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Edward John Trelawny Biography & Facts

Edward John Trelawny (13 November 1792 – 13 August 1881) was a British 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 Charles Brereton decided to send Edward 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 comp.... Discover the Edward John Trelawny popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Edward John Trelawny books.