorgan. The descendants of John Hone (1776-1836) were largely clergy, civil servants and merchants around Dublin.