'' caricature, November 1871 In 1834 Kelly was made a
King's Counsel, remarkably after only ten years' call. A strong
Tory, he was returned as
Member of Parliament for
Ipswich in 1835, but was unseated on petition. In 1837 however he again became member for that town. and in 1852 was elected member for
Harwich, but with
a vacancy suddenly occurring in
East Suffolk, he preferred to contest that seat and was elected. Most of his legal cases were of a commercial nature, but one was one of the great criminal poisoning crimes of the early Victorian period. In March 1845 Kelly defended
John Tawell, the "
Quaker murderer," was in fact no longer a member of the Quakers, though he did try to return to that group. Tawell had poisoned his mistress, Sarah Hart, and fled from Salt Hill in
Aylesbury by train. However, a description of Tawell was sent to London by electric telegraph, and he was captured. Kelly did the best he could for his client, but he was not accustomed to criminal defence. His argument that Sarah Hart had eaten too many apple pips and been poisoned by the
prussic acid in the pips led to the nickname "Apple-pip," which followed Kelly for the rest of his life. Despite his endeavours, his client was found guilty and hanged. Kelly was
Solicitor General in 1845 (when he was
knighted) and again from February to December 1852, during which time he was junior to
Attorney General Sir Frederic Thesiger in the
prosecution of
John Henry Newman for
libel, the
Achilli trial. In 1854, Kelly was appointed to the
Royal Commission for Consolidating the Statute Law, a
royal commission to consolidate existing statutes and enactments of
English law. In 1858–1859 he was Attorney General in
Lord Derby's
second ministry. In 1866 he was raised to the bench as the last
Chief Baron of the Exchequer and made a member of the
Privy Council, entitling him to sit on the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Kelly died at
Brighton on 18 September 1880, aged 83. He was buried on the western side of
Highgate Cemetery. ==Arms==