William O'Kelly

The Life of James O'Kelly

by MacClenny (Published 1910)

I have only listed references that try to identify James O'Kelly's family.

On Pages 14, and 15 MacClenny says:

In Betham's Baronetage of England With General Tables, Vol. 3 page 124, mention is made of William O'Kelly of the Chetewode family, and on page 126 under twenty-one of the family line we find "James, who went to Virginia."

Update 5/6/2010 - Google has the above book now on line. On page 124 the reference is not to William O'Kelley an Irishman but to William de Okeley an English Baron who lived hundreds of years before Rev James O'Kelley. On page 126 under the family line twenty-one we find "James, who went to Virginia". This James is James Chetwode and was born almost 90 years before Rev James O'Kelly and is the son of Henry Chetwode, the brother of John Chetwode.

Also on Page 15

"John Chetewode, James O'Kelly's maternal grandfather, took Holy Orders and was a Doctor of Divinity, and one of his descendants was later a minister and stationed near Cork, Ireland, while another was a Captain in the Thirty-third regiment, in recent years."

Update 7/22/2010 It is not possible for English Baron John Chetwode to have been James O'Kelly's maternal grandfather. All of English Baron John Chetwodes children are well documented via church records and none married any O'Kelleys. There is an Irish branch of the Chetwode family and that branch did have a Rev John Chetwode that better fit M E MacClenny's beliefs about Rev James O'Kelley but all his female issue are accounted for as well and they too are well documented in church records. The possibility that Rev James O'Kelley made up his Chetwode connection is becoming more likely. Irish born Rev John Chetwode maternal grandfather was Sir Valentine Knightley and he held a large tobacco plantation in Virginia (land grant) so anyone working on that plantation could have known about his rather famous grandson and could have made up a connection to the Chetwode family. Given that Rev James O'Kelley didn't began to preach until he was about 40 years of age and he preached an opposing gospel from that Rev John Chetwode practiced, I have great doubts that Rev James O'Kelley's alledged Chetwode connection is valid. Google Books has The Line of Chetwodes living in Cork Ireland. See bottom of page for more.

Also on Page 15

"In the view of the above facts, and the early traditions of Christians, we come to this conclusion: James O'Kelly was born and educated in Ireland, came to American in early life, seems to have settled near Moring's Post-office, in Surry County, Virginia, and lived there for some time before he moved to North Carolina."

Update 5/6/2010 I can find no evidence that James O'Kelly was born or educated in Ireland. There are no ship records of his arrival and no known records in Ireland of his birth or education. I think it is more likely that James was born and educated in America which is probably the source of his association with Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, they may have attended some classes together in their youth and his radical religious and anti-slavery views may have caused his separation from his mother and father and his siblings.

Page 17 and 18

"As to the date of his marriage to Elizabeth Meeks, who through his long and checkered life shared his joys and divided his sorrows, we have no definite information. Tradition is dumb, except that they knew each other long before marriage. Certain it is they were married not very late in life; Mr. O'Kelly being under twenty-five and she under twenty. This would put the date of their marriage about 1760."

"To this union two sons were born, John and William. As John's name is mentioned first in the will of his father we presume that he was the older. Again as only two sons were mentioned in the will we presume that these were all the children he had. William O'Kelly was born April 29th, 1763. To the influence of his son, his father perhaps owes his prominence today. He was named William O'Kelly, after his grandfather O'Kelly."

Webmaster Rick O'Kelley's comments 05/06/2010: "If W E MacClenny had other sources for his conclusion that James O'Kelly was the maternal grandson of John Chetwode, he doesn't share that info with us. My research accounts for all of English Baron John Chetwode's children they are well documented by actual English church records and engraved on his gravestone and none married an O'Kelly. There are some indications in the church records that one or more of the ancestors of John Chetwode moved to Cork Ireland at least a hundred years before Rev James O'Kelley birth so if Rev James came from one of these lines it is likely that they and he may have been part of the English plantation of Ireland and because their ancestors were of OKeley in England they may have adopted the Irish O'Kelly name but I find nothing to say this occurred. I have created the http://chetwode.okelley.org website to display my research for others to see for themselves. I also find no ship records for James O'Kelly's arrival in America nor does there appear to be records in Ireland for James O'Kelly origins or his education." Many others have also done research and all come up empty on the Irish connections. I believe because he was protestant and not catholic we can conclude that James O'Kelly was not of the O'Kelly accessorial Irish and was more likely to have descended from the old English O'Kelleys who lived for centuries at Galway Ireland or of the Scots or English who settled Ulster in the 16th century. I believe it is very possible that James could have been second or even third generation born American but thanks to the actions of his wife after his death we may never know. Rev James O'Kelley was reportedly a very active writer so what happened to all his written documents? According to a descendent, Dr J M O'Kelley (1853), after Rev James O'Kelley's death, his wife burned his papers reportedly because she had lived in the "contention about church government" for so long and wanted wanted peace after his death. As an experienced criminal investigator, I have difficulty accepting this reason. To burn her husband's papers amounts to the killing of his off spring because if what he had to say was important enough to write it down, it was also important enough for it to survive him. She could have gotten peace in her live just by turning over the papers to the church he had created and allowing them to decide their faith, but she didn't do that, she destroyed them and that causes me to suspect that maybe hers was an act of revenge. We should also consider that she bore Rev James O'Kelley only two children and while it is possible she could have no more, it is also just as possible that she choose to have no more. Their eldest son, John P, as an adult appears to have lived distant from his mother, father, and younger brother, William, and I believe that taking all this into consideration that it may be possible that Rev James O'Kelly may have not been a very good husband or father and his wife upon his death burnt his papers as a testament to that fact. I suppose none of this surprises me much as it has been my observation that dutiful religious men tend to be less involved with their family as they are more involved with their church; the lack of more children, his eldest son living away, and the actions of his wife after his death all indicate to me that the family life of Rev James O'Kelley may not have been one to be envied.

Update 7/22/2010: Google Books has some very good documentation on the Chetwodes living in Ireland at or near the time Rev James O'Kelley's father and mother would have lived. These Chetwodes are relatives to John Chetwode Baron of Oakley and at least two are also named John and are ministers. There is a John Chetwode who died (1703) and was buried in St Peter's in Dublin Ireland and who had a DD from Trinity College in Dublin Ireland and he was the Chaplin to James, Lord of Ormond and Chief Lieutenant of Ireland (James Butler 1610-1688). This John Chetwode also had a brother named Benjamin who was the Solicitor for the Revenue of Ireland. These could be the source for the name James and Benjamin that appears so often in the our early family and could be the actual source that W. E. MacClenny but like the John Chetwode Baron of Oakley I do not find a daughter in any of the records that married a William O'Kelley this John Chetwode had only one child that survived, a son named Knightley Chetwode and he had two daughters, Elizabeth (1709) and Anne (1713) and both had husbands so it is now less likely that Rev James O'Kelley has any connection to the Chetwode family. Rev James O'Kelley's wife may have discovered this fraud and she may have feared something in her husbands documents and that may have been her reason for destroying all her husbands written documents, to protect her family from disgrace.