WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2024 FROM 6PM

10 3 Attributed to Martin Cregan PRHA PRIA (1788-1870) PORTRAIT OF REVEREND THOMAS KELLY, c.1835 oil on canvas 30 by 25in. (76.2 by 63.5cm) Frame Size: 36 by 30.5in. (91.4 by 77.5cm) Provenance: Collection of Reverend Thomas Kelly; Thence by descent Thomas Kelly (1769 – 1855) was a Church of Ireland cleric, hymn writer and founder of the Kellyites. 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 in 1789. He was admitted to London’s Middle Temple in 1786. 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. He was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1792. 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, to prohibit them on doctrinal grounds. Kelly reacted first by preaching in unconsecrated Dublin locations: one on Plunket Street, another the Bethesda Chapel (which for a time he was a trustee). 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. In 1803 he broke with the Church of Ireland. The same year, Walker had gathered a group naming itself the Church of God, and he was expelled as a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin in 1804. Kelly died in Dublin on 14 May 1855, having acted as minister in Athy and Dublin for half a century. After his death, his congregation of Kellyites dropped away. Kelly is reckoned to have written 765 hymns, published over 51 years. 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. They had two daughters, Elizabeth, who married Reverend EdwardWingfield, a younger son of the 4th Viscount Powerscourt, and Frances, who married Reverend Thomas Webber, and was the mother of General Charles Edmund Webber. See also lot 4 €1,000-€1,500 (£840-£1,260 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot3