{{Short description|British politician (1796–1880)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = Sir Fitzroy Kelly | honorific_suffix = QC | image = SirFitzroyKelly.jpg | office = Chief Baron of the Exchequer | term_start = 16 July 1866 | term_end = 18 September 1880 | monarch = Victoria | prime_minister = | predecessor = Sir Frederick Pollock | successor = Office abolished | office1 = Attorney General for England and Wales | term_start1 = 21 February 1858 | term_end1 = 11 June 1859 | prime_minister1 = The Earl of Derby | predecessor1 = Sir Richard Bethell | successor1 = Sir Richard Bethell | office2 = Solicitor General for England and Wales | term_start2 = 27 February 1852 | term_end2 = 17 December 1852 | prime_minister2 = The Earl of Derby | predecessor2 = Sir William Wood | successor2 = Sir Richard Bethell | term_start3 = 17 July 1845 | term_end3 = 29 June 1846 | prime_minister3 = Sir Robert Peel | predecessor3 = Sir Frederic Thesiger | successor3 = John Jervis | birth_date = {{birth date|1796|10|9|df=y}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1880|9|18|1796|10|9|df=y}} | death_place = Brighton, England | party = Tory | alma_mater = | spouse = {{marriage|Agnes Scarth|1821|1851|end=died}}<br />{{marriage|Ada Cunningham|1856}} }}
'''Sir Fitzroy Edward Kelly''' (9 October 1796 – 18 September 1880) was an English commercial lawyer, Tory politician and judge. He was the last Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
==Background and education== Kelly was born in London, the son of Robert Hawke Kelly (died in or before 1807), a captain in the Royal Navy. His mother was the novelist Isabella Kelly, daughter of Captain William Fordyce, Groom of the Privy Chamber to George III. In 1824, he was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn, having already gained a reputation as a skilled special pleader.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
==Career== thumb|left|Sir Fitzroy Kelly, 1847 [[File:Fitzroy Edward Kelly00.jpg|thumb|''Vanity Fair'' caricature, November 1871]] In 1834 Kelly was made a King's Counsel, remarkably after only ten 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.<ref name="ODNB" /> From 1843 to 1847 he was MP for Cambridge,<ref name="vch">{{cite web |title=The city of Cambridge: Parliamentary representation Pages 68-76 A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City and University of Cambridge |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol3/pp68-76 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History, 1959 |access-date=26 December 2022}}</ref> and in 1852 was elected member for Harwich, but with a vacancy suddenly occurring in East Suffolk, he preferred to contest that seat and was elected.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
Most of his legal cases were of a commercial nature, but one was one of the great criminal poisoning crimes of the early Victorian period. In March 1845 Kelly defended John Tawell, the "Quaker murderer," was in fact no longer a member of the Quakers, though he did try to return to that group. Tawell had poisoned his mistress, Sarah Hart, and fled from Salt Hill in Aylesbury by train. However, a description of Tawell was sent to London by electric telegraph, and he was captured. Kelly did the best he could for his client, but he was not accustomed to criminal defence. His argument that Sarah Hart had eaten too many apple pips and been poisoned by the prussic acid in the pips led to the nickname "Apple-pip," which followed Kelly for the rest of his life. Despite his endeavours, his client was found guilty and hanged.
Kelly 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
In 1854, Kelly was appointed to the Royal Commission for Consolidating the Statute Law, a royal commission to consolidate existing statutes and enactments of English law.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Ilbert |first=Courtenay |author-link=Courtenay Ilbert |url=https://archive.org/details/legislativemetho00ilbeiala/page/56 |title=Legislative methods and forms |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1901 |location=Oxford |pages=57 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>
In 1858–1859 he was Attorney General in Lord Derby's second ministry. In 1866 he was raised to the bench as the last Chief Baron of the Exchequer and made a member of the Privy Council, entitling him to sit on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
Kelly died at Brighton on 18 September 1880, aged 83.<ref name="ODNB" /> He was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery. [[File:Grave of Sir Fitzroy Edward Kelly in Highgate Cemetery.jpg|thumb|Grave of Sir Fitzroy Edward Kelly in Highgate Cemetery]]
==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |image = Sir Fitzroy Edward Kelly Achievement.png |escutcheon = Azure two lions rampant respectant Or supporting on their paws a castle Argent. |crest = A griffin passant. |motto = Turris Fortis Mihi Deus<ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Illustrated House of Commons and Judicial Bench |date=1867}}</ref>}}
==See also== *Politics of the United Kingdom
==References== <references>
<ref name="ODNB">Allen, C. J. W. (2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15295 "Kelly, Sir Fitzroy Edward (1796–1880)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press</ref>
</references>
==Bibliography== *{{EB1911|wstitle=Kelly, Sir Fitzroy|volume=15|page=720}} *{{Rayment-hc|date=March 2012}} *{{cite book | author=Foss, E. | title=A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England: from the Conquest to the present time, 1066–1870 | orig-year=1848–64 | year=2006 | isbn=1-4286-2959-9 | author-link=Edward Foss }} * Gowing, Richard (1875) 'Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Lord Chief Baron' in: Richard Gowing ''Public Men of Ipswich and East Suffolk. a series of personal sketches''. Ipswich: Scopes; London: Grant & Co., 1875; pp. 71–78
== External links == * {{Commons category-inline|Fitzroy Edward Kelly}} * {{hansard-contribs | mr-fitz-roy-kelly | Sir Fitzroy Kelly }}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Ipswich | with = Robert Adam Dundas | years = 1835 | before = James Morrison <br />Rigby Wason | after = James Morrison <br />Rigby Wason }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Ipswich | with = Thomas Milner Gibson 1838–1839; | with2 = Thomas John Cochrane 1839–1841 | years = 1838–1841 | before = Thomas Milner Gibson <br />Henry Tufnell | after = George Rennie <br />Rigby Wason }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Cambridge | with = John Manners-Sutton | years = 1843–1847 | before = Alexander Grant <br />John Manners-Sutton | after = Robert Adair <br />William Campbell }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Harwich | with = John Bagshaw | years = 1852 | before = Robert Wigram Crawford <br />John Bagshaw | after = Isaac Butt <br />John Bagshaw }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for East Suffolk | with = Sir Edward Gooch, Bt 1852; | with2 = John Henniker-Major, 1852–1866 | years = 1852–1866 | before = The Lord Rendlesham and <br />Sir Edward Gooch, Bt | after = John Henniker-Major <br />Sir Edward Kerrison, Bt }} {{s-legal}} {{succession box|title=Solicitor General for England and Wales|before=Sir Frederic Thesiger|after=Sir John Jervis|years=1845–1846}} {{succession box|title=Solicitor General for England and Wales|before=Sir William Wood|after=Sir Richard Bethell|years=1852}} {{succession box|title=Attorney General for England and Wales|before=Sir Richard Bethell|after=Sir Richard Bethell|years=1858–1859}} {{s-bef|before=Sir Frederick Pollock}} {{s-ttl|title=Chief Baron of the Exchequer|years=1866–1880 }} {{s-non|reason=Office abolished}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Fitzroy}} Category:1796 births Category:1880 deaths Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery Category:English King's Counsel Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Solicitors general for England and Wales Category:Attorneys general for England and Wales Category:Chief Barons of the Exchequer Category:Knights Bachelor Category:UK MPs 1835–1837 Category:UK MPs 1837–1841 Category:UK MPs 1841–1847 Category:UK MPs 1852–1857 Category:UK MPs 1857–1859 Category:UK MPs 1859–1865 Category:UK MPs 1865–1868 Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Ipswich Category:Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council