Thomas Kelly (politician)

Thomas Kelly (c. 1725-1809) was an Irish barrister, judge and politician: he was Serjeant-at-law (Ireland), sat briefly in the Irish House of Commons and was a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland). In the nineteenth century his principal claim to fame was in being the father of Thomas Kelly junior, a prollific writer of hymns and founder of his own Protestant sect.^[1]

He was born at Fidane, in County Galway, son of Edmond Kelly.^[2] He entered Middle Temple in 1747 and was called to the Bar in 1753; he is said then to have spent some years in the West Indies.^[3] Returning to Ireland he went on the Connacht circuit, where sat as an extra judge of assize; he became King's Counsel in 1767 and Prime Serjeant in 1782.^[4]

Entering politics, he was a strong supporter of Henry Grattan and sat briefly as MP for Portarlington in 1783. His support for the cause of full independence for the Parliament of Ireland had made him very popular, and this popularity enabled him to become one of the most successful barristers of the time,^[5] which ultimately led to a place on the Bench in 1783, and a seat on the Privy Council of Ireland.^[6]

Kelly as a judge proved to be something of an embarrassment to the Government which had appointed him. His problem, according to the judge and memoirist Sir Jonah Barrington, was that his great popularity as a barrister was entirely unrelated to his abilities, which were mediocre at best, and he was appointed to the Bench in the belief that his legal learning was much greater than it really was.^[7] Barrington's low opinion of Kelly as a judge was fully shared by the English-born politician Edward Cooke, always a stern critic of the Irish judiciary: he wrote that "Kelly has been most unfortunate in his judgments: scarcely one upon a dubious point which has not been set aside."^[8]

He had a town house in Dublin and a country seat, Kellyville, near Athy, County Kildare. He retired in 1801 and died in Dublin in 1809. He was married and had a son, Rev. Thomas Kelly (1769-1855). The younger Thomas published at least eight volumes of hymns: originally intended for the Bar, like his father, he took holy orders instead, but was unable to accept the discipline of the Church of Ireland and was prohibited from preaching by the Archbbishop of Dublin.. In consequence he founded his own small breakaway sect, usually called the Kellyites.^[9]

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