Father James W. Donnelly was born at Carbonear on August 28th, 1883 to John Donnelly and Eliza Browne. He had three uncles who were priests: Father James Browne, born in Carbonear in 1825 and died at Harbour Main in 1887; Father Thomas Browne, S.J., born in Carbonear in 1820 and one time Provincial of the Jesuits in Australia: and Father Joseph V. Donnelly, who spent 35 years in Bay de Verde.

Father James had a brilliant academic career both as a young boy and in the Seminary.  He was educated first at the Academy in Carbonear, where he won the Outport Jubilee Scholarship in 1897 at age fourteen.  Manifesting an inclination for the Priesthood and under the fostering influence of Pastor Felix McCarthy, he went on to study at St. Bonaventure’s College, St. John's for three years, and in 1900 was sent to the Propaganda College in Rome. After 3 years of study in Rome he took sick and returned home to Newfoundland to recuperate. The next year he resumed his ecclesiastical studies at the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Montreal. On September 21, 1907 he was ordained by Bishop March in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Harbour Grace on the feast of the Apostle St. Matthew.  

Father Donnelly laboured for a short time after his ordination at Harbour Grace. He also had a turn in Labrador (1907-09). The rest of his short career was spent at Whitbourne and Holyrood from 1909-1913. His health, however, was failing. He spent periods of time in Sanatoriums on the mainland (Canada). During the last year of his life, he had to give up completely. He lived with his aunts on Monkstown Road in St. John’s, and then was nursed by his devoted sister, Margaret and Madeline in Carbonear.  He died in Carbonear of tuberculosis on May 11, 1916 at age thirty-two. He was a priest for almost nine years.

Despite all his physical sufferings he always possessed a bright and jovial disposition. He is buried in Carbonear in a family plot with his parents.