Edward John Trelawny (13 November 179213 August 1881) was an English biographer, novelist and adventurer who is best known for his friendship with the Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Trelawny was born to a family of modest income but extensive ancestral history. Though his father became wealthy while he was a child, Edward had an antagonistic relationship with him. After an unhappy childhood, he was sent away to a school. He was assigned as a volunteer in the Royal Navy shortly before he turned thirteen.
Trelawny served on multiple ships as a naval volunteer while in his teen years. He traveled to India and saw combat during engagements with the French Navy. He did not care for the naval lifestyle, however, and left at nineteen years of age without becoming a commissioned officer. After retiring from the navy, he had a brief and unhappy marriage in England. He then moved to Switzerland and later Italy where he met Shelley and Byron. He became friends with the two poets, and helped teach them about sailing. He enjoyed inventing elaborate stories about his time in the navy, and in one he claimed to have deserted and become a pirate in India. After Shelley's death, Trelawny identified his body and arranged the funeral and burial.
Trelawny then travelled to Greece with Lord Byron in order to fight in the Greek War of Independence. Byron and Trelawny split up near Greece and Trelawny travelled into Greece to act as the agent of Lord Byron. After Byron died, Trelawny oversaw the preparations for the funeral and the return of his body to England. He also wrote his obituaries. Trelawny joined the cause of the Greek Revolutionary Odysseas Androutsos and helped to provide him with additional arms. He also married Androutsos' sister Tarsitsa. After Androutsos fell out of favour with the Greek government and was arrested, Trelawny took control of his mountain fortress. During this time, Trelawny survived an assassination attempt. After leaving Greece, he divorced Tarsitsa and returned to England, where he was well received by members of London society. He then wrote a memoir titled Adventures of a Younger Son. After the book was published he travelled to America for two years before returning to Britain. He then became politically active but soon remarried and moved to the Welsh countryside.
He then lived the life of a country squire for 12 years and raised a family with his third wife. They eventually separated and he moved back to London with a mistress. He then wrote a well received book about Shelley and Byron. He soon became friends with several prominent artists and writers in London. He was able to share his firsthand experience with Romantic-era writers with the leading Victorian writers of the day. He later retired to Sompting, where he led an ascetic lifestyle. He died in Sompting at the age of 88, having outlived almost all of his friends from the Romantic era.
Early life Trelawny's birthplace is unknown, although he claimed that he was born in Cornwall. Some of his biographers have contended that he was actually born in London, as he was baptised in Marylebone as John Trelawney on 29 November 1792. His father, Charles Trelawny-Brereton (a descendant of Sir Jonathan Trelawny, 2nd Baronet, who married Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Seymour, 2nd Baronet, a descendant of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset) was a British military officer who retired after reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. His mother, Maria Hawkins, was of Cornish descent. She had inherited a small sum of money from her father, but the family soon spent most of the inheritance. When Edward was six years of age, his father inherited a large sum of money from one of his wealthy cousins. The family soon used the inheritance to move to London, where they lived in a large house. As a condition of receiving the inheritance, his father was required to adopt the last name "Brereton". His cousin, Owen Brereton, wished to have his last name continued along with his wealth. They lived in Cheshire while Edward was a young man.
At some point in his youth, he began referring to himself as Edward, which was the name used by most of his friends. Later in his life he referred to himself as "John Edward" for several years. Edward later recalled that his father had a fierce temper. He described his father's disposition as often "tyrannical". His father also tried to calculate the financial worth of all his relatives and kept detailed records of the numbers. In addition to his father, many of Edward Trelawny's other ancestors had strong tempers, as well. His elder uncle on his mother's side, Sir Christopher Hawkins was also wealthy. He held a seat in the House of Commons and in 1809 Trelawny's father also became a Member of the British Parliament. As a child, he was often told of the long history and adventures of his ancestors in the Trelawny family. As an adult, he was proud of having such prestigious ancestors. The recorded history of his family dated back to the reign of Edward the Confessor and included many prominent citizens.
Edward had five siblings who survived to adulthood and several who died as children. Edward shared a disdain for his father with his siblings. Though he hated his father, Edward was close with his mother. His mother worked hard to find wealthy husbands for her daughters, to the extent that her actions were satirised by some. In addition, many people found her to be a disagreeable person as she grew older. Trelawny's parents regarded their children as potential sinners and frequently used harsh measures to try to instill a sense of discipline in them. He resented being treated in this manner.
Edward only had one brother, Harry Trelawny. They were close in age and were close friends during their childhood. Harry was quiet and reserved, which sharply contrasted with Edward's extroverted and confrontational personality.
