TRELAWNY, CHARLES (1654–1731), major-general, was fourth son of Sir Jonathan Trelawny, second baronet, by Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Seymour of Berry Pomeroy, near Totnes. Sir Jonathan Trelawny [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, was his elder brother. He served in Monmouth's regiment with the French army during the invasion of Holland, and at the siege of Maestricht in 1673. He received a commission as captain in Skelton's regiment (also in French pay) on 16 March 1674, and fought under Turenne on the Rhine. He became major in Monmouth's regiment on 1 Nov. 1678, and in the Earl of Plymouth's regiment, which he helped to raise, on 13 July 1680.
The latter regiment (afterwards the 4th or king's own) was formed for service at Tangier, and Trelawny went thither with it in December. He succeeded Percy Kirke [q. v.] as lieutenant-colonel of it on 27 Nov., and as colonel on 23 April 1682. It returned to England in April 1684, and part of it was at Sedgemoor.
At the end of November 1688 he was at Warminster with Kirke when the latter was arrested for refusing to march against William's troops, and Trelawny thereupon deserted to William with his lieutenant-colonel, Charles Churchill, and thirty men. James deprived him of his regiment, but William reinstated him on 31 Dec.
At the battle of the Boyne, 1 July 1690, he commanded the infantry brigade which passed the river at Slanebridge and turned the enemy's left. He was made governor of Dublin. In September he took part in the siege of Cork under Marlborough, and on 2 Dec. he was promoted major-general. On 1 Jan. 1692, at the time of the agitation against William's preference for foreign officers, he resigned his regiment, which was given to his brother Henry, afterwards brigadier-general [see Trelawny, Edward, ad fin.] When Tollemache was killed in 1694, there was a report that Trelawny would succeed him as colonel of the Coldstream guards; but Shrewsbury wrote to William that such an appointment would be greatly disliked by the whigs, and the regiment was given to Cutts. In May 1696 Trelawny was made governor of Plymouth.
He died at Hengar on 24 Sept. 1731, and was buried at Pelynt. He seems to have been twice married, but left no children.
[Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. p. 762; Dalton's English Army Lists; Scott's British Army; Cannon's Records of 4th Foot; Walton's English Standing Army; Luttrell's Diary; Macaulay's Hist. of England, i.; cf. Trelawny Correspondence, letters between Myrtilla and Philander [i.e. the love-letters of his niece Letitia and his nephew Harry], 1706–36, privately printed in 1884.]
TRELAWNY, EDWARD (1699–1754), governor of Jamaica, fourth son of Sir Jonathan Trelawny [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, by his wife Rebecca, daughter of Thomas Hele of Bascombe, Devonshire, was born at Trelawne, Cornwall, in 1699, and educated at Westminster school from 1713 to 1717, when he proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating on 27 June.
On 20 Jan. 1723–4 he was returned to parliament as member for West Looe, Cornwall. He became on 21 Oct. 1725 a commissioner for victualling the forces, and on 2 Jan. 1732–3 a commissioner of customs, continuing to sit for West Looe through two parliaments till 26 Jan. 1732–3. From 4 May 1734 to February 1735 he represented both East and West Looe. He was offered the government of Jamaica in August 1736, and assumed office in the colony on 30 April 1738.
Trelawny's sixteen years' administration of Jamaica was, with one exception (that of Lieutenant-general Edward Morrison from 1809 to 1828), the longest on record, and one of the most successful. The question of the maroon war demanded his attention on his arrival, and by 1 March 1739 peace had been established on a judicious basis which proved to be permanent: the maroons were located in their separate reserves, the chief capital of which is still known as Trelawnytown. This internal pacification was soon followed by war with Spain, and Trelawny raised a regiment in Jamaica to support Wentworth and Vernon in their campaign in the West Indies. In March 1741–2 he left Jamaica to join the unfortunate expedition against Cartagena, and returned about 15 April. During the expedition he had a bitter quarrel with Rear-admiral Ogle, which resulted in Ogle being tried for assault upon Trelawny before the chief justice of Jamaica [see Ogle, Sir Chaloner]. Trelawny was appointed on 25 Dec. 1743 to be a colonel, and captain of a company, of the 49th regiment of foot, which was augmented by the new companies in Jamaica. In 1745 he was called on to place the colony for a time under martial law owing to the attitude of the French. In 1746 he had to deal with a serious insurrection of slaves. In February 1747–8, with 350 men of his regiment, he sailed with Admiral Sir Charles Knowles [q. v.] and joined in the capture of Port Louis in San Domingo.
Trelawny seems to have acted at all times with rare tact, and the farewell address of
