Thomas Kelly (hymn-writer)

Thomas Kelly (1769–1855) was an Irish evangelical, known as a Church of Ireland cleric to 1803, hymn writer and founder of the Kellyites.

Life

He was the son of Thomas Kelly (1723–1809), judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) and Frances Hickie, daughter of James Jephson Hickie of Carrick on Suir, and was born at the family seat, Kellyville (formerly Derrinroe), Queen's County, on 13 July 1769. He entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1785, graduating B.A. in 1789. He was admitted to London's Middle Temple in 1786.[1]

In Dublin, Kelly was influenced by John Walker (1769–1833), also a Trinity College undergraduate. He had been impressed with the views of William Romaine and the Hutchinsonians.[2] Giving up on a legal career, he was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1792; Walker was ordained too, by 1793.[1][3] Two other friends were ordained at this period, Henry Maturin and Walter Shirley.[2] Rowland Hill visited Dublin in 1793, and Kelly began to preach on grace in line with Hill's views. With others, he gave the Sunday afternoon sermons at St. Luke's Church, Dublin in early 1794. These provoked Robert Fowler, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin who inhibited them on doctrinal grounds.[1]

Kelly reacted first by preaching in unconsecrated Dublin locations: one on Plunket Street, another the Bethesda Chapel.[4] He went on to Athy. In 1795 he married, and moved out to Blackrock, where he built himself a chapel of ease.[1]

With his allies, Kelly spread his evangelical views widely in Ireland. In 1802 he founded the religious sect that became known as the Kellyites, with half a dozen congregations, recruiting some ministers from Scotland, where the same year the seminary run by the Haldane brothers, Robert and James Alexander, moved from Glasgow to Edinburgh and expanded.[1][5] In 1803 he broke with the Church of Ireland.[1] The same year, also, Walker had gathered a group naming itself the Church of God, and he was expelled as a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin in 1804.[3]

Kelly died in Dublin on 14 May 1855, having acted as minister to his flock in Athy and Dublin for half a century. After his death, his congregation dropped away.[1]

Hymn-writer

Kelly is reckoned to have written 765 hymns, published over 51 years. A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1802) contained 247, of which 33 were by Kelly. Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture (1804) ran to four editions, after which there was Hymns of Thomas Kelly, never before published (1815), followed by four further editions. He used unusual metres.[4]

Selected hymns
  • Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted[6]
  • We Sing the Praise of Him Who Died[7]
  • Who Is This That Comes From Edom?[8]
  • The Head that Once Was Crowned With Thorns[9]
  • Hark! Ten Thousand Harps and Voices[10]
  • Look, Ye Saints, the Sight is Glorious[11]
  • Zion Stands by Hills Surrounded[12]
  • Through the Day Thy Love Hath Spared Us[13]

Family

In 1795, Kelly married Elizabeth Tighe, eldest daughter of William Tighe (1738–1782), of Rosanna, County Wicklow, MP for Athboy and a supporter of John Wesley, and his wife Sarah Fownes, daughter of Sir William Fownes, 2nd Baronet. She brought a fortune to the marriage. They had two daughters, Elizabeth, who married Reverend Richard Wingfield, a younger son of the 4th Viscount Powerscourt, and Frances, who married Reverend Thomas Webber, and was the mother of General Charles Edmund Webber.[1][14]

Notes
  1. Carter, Grayson. "Kelly, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/46328. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Carter, Grayson (2015). Anglican Evangelicals: Protestant Secessions from the Via Media, c. 1800–1850. Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9781498278379.
  3. Huddleston, David. "Walker, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28502. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. Julian, John (1957). A Dictionary of Hymnology: Setting Forth the Origin and History of Christian Hymns of All Ages and Nations. [2nd Rev. Ed.] 1. Dover. p. 614. ISBN 9780719507496.
  5. Haldane, Alexander (1853). Memoirs of the Lives of Robert Haldane of Airthrey, and of His Brother, James Alexander Haldane. R. Carter and brothers. p. 300.
  6. Text for "Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted," for the tune, see "O mein Jesu, ich muss sterben," (mp3), four verses of organ only music
  7. Text for "We Sing the Praise of Him Who Died," for the tune, see "O Jesu Christ, mein's," (mp3), five verses of organ only music
  8. Text for "Who Is This That Comes From Edom?," for the tune, see "Neander," (mp3), four verses of organ only music
  9. Text for "The Head that Once was Crowned with Thorns," for the tune, see "St. Magnus," (mp3), six verses of organ only music
  10. Text for "Hark! Ten Thousand Harps and Voices," for the tune, see "Neander," (mp3), six verses of organ only music
  11. Text for "Look, Ye Saints, the Sight is Glorious," for the tune, see "Coronae," (mp3), four verses of organ only music
  12. Text for "Zion Stands by Hills Surrounded," for the tune, see "Zion," (mp3), three verses of organ only music
  13. Text for "Through the Day Thy Love Hath Spared Us," for the tune, see "Komm, o Komm, du Geist," (mp3), two verses of organ only music
  14. Burke, John (1836). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Enjoying Territorial Possessions Or High Official Rank, But Uninvested with Heritable Honours. Henry Colburn. p. 514.
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