William Kelly (New York state senator)

William Kelly (February 4, 1807 in New York City – January 14, 1872 in Torquay, Devon, England) was an American merchant and politician from New York.

Life

He was the son of Robert Kelly (d. 1825) who came to New York City from Ireland in 1796, and became a prosperous merchant. William and his brothers John and Robert (1808–1856) also became merchants. John died in 1836, and the next year William and Robert retired with ample fortunes. In 1841, William bought the estate "Ellerslie" in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York, and engaged in agricultural and philanthropic pursuits. In April 1843, he married his step-sister Elizabeth Parr (Elizabeth's mother had been his father's second wife).

He was President of the New York State Agricultural Society in 1854.

He was a member of the New York State Senate (8th D.) in 1856 and 1857.

At the New York state election, 1860, he ran on the Douglas Democratic ticket for Governor of New York but was defeated by the Republican incumbent Edwin D. Morgan.

He was a Trustee of Vassar College; and of the University of Rochester.

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 137 and 142; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
• Pen and Ink Portraits of the Senators, Assemblymen, and State Officers of New York by G. W. Bungay (1857; pg. 61)
• DIED; ...KELLY in NYT on April 25, 1872
• Rhinebeck's Historic Architecture by Nancy V. Kelly (pg. 74)
• The Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart (Vol. 2; pg. 644)