The son of Robert Jolly, a prominent local Liberal Party politician, and member of Woolwich Local Board. Jolly entered the family's business as a building contractor and tile and brick-maker. Resident in Rectory Place, Woolwich, he later moved to Plumstead Common, where housing was developed on the site of former brickfields. Active in the temperance movement, he co-founded the Woolwich and Plumstead Coffee Taverns Company. The company opened the Duke of Connaught Coffee Tavern and Royal Assembly Rooms in 1881 in New Road, Woolwich. He subsequently moved to Lee, where he died in 1907, aged 75.