Fitzroy Kelly

Sir Fitzroy Edward Kelly PC (9 October, 1796 – 18 September 1880) was an English commercial lawyer of remarkable and precocious talent, a politician and a judge.

Kelly was born in London, the son of Robert Hawke Kelly (died in or before 1807), a captain in the Royal Navy, and novellist Isabella Kelly "née" Fordyce. In 1824 he was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn, having already gained a reputation as a skilled special pleader. In 1834 he was made a King's Counsel, remarkably after only 10 years' call. A strong Tory, he was returned as member of parliament for Ipswich in 1835, but was unseated on petition. In 1837 however he again became member for that town.Allen (2004)]

From 1843 to 1847 he was MP for Cambridge, and in 1852 was elected member for Harwich, but a vacancy suddenly occurring in East Suffolk, he preferred to contest that seat and was elected. He was solicitor-general in 1845 (when he was knighted), and again from February to December 1852, during which time he was junior to Attorney-General Sir Frederic Thesiger in the prosecution of John Henry Newman for libel, the Achilli trial. In 1858–1859 he was Attorney General in Lord Derby's second administration. In 1866 he was raised to the bench as Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and made a member of the Privy Council. He died at Brighton on 18 September 1880.

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Bibliography

*1911
*Rayment-hc----
*Allen, C. J. W. (2004) "Kelly, Sir Fitzroy Edward (1796–1880)", "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15295, accessed 25 July 2007] (subscription required)
* cite book | author=Foss, E. | title=A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England: From the Conquest to the Present Time 1066-1870 | origyear=1848–64 | year=2006 | id=ISBN 1428629599 | authorlink=Edward Foss
*R. Shave Gowing, 'Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Lord Chief Baron' in "Public Men of Ipswich and East Suffolk. A Series of Personal Sketches" (Scopes: Ipswich, and Grant & Co.:London, 1875), pp. 71-78.