Edward Trelawny (governor)

Edward Trelawny (1699 – 16 January 1754) was the British governor of Jamaica from April 1738 to September 1752. He is especially known for a treaty that ended the long war that pitted white planters against the Maroons.

Edward Trelawny was born in 1699 in Trelawne, Cornwall (England). Of an ancient and well-known Cornish family, he was a younger son of Bishop Sir Jonathan Trelawny and brother of Sir John Trelawny.

In 1734, Trelawny left Scotland to join the British Imperial Army in his fight against the French in the war of the Polish Succession. After this, Trelawny was elected for both East Looe and West Looe.

So, he returned to Parliament in this year (1734), but both elections were declared void, as he was then a commissioner of customs in Scotland and ineligible to sit in Parliament.

He was appointed Governor of Jamaica in April 1738. In March the following year, he established a peace agreement, supported by the English settlers, who officially freed the Maroons and gave them land. This treaty ended the war that pitted several populations for a long time. Trelawny left office in September 1752.

He also fought in the War of Jenkins' Ear (American phase of the War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-1748), which pitted Great Britain against Spain.

In 1747, Trelawny published the pamphlet Essay concerning Slavery, a very controversial pamphlet in which he spoke of his wish that slavery be abolished. As he knew that if he abolished slavery the economy of the island would be ruined (since Jamaica depended on slavery economically), and he would lose the Government of Jamaica and the possibility of joining the British Parliament, he decided to ask, simply, for abolition of the slave trade, but the slaves of Jamaica as such would remain. It would not be done, however, until 1783.

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