Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Trevelyan, Raleigh
TREVELYAN, RALEIGH (1781–1865), miscellaneous writer, born on 6 Aug. 1781, was the younger son of Walter Trevelyan, by his first wife, Margaret, elder daughter and coheiress of James Thornton of Netherwitton, Northumberland. Walter was the second son of Sir George Trevelyan of Nettlecombe Court, Somerset, third baronet.
Raleigh was educated at Eton and at St. John's College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1804 and M.A. in 1807. He was an able classical scholar, and in 1806 he obtained the senior bachelor's medal for Latin essay. On 11 Nov. 1801 Trevelyan entered Lincoln's Inn, and in 1810 he was called to the bar; but on the death of his elder brother, Walter Blackett Trevelyan, on 3 April 1818, without issue, he succeeded to the Netherwitton estates and relinquished his practice. The remainder of his life was passed chiefly in Northumberland, where he indulged his literary tastes and his conservative tendencies by writing poems and political pamphlets. The former were marked by elegance and scholarship, the latter by unusual moderation. Trevelyan died at Netherwitton Hall on 12 May 1865. He married, on 14 June 1819, Elizabeth, second daughter of Robert Grey of Shoreston, Northumberland. By her he had a son, Thornton Raleigh Trevelyan, who died before him on 14 Feb. 1845. He was succeeded at Netherwitton by his grandson, Thornton Roger Trevelyan.
Raleigh Trevelyan was the author of: 1. ‘Prolusiones partim Græce partim Latine scriptæ,’ Cambridge, 1806, 12mo; 2nd edit. London, 1817, 8vo; new edit. ‘Selecta e Prolusionibus,’ London, 1829, 8vo. 2. ‘Elegy on the Death of the Princess Charlotte,’ 1818, 4to. 3. ‘A Poetical Sketch of the Ten Commandments’ [1830?], 12mo. 4. ‘Parliamentary and Legal Questions,’ London, 1833, 12mo. 5. ‘Essays and Poems,’ London, 1833, 12mo. He contributed a poem on the death of Nelson to Turton's ‘Luctus Nelsoniani,’ London, 1807, 4to.
[Trevelyan's Works; Gent. Mag. 1865, ii. 289; Records of Lincoln's Inn, 1896, ii. 7.]