Thomas Kelly

Thomas Kelly was an Irish clergyman, hymn writer, and philanthropist — son of a judge, ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1792, but later separating from the established church to lead independent evangelical congregations in Dublin, Athy, Portarlington, and Wexford. Across nearly seven decades of ministry he wrote 765 hymns, published in successive editions of his Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture (first edition 1804, growing through twelve editions). He used his considerable inherited wealth to support the poor through the Irish famines, building chapels and schools and dispensing bread without distinction of denomination.