106 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
but a debt which in his disabled condition he was unable to cope 
with, involving the ruin of fair prospects and high hopes, and 
probably having to stand alone in his oppression against the advice 
of time-serving friends to bow to the storm, all at once and all 
together, combined with the hardships inflicted on him in his 
prison, broke the body of the strong energetic man of forty-five, 
but could not break the heart or determination of Plymouth's 
worthy son, and he died in 1644, constant to his principles, a 
martyr to the cause of his king and country; and his grave is 
unmarked and unknown. Whichever side in these easy-going 
days we take, whether E-oyalist or Eoundhead, we must all admit 
that it was by such sterling men as Eobert Trelawny that Eng- 
land's liberties were won. 
One echo, however, from that prison-house is extant ; by his will, 
made 24th August, 1643, in captivity, and speaking thence — as he 
describes himself parenthetically, but without political rancour, a 
prisoner according to the sadness of the times — he looked back 
with love for his native town, and with solicitude on his half- 
completed work there, and he charged his executor to pay the sum 
of £200 when demanded, which he had promised to contribute 
towards the building of Charles Church. 
It is with regret that I am not able to say whether any portrait 
is in existence of this Plymouth worthy. The family possess 
several medallion likenesses of Trelawnys of the period ; but 
which of them, if either, represents Eobert Trelawny is unknown. 
It may here not be uninteresting to the Institution to hear a 
little more in detail of the American possessions of Trelawny, as 
the name of our town is largely associated with the early attempts 
to colonize those parts, and I here express my thanks to Mrs. 
Collins-Trelawny, of Ham, by whose kind assistance I have been 
enabled to examine some of the volumes of collections of the 
Historical Society of Maine relating to the period. I am informed 
that the originals of many of the Trelawny papers are now in 
America, and in course of preparation by that Society, and the 
publication of the long-looked-for volume will be hailed with 
satisfaction by many here present. 
In 1615 Sir Eichard Hawkins sailed from Plymouth with a 
commission from the Council of Plymouth — not, I apprehend, the 
Town Council — to do what service he could for them in New Eng- 
land ; but in consequence of a war then raging between the 
