The New International Encyclopædia/Trelawny, Edward John

TRELAWNY, tr𝑒-la′nī, Edward John (1792–1881). An English author, especially known as the friend of Shelley and Byron. He was born in London. Though he was of an ancient and famous family, his education was neglected. Entering the royal navy at the age of thirteen, he served in the fleet blockading Cadiz (1805). He subsequently deserted and passed through some exciting adventures in the East Indies. In January, 1822, he met Shelley (q.v.) and Byron (q.v.) at Pisa. He was the last to see Shelley's boat disappear in the fog on the memorable eighth of July, 1822; and he superintended the cremation of Shelley's body at Viareggio, snatching the heart from the flames. In 1823 he accompanied Byron to Greece, where he took an active part in the war of liberation, and married, as his second wife, the sister of the Greek chieftain Odysseus. After living in Italy and traveling in the United States (1833–35), he settled in England, where he became the lion of London society. His last years were passed mostly in the country, in Monmouthshire and in Sussex. He died at Sompting, in Sussex. His body was cremated and buried by the side of Shelley's in the Protestant cemetery at Rome. Trelawny charmed two generations by his rich fund of anecdote. In his old age he was sought out by young men who wished to see and hear the man who had been a comrade of Byron and Shelley. He was of magnificent physique. Millais chose him for the old seaman in “The Northwest Passage.” Trelawny wrote his early autobiography under the title The Adventures of a Younger Son (anonymous, 1831). How much is truth and how much is fiction in this book will probably never be determined. Trelawny is best known for The Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron (1858), republished, with changes, as Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author (1878). Both are brilliant books, and the latter is of great value. Consult the edition of The Adventures of a Younger Brother, with memoir by E. Garnett (London, 1890).