Edward John Trelawny Totally Explained

Everything about Edward John Trelawny totally explained

Edward John Trelawny (November 13, 1792–August 13, 1881), was a biographer, novelist, and adventurer and friend of Shelley and Byron.

Early life

It isn't known where Trelawny was born; while he always claimed it was in Cornwall, some of his biographers suggested it was in London. Christened Edward John Trelawny, for a time in his later life he was to call himself John Edward.
   In his Adventures of a Younger Son he described having had a miserable childhood. On October 5, 1805, just prior to his thirteenth birthday, his father enrolled him in the Royal Navy. At that time, tradition required the younger sons of the gentry to choose the military as a profession.
   Trelawny’s own record of his service in the navy and as a privateer differs significantly from that described by his biographers. He has himself deserting the navy and then living the life of a Corsair, sailing the Indian Ocean in search of adventure. His Adventures of a Younger Son can best be described as Trelawny’s novelistic fantasy of what he actually experienced in his seven years of service in the Royal Navy. He wrote about deserting the navy when in fact he was honorably discharged (without a commission) in 1812.
   The following year he fell in love with the beautiful and well-educated Caroline Addison; he was nineteen and she was even younger. They were married despite the objections of both sets of parents.
   Their first daughter was born in 1814 and a second in 1816. But the marriage became a disaster. In 1816 Caroline suddenly eloped with a twice her age Captain Coleman. London’s “penny press” covered the story of the divorce, which caused Trelawny to suffer tremendous humiliation.
   It took several years to put this unhappy event behind him. In 1819, with the allowance given to him by his father, Trelawny left England for Switzerland. The allowance was sufficient to allow him to live at the level of a retired naval captain, so naturally he began to present himself as Captain Edward Trelawny, Royal Navy, Retired.

Shelley and Byron

In life, as in his Adventures, Trelawny was a handsome, romantic, dashing, quixotic, and controversial personality, who has been variously described by his biographers as being everything from a hero to a downright liar and cad.
   No doubt due to his friendship with the poets Shelley and Byron, five full biographies have been written about him. Through his friend Edward Ellerker Williams, he was introduced to Percy Bysshe Shelley and later to Lord Byron, to become part of their Pisan Circle of friends.
   Trelawny orchestrated and directed the cremation of Williams and Shelley after they drowned in a sailing accident in 1822. The funeral of Shelley has been the subject of several paintings and was inscribed in the annals of history with Trelawny’s description of his reaching into the pyre to pluck out Shelley’s heart before the flames could consume it. Trelawny arranged for Shelley’s ashes to be buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.
At Byron’s request, Trelawny took part in the Greek war of Independence from Turkey. He recounts his role in the conflict in his Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron (1858) and Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author (1878). Trelawny joined hands with Odysseus, a prominent insurgent chief. He was out on an expedition with his chief when he received news of the death of Byron at Missolonghi. He was last to arrive on the scene but first to make arrangements for taking care of Byron’s body and papers.
   Shortly after Trelawny returned to join in the fray, and in a final Byronic fantasy, he married Tersitsa, the child-sister of Odysseus. She was to bear him a daughter. Trelawny was now living in the cave fortress of Odysseus. Two of his so-called English associates attempted to kill him when his back was turned. He was badly wounded, having been hit in the jaw and shoulder. His life hung in the balance for weeks on end. If there's one word, which best describes Edward John Trelawny, it's that he was a “Survivor,” and survive he did. His remaining 46 years, although not as exciting as his first 42, were filled with more than enough material to satisfy his many biographers.

Autobiographer and Biographer

In 1828 he returned to England for the first time since his short visit in 1820 to attend his father’s funeral. Already known as being the last companion and friend of Byron and Shelley he took this opportunity to visit the two women he'd met in Italy, Mary Shelley and Claire Clairmont.
   At different times in his letters, Trelawny expressed his undying love to each of these women. There is little doubt that they were a motivating force in his decision to record the story of his life in the navy and as a privateer leading on to his friendships with Shelley and Byron. Adventures of a Younger Son was published in 1831 and many editions followed including translations into French, German, Swedish and Gaelic. From 1833 to 1835 Trelawny traveled in the United States where he swam across the Niagara River between the rapids and the falls. On his attempt to make the return passage he almost drowned.
   When he returned to England he was received as the hero depicted in his Adventures. He was to enter the world of Politics and High Society. Much has been written about his being a member of the Philosophical Radicals and of his social doings with Fanny Kemble, the Honourable Mrs. Caroline Norton and Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, to name but a few.
   Suddenly, Trelawny became bored with politics and the life of a raconteur, and he decided to return to a more simple life. In fact he'd met the “true-love-of-his-life” Augusta Goring, with whom he eloped, then moved into a house in Putney. They later relocated to a cottage in Usk, a small country town in Monmouthshire. Their daughter Laetitia was born there.
   He was fifty when he moved to Usk and for the next eighteen years he lived in retirement as the Lord of the Manor. But in 1857, when he was writing his second book dealing with his recollections of Shelley and Byron, his marriage disintegrated. Augusta moved to Italy and Trelawny, after selling the house, furniture, and his collection of over a thousand books, moved back to London.
   His second book, Recollections was published; he was again famous and the toast of the town.

Last Years

At the age of 78 he moved to the village of Sompting on the south coast of England. He was the principle subject in the famous picture by Millais, The NorthWest Passage (1874), which was reproduced throughout the world. By 1875 his daughter Laetitia was living with him full time. In 1878 he published is third book, a rewrite of Recollections but where he was to add more about himself in the content as well as in the title. Many of those who visited Trelawny in Sompting wrote about how vibrant were his appearance and voice. Had it not been for a bad fall he took while out for one of his usual morning walks there's no telling how long he might have lived. His charmed survival came to an end on August 13, 1881 at the age of 88.
His ashes were buried in a plot of ground adjacent to Shelley’s grave. He had purchased this plot in 1822, at the time he'd arranged for Shelley’s ashes to be buried. At his request these lines from Shelley were carved on his tombstone:
These are two friends whose lives were undivided. So let their memory be now they've glided Under the grave: let not their bone be parted For their two hearts in life were single-hearted.

Literary Works

He wrote The Adventures of a Younger Son (1831), a work of striking distinction, and the intensely interesting Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author (1858). He was a crucial link between the late Romantics and the late Victorians, particularly fostering the Shelley-Swinburne connection. The last surviving Romantic with legitimate ties to the canonical figures, he was buried by the side of Shelley in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.

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