Background
He was born in London, eldest son of James Hely. In 1685 he made an advantageous marriage to Meliora Gorges, daughter of the wealthy merchant Ferdinando Gorges of Eye Manor, Hertfordshire, and his wife Meliora Hilliard.
He was born in London, eldest son of James Hely. In 1685 he made an advantageous marriage to Meliora Gorges, daughter of the wealthy merchant Ferdinando Gorges of Eye Manor, Hertfordshire, and his wife Meliora Hilliard.
He entered Lincoln"s Inn in 1670 and was called to the Bar in 1679. In 1695 Hely became Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. He acted as Speaker of the Irish House of Lords in 1696-1697.
Soon afterwards despite his relative youth his health failed.
In 1701, although he felt well enough to travel on the spring assizes, he fell ill at Ennis and died "after two days sickness" at the house of Mr David England, who was later paid £3 for caring for Hely. Burke suggests that Hely, like many judges of the time, found the strain of going on assize (in particular enduring the ordeal of the notoriously bad Irish roads) too much for his constitution to bear.
About 1698 the Irish born writer and publisher John Dunton, on a visit to Dublin, gave a sketch of the Irish judiciary and praised most of them, including Hely, as "men of such reputation that no one complains of them". On the other hand Ball notes that the general reaction to the news of his sudden death was not so much grief as a widespread interest in who would be appointed to fill his place.