Robert Trelawney (25 March 1598 – 1643) was an English merchant and colonist who settled lands in what became

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

, United States. He was also 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 Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was re ...

from 1640 to 1642. The son of Robert Trelawney, thrice mayor of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

, Trelawney was a merchant and colonist at the settlement. On 1 December 1631, the

Plymouth Company The Plymouth Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of Plymouth, was a company chartered by King James in 1606 along with the Virginia Company of London with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of America between latitud ...

granted he and his partner, Moses Goodyeare, a patent for a tract of land between Spurwink River and

Presumpscot River The Presumpscot River () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 30, 2011 river located in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. It is the main outlet of Sebago ...

, and for Richmond's Island at

Cape Elizabeth, Maine Cape Elizabeth is a New England town, town in Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The town is part of the Portland, Maine, Portland–South Portland, Maine, South Portland–Biddeford, Maine, Biddeford, Ma ...

, on which they created the Trelawney Plantation.''Captain Walter Gendall: A Biographical Sketch''
- Doctor Charles E. Banks (1880), p. 2 In 1633, Trelawney was elected mayor of Plymouth. He built Ham House, near Plymouth, in 1639. In April 1640, Trelawney was elected Member of Parliament for

for the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

. He was re-elected in November 1640 for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

, 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, 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 Merchants from colonial Massachusetts Members of the Parliament of England for Plymouth 17th-century American merchants English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Mayors of Plymouth People from Cape Elizabeth, Maine