Edward John Trelawny - Early Life

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. His father, Charles Brereton Trelawny, 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.

Although he was christened Edward John, his family generally referred to him as John when he was young. He later began referring to himself as Edward, which was the name most of his friends referred to him as. 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 was also wealthy. He held a seat in the House of Commons and in 1810 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 very 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 very close with his mother. His mother worked very 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 very disagreeable person as she grew older. Trelawny's parents regarded their children as potential sinners and frequently used very 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 very close friends during their childhood. Harry was very 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.