English writer, biographer and adventurer (1792-1881)
For the British governor of Jamaica, see Edward Trelawny (governor).
Edward John Trelawny
Edward John Trelawney by W. E. West
Born
John Trelawny (1792-11-13)13 November 1792 London or Cornwall, United Kingdom
Died
13 August 1881(1881-08-13) (aged 88) Sompting, United Kingdom
Notable works
Adventures of a Younger Son (1831) Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author (1878)
Spouse
Caroline Addison
(m. 1813; div. 1819)
Tarsitsa
(m. 1823; div. 1827)
Children
4
Relatives
Charles Trelawny Brereton (father) Sir Christopher Hawkins, 1st Baronet (uncle) Sir Jonathan Trelawny, 2nd Baronet (ancestor) Sir Edward Seymour, 2nd Baronet(ancestor) Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (ancestor)
Military career
Allegiance
United Kingdom First Hellenic Republic
Service/branch
Royal Navy Hellenic Army
Battles/wars
Napoleonic Wars Greek War of Independence
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.
and 19 Related for: Edward John Trelawny information
EdwardJohnTrelawny (13 November 1792 – 13 August 1881) was a British biographer, novelist and adventurer who is best known for his friendship with the...
EdwardTrelawny may refer to: EdwardJohnTrelawny (1792–1881), biographer, novelist and adventurer EdwardTrelawny (colonial administrator) (1699–1754)...
poet John Keats, as well as a friend of artist Joseph Severn, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, Walter Savage Landor and EdwardJohnTrelawny. He was...
the sculptors John Gibson and Antonio Canova, and Lord Byron's friend, the adventurer EdwardJohnTrelawny. Severn made a sketch of Trelawny in 1838. Until...
parties; his guests included the Shelleys, Edward Ellerker Williams, Thomas Medwin, John Taaffe, and EdwardJohnTrelawny; and "never", as Shelley said, "did...
was born on 16 March. Williams met Lord Byron in November 1821 and EdwardJohnTrelawny in January 1822. Whilst Mary Shelley was struggling to overcome the...
Byron, she met EdwardJohnTrelawny, who was to play a major role in the short remaining lives of both poets. After Shelley's death, Trelawny sent her love...
by and about Trelawny and Laval. These research materials have been donated to two Southern California libraries: The EdwardJohnTrelawny Collection,...
"Pisan circle" which was to include Shelley, Thomas Medwin, Edward Williams and EdwardTrelawny. In the early months of 1822 Shelley became increasingly...
remote location near Lerici, where they were visited in early 1822 by EdwardJohnTrelawny. Though they enjoyed each other's company, the house was small and...
Major General Charles Trelawny, also spelt 'Trelawney', (1653 – 24 September 1731) was an English soldier from Cornwall who played a prominent part in...
Parkes (1796–1865), John Arthur Roebuck (1802–1879), Charles Buller (1806–1848), John Stuart Mill (1806–1873), EdwardJohnTrelawny (1792–1881), and William...
Pomarolo, Count of Santarosa Friedrich Thiersch Auguste Hilarion Touret EdwardJohnTrelawny German Legion [el] Serbs David Urquhart Olivier Voutier James Jakob...
consisting of the banker Samson Ricardo, two MPs, Edward Ellice and Sir Francis Burdett and John Cam Hobhouse of the London Greek Committee, who were...
Pomarolo, Count of Santarosa Friedrich Thiersch Auguste Hilarion Touret EdwardJohnTrelawny German Legion [el] Serbs David Urquhart Olivier Voutier James Jakob...
(Ed.), Hary-O: the Letters of Lady Harriet Cavendish 1796–1809, London: John Murray (1940). Owenson, Sydney (Lady Morgan) (1862). Dixon, William Hepworth...
Hoffman, Florida's Frontiers (Indiana University Press, 2002) p298 EdwardJohnTrelawny, Records of Shelley, Byron and the Author (Penguin, 2013) Sketch...
Makriyannis referred to the "klephtes and armatoloi" as the "yeast of liberty". John Koliopoulos studied the klephts in the 19th century, and stated that the...
in manuscript). Its publication involved him in controversy with EdwardJohnTrelawny. Arbitrary Detention by the Inquisition at Rome of three Protestant...