Background
Born at Gracefield, Blackrock, Dublin, on 28 October 1842, he was eldest son of Sir Robert Kane. His mother, Katherine, daughter of Henry Baily of Berkshire and niece of Francis Baily, wrote an Irish Flora.
Born at Gracefield, Blackrock, Dublin, on 28 October 1842, he was eldest son of Sir Robert Kane. His mother, Katherine, daughter of Henry Baily of Berkshire and niece of Francis Baily, wrote an Irish Flora.
After attending Doctor Quinn"s private school in Harcourt Street, Kane passed to Queen"s College, Cork, where he graduated Master of Arts in 1862 (and later received in 1882 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws)
Becoming a member of Lincoln"s Inn, Kane studied law in London in the chambers of an eminent conveyancing lawyer, West. H. G. Bagshawe, and in 1865 he graduated Bachelor of Laws with honours in London University.
He wrote also on Irish history. Called to the Irish bar the same year, he went the Munster circuit and built up a good practice. In 1873 he was appointed professor of equity, jurisprudence, and international law at the King"s Inns.
And, acquiring the reputation of an authority on Irish land legislation, he was in 1881 appointed a legal assistant commissioner under the Land Law Acting of that year.
He retained that post till 1892, when he was made county court judge for the united counties of Kildare, Carlow, Wexford and Wicklow. After some years of poor health, Kane died at his residence, 4 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin, on 26 March 1902.
The elder son, Harold, lieutenant in the 1st battalion of the South Lancashire regiment, fell in the Second Boer war while fighting on the summit of Mount Itala on 26 September 1901.
He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, for many years one of the two honorary secretaries of the Royal Dublin Society, and a trustee of the National Library of Ireland.