Trelawny was born in Cornwall, England - though he has no memory of it. He eventually emigrated to the United States. A conman who is also described as a conjurer and trickster, Trelawny joined Dutch van der Linde and his gang several years prior to 1899. He is known to abandon the gang at points, sometimes even for months on end, but always comes back. Trelawny, at some point, settled down in Saint Denis with a wife and two sons named Tarquin and Cornelius