Robert Trelawney (25 March 1598 – 1643) was an English merchant and colonist who settled lands in Maine USA and a politician who sat in the

House of Commons of England The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of ...

from 1640 to 1642. The son of Robert Trelawney, who was three times mayor of Plymouth, Trelawney was a merchant and colonist at the settlement. On 1 December 1631 the Plymouth Company granted he and his partner Moses Goodyeare a patent for a tract of land between

Spurwink River The Spurwink River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 30, 2011 primarily tidal river in Cumberland County, Maine. It rises in the town of Cape Elizabeth and flows we ...

and Presumpscot River and for Richmond's Island at Cape Elizabeth, Maine. In 1633 Trelawney was elected

Mayor of Plymouth This is a list of some notable mayors and all the later lord mayors of the city of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. Plymouth had elected a mayor annually since 1439. The city was awarded the dignity of a lord mayoralty by letters patent ...

. He built Ham House near Plymouth in 1639. In April 1640, Trelawney was elected Member of Parliament for

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

for the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...

. He was re-elected in November 1640 for the Long Parliament, but was expelled from the House of Commons in March 1642 and committed to prison for publicly stating that the Commons had no power to appoint a guard for themselves without the King's consent. Trelawney married Elizabeth Mayne, daughter of Alexander Mayne, in 1620. He was the father of

Samuel Trelawney Samuel Trelawny (1630 – 1666) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1666. Trelawny was the eldest surviving son of Robert Trelawny and was baptised on 31 March 1630. His father ...

, who was also MP for Plymouth.Robert Burke ''A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain Volume 4''
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trelawney, Robert 1598 births 1643 deaths Members of the Parliament of England for Plymouth 17th-century American people English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Mayors of Plymouth