William Hornby (baptised 11 March 1723, Snaith, died 18 November 1803, The Hook, near Titchfield, Hampshire)[1] was an English Governor of Bombay from 1771 to 1784.
[1] As Governor of Bombay, he is best remembered by the Vellard north of Cumballa Hill which was constructed at his behest against the wishes of the British East India Company.
One of the first large works of civil engineering in the city, it transformed the geography of the islands by opening up the low-lying marshy areas of Mahalaxmi and Kamathipura for inhabitation on its completion in 1784.
An intriguing dead-end of information is the statement attributed to John Murray, that "The Hornby diamond, brought from the East Indies by the Hon.
He set out to build a country mansion, which he called The Hook, built in the style of the Government House in Bombay and removed the remains of a medieval village to create a parkland for himself.