John Kelly (ca. 1768–1830), a native of Lancaster County, Virginia, moved to Charlottesville by 1794 and established John Kelly & Company. He became a prominent merchant and landowner there, often acted as a trustee or estate administrator, and eventually constructed a large brick home on Park Street. Kelly helped found the South Plains Presbyterian Church. TJ transacted business with him sporadically for three decades, but they were never close. Kelly was a trustee of the Albemarle Academy, but he was not named to the board of Central College, which superseded it. He may have been annoyed by this slight, for he refused to sell some of his land to Central College in 1817 (Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, 1901 description ends , 242–3; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends ; Bruce, University description begins Philip Alexander Bruce, History of the University of Virginia 1819–1919: The Lengthened Shadow of One Man, 1920–22, 5 vols. description ends , 1:118, 122, 143, 167–8; Charlottesville Virginia Advocate, 24 Sept. 1830).

A letter from Kelly to TJ of 24 Mar. 1809, not found, is recorded inconsistently in SJL as received from Charlottesville on 23 Mar. 1809.