He trained as an architect at the Royal Naval School in London, England, before coming to the Province of Canada in 1844, arriving in Toronto, where he began working at the firm of John George Howard, designing many important buildings throughout southern Ontario.

[3] He was involved in the supervising of the competition leading to the design of the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen's Park.

As the provincial department of public works' chief architect, Tully supervised a series of district courthouses built in northern Ontario.

The Ontario Archives hold drawings for virtually all provincial buildings including courthouses, registry offices, goals & lock-ups, schools and colleges, hospitals and other works executed under his supervision from 1896 until 1926.

He had four daughters, and was survived by two, including the artist Sydney Strickland Tully (1860–1911), when he died in 1905.