Colonel Edward Trelawny (c. 1699 – 16 January 1754) was a British Army officer, politician and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Jamaica from April 1738 to September 1752.

[1][2] After studying at Westminster School and the University of Oxford, Trelawny entered into a political career, being elected to the British House of Commons in January 1724 after a parliamentary by-election, representing the constituency of West Looe.

[2] A friend of fellow politician Sir Charles Wager, Trelawny vacated his parliamentary seat after being given the job of commissioner of customs in Edinburgh by Prime Minister Robert Walpole in December 1732.

Both treaties formally recognised the Maroons' status as free people of colour, officially allocated them land in the Jamaican interior to establish settlements and exempted them from paying tax to the colonial authorities.

[4] During his tenure as governor, Trelawny, at the rank of colonel, raised Edward Trelawney's Regiment of Foot in 1743 from eight independent companies of the British Army stationed in Jamaica during the War of Jenkins' Ear between Great Britain and Spain.

[2] He died on 16 January 1754 in London at the age of 55, bequething his properties in Trelawne and Looe to his brother John, as his marriage with Penny produced no children.