SEARC'S WEB GUIDE - George Kelly (1686-1750)

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Searc's Web Guide to 18th Century Ireland - George Kelly (1686-1750)

George Kelly was born in County Roscommon. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and was ordained a Deacon after graduating in 1706. In 1718 Kelly had to flee Dublin and certain imprisonment for giving a pro-Jacobite sermon. He went to Paris where he was secretary to Attenbury, Bishop of Rochester. On May 21st, 1722, under the alias James Johnstone, Kelly was arrested in London and charged with Treason for allegedly conspiring with the Bishop of Rochester; Harry Goring, and various others in support of the Pretender, Prince Charles Edward.
A Bill of Pains and Penalities against Kelly was passed in the House of Commons and on the third reading the House voted 83 votes to 38 against Kelly's deportation. The Bill went to the House of Lords where, on its third reading, Kelly made a Speech in his own defence which was later published as a pamphlet entitled The Speech of Mr George Kelly, 2nd of May, 1723 in his Defence against the Bill then depending for inflicting Pains and Penalities Upon Him (1723) and from which the extract below is taken.
However the House of Lords passed the Bill and Kelly was imprisoned in the Tower of London at his Majesty's pleasure. Several pamphlets were published refuting Kelly's defence and subsequent events would suggest that Kelly was, indeed, a 'conspirator'. While in prison Kelly wrote several pamphlets in his own defence and translated from the French Castlenau's Memoirs of the English Affairs (1724) and The History of Cicero's Banishment(1725) by Morabin.
Kelly spent thirteen years as a prisoner in the Tower of London before escaping to France where he published Memoirs of the life, travels and transactions of the Rev. G. Kelly from his birth to his escape out of the Tower in 1736.
In Paris Kelly resumed his Jacobite activities and was friends with James Butler, Earl of Ormonde. In 1744 Kelly became secretary to Prince Charles Edward and accompanied the Prince from Nantes to Scotland in June, 1745. After the Jacobites' defeat at the Battle of Culloden Kelly returned with the Prince to France and was the Prince's private secretary until his death in 1750.©

And I do solemnly declare to your Lordships, upon the faith of a Christian, that I never wrote or received a letter of any kind from the Bishop of Rochester, or was Privvy to any work of his at home or abroad: That I never shewed him any letter that ever I wrote to France, or ever sent one there by his privvity or Direction: That I am very little known to his Lordship, went very rarily to wait upon him, so rarely! That I am confident few of his servants know either my name or face; And have not seen him above three or four times these two years past, and not above eight or ten times in my whole life. I do farther declare, that my visits to his Lordship were always publick; That I never went privately in a chair to his house; always found other company with him, who were generally strangers to me; and never once mentioned his name, upon this or any other account, to the person who has thus accused me. Which, with the evidence that has been produced of his own confessions to that purpose is, I hope sufficient to convince your Lordships of the truth of it... My Lords, It cannot be imagined that I have any particular interest or concern in this matter; for I never received any favours from his Lordship; neither do I owe him any obligations but those of Common justice: And those I should perform where I have so much truth on my side, to the greatest enemy I have upon earth.
As for the other circumstances which are brought to strengthen my accusers examinations, and are set forth in on Pancier's deposition. They will appear, I don't doubt, as groundless and inconsistent as the examinations themselves. For, this person swears, that another told him of this conspiracy; that six or eight Battalions of Irish forces were to come from Spain to assist the conspirators: That 200,000l were raised and 800 men regularly subsisted for this purpose in London. These, my Lords, are called in the 38th page of the Report of the Lower House the concurrent and corroborating proofs of my accuser's examination and I humbly appeal to your Lordships, if any one of them carries the least colour of reason or probability with it. For, can it be imagined, that such a force should come from Spain where there appears to be so strict a friendship betwixt the two kingdoms? Or that 200,000 could possibly be raised among all the disaffected in England, in case there was a license for it? Or 800 men regularly subsisted in this city, without a discovery? There are such idle, inconsistent Tales as (I am persuaded) can never have any weight with your Lordships.
Besides, my Lords, this is only bare heresay; and if the hearsay of such infamous persons (or indeed of any persons) be looked upon as sufficient evidence, I believe, no man in England can be sure of his life or liberty an hour, since any two people may talk him into High-Treason whenever they please; and the greater the person is the greater his danger will always be. The third crime which I stand charged with, is, the writing of three Treasonable letters for the Bishop of Rochester, supposed to be for the Pretender, the late Earl of Mar [sic] and General Dillon, which letters are said to have been sent by me to Mister Gordon at Bologne, with directions to be delivered to one Mister Talbot. And, for proof of this, the clerks of the Post Office are produced, who swear, that those letters were (to the best of their knowledge) written in the same hand with an original which was stopped as a specimen of it: Which original has been sworn by two persons to be my writing, and consequently those letters must be so too. My Lords, These letters are dated the 20th of April, and the specimen so stopt the 20th of August; just four months after. And how is it possible for people (who receive such a number of letters) to swear to a likeness of hand, at such a distance of time; and what weight ought to be laid upon this kind of evidence, or upon that modern and mysterious one given by the Decyphers, in which they don't pretend to a certainty themselves, must be submitted to your Lordships.
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