Background
He was born at Fidane, in County Galway, third son of Edmond Kelly, or O"Kelly, a minor landowner, and Margery Bourke.
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Thomas Kelly
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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. 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.
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, which ultimately led to a place on the Bench in 1783, and a seat on the Privy Council of Ireland. Reputation
Kelly as a judge proved to be something of an embarrassment to the Government which had appointed him.
Barrington records a story of Kelly, who had decided a point of law wrongly twice, expressing the hope that he could get the law right the third time. Nonetheless he retained his popularity, having the reputation of being a kindly and humane judge, with a sense of humour, and a reluctance, unusual at the time, to impose the death penalty.
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."
He had a town house in Dublin and a country seat, Kellyville (formerly Derrinroe), near Ballintubbert, County Laois, which he purchased around 1777, and substantially rebuilt.
He retired in 1801: by some accounts this was in protest against the passing of the Acting of Union 1800, which destroyed the independent Irish Parliament to which Kelly was devoted. He died in Dublin in 1809. Thomas Kelly junior (1769–1855) and the Kellyites
The younger Thomas published at least eight volumes of hymns.
He was originally intended for the Bar, like his father.
In consequence he founded his own small breakaway sect, usually called the Kellyites.