As an adult, Edward Trelawny often told stories about his childhood that focused on his early willingness to take confrontational positions and conceal things from others. One often used story described the time that he killed a vicious raven which had belonged to his father. He cited this event as an example of his habit of accepting offences up to a certain point before later taking revenge as the offences mounted. He later described the raven incident in his autobiography, Adventures of a Younger Son. In the book he described the fight with the raven as the "most awful duel" that he ever had.
Education At the age of eight, Edward was sent by Charles Brereton to live at the Seyer school, which was located two miles from their home in Bristol at that time. Trelawny later claimed that his father had resisted sending him to the school for some time due to its cost, but decided to enroll him after he caught him stealing apples from an orchard in the back yard. Trelawny hated the school and was angry at his father for sending him there. He often complained that the school served terrible food and subjected him to frequent flogging as a form of punishment. In addition to flogging, one of his classmates recorded that caning was a frequent method of punishment there, as well. The school's treatment of its students was actually comparable to many other schools of that time. He was also bullied and treated cruelly by other students there.
The schoolmaster there frequently condemned the French Revolution. These condemnations may have given Trelawny an early sympathy with revolutionary ideals. He was expelled from the school after two years due to violent behaviour towards teachers as well as starting fires after being confined in his room as punishment.
Naval career
Charles Brereton had originally hoped that his sons would attend Oxford. He became disappointed by the slow pace of Edward's learning as a child. In October 1805, shortly before Edward's thirteenth birthday, he enrolled him in the Royal Navy as a first class volunteer. The younger sons of the gentry traditionally entered the military at that time. His family enrolled him as early as they could because seniority was crucial to career advancement at that time.
His first experiences in the navy were serving on ships that had returned from the Battle of Trafalgar with many badly wounded sailors. In November he was transferred to Temeraire and then to Colossus. He later attended a naval school in Portsmouth. In 1806 he served aboard HMS Woolwich. While serving on Woolwich he travelled to the Cape of Good Hope and to St. Helena. In 1808 he moved to the frigate Resistance, and in 1809 to the frigate Cornelia. While serving aboard Cornelia he travelled to Bombay. Trelawny's name was entered on the books of HMS Superb as volunteer first class in October 1812.
Trelawny was initially happy to have joined the navy and enjoyed the rough lifestyle there. He often exaggerated his age while he was in the navy. Some biographers believe he commanded a vessel as a midshipman in an engagement with the French at Mauritius in 1810. Some also believe that he was wounded engaging the French in Java in August 1811. He left the Navy in 1812 at the age of 19; receiving a final settlement of pay in 1815. He had grown to resent the discipline of the Navy due in part to the frequent punishment that he experienced. He was often sent to the masthead for several hours at a time. During that time, he frequently entertained fantasies of mutiny and desertion. Some biographers believe that Trelawny was inspired by hearing accounts of the French pirate Robert Surcouf. He was never commissioned as a lieutenant, though many of his contemporaries were. This disappointed him, although he began referring to himself as Lieutenant Trelawny anyway.
First marriage Trelawny returned to England in 1812. Soon after he arrived he fell in love with Caroline, daughter of John Addison, of Bengal.The Baronetage of England, fifth ed., vol. I, 1824, John Debrett p. 116 She was several years younger than him but as well educated; she had studied French and was a skilled pianist. Though both of their families disapproved of the match they were not dissuaded. Trelawny's father was particularly infuriated by his son's disobedience. They were married in May 1813Debrett's Baronetage of England 1824, vol. I, p. 116 gives the date as 7 Dec. 1812 and first lived in London before moving to Bristol. After their first daughter was born in 1814, they experienced financial difficulties that forced Trelawny to ask his father for money. Although he had a mutually disdainful relationship with his father, he was able to secure extra funds. Edward and Caroline soon became unhappy, causing Edward to begin leaving home often to spend time with his friends or to travel to the theatre by himself. Their second child was born in 1816.
Caroline soon began having an affair with a much older man, a naval captain named Coleman. They successfully hid the affair from Trelawny for some time; he discovered it long after many others had known. Although he dearly wished to fight a duel with Coleman, he simply filed for divorce instead. The proceedings were well covered in many of London's "penny press" tabloid papers. This publicity caused Trelawny tremendous frustration and humiliation. The divorce order was granted in July 1817, but was not finalised until 1819. Caroline was granted custody of the elder child and Edward kept the younger.
Studies Trelawny's father soon attempted to purchase him a commission in the British Army, but he refused to consider joining the army. His father was furious at his refusal, leading to their estrangement. Brereton became estranged with Harry around the same time, due to a marriage that he entered into against his father's wishes. Edward began staying with a former landlord whom he had befriended. She helped him find someone to take care of his child. Trelawny then began using the name "Edward" rather than "John".