Thomas Kelsey

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Thomas Kelsey (died c. 1680) rose from obscurity as a "London tradesman" to become an important figure in the government of Oliver Cromwell.

Kelsey enlisted in the New Model Army and fought on the side of Parliament during the English Civil War, displaying a zeal that led him to become a major-general in 1645. He became a lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Ingoldsby's regiment from 1646. After the war he was elected as Deputy-Governor of Oxford, and in 1651 he was further appointed a lieutenant of Dover Castle.

As a member of the 'fifth Monarchist congregation' in London, led by John Simpson, during the early 1650s, he supported Oliver Cromwell in the establishment of the Protectorate and was elected MP for Sandwich in Kent for the First Protectorate Parliament, and was appointed the Major-General for Surrey and Kent during the Rule of the Major-Generals.

Thomas Kelsey was returned for Dover during the Second Protectorate Parliament, when he supported John Desborough's move to establish the Major-Generals as a permanent form of government.

After the collapse of the Protectorate in 1659, Thomas Kelsey supported

• "Kelsey, Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.