Elizabeth Colenso (; 29 August 1821 – 2 September 1904) was a missionary, teacher and Bible translator in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Early life

Elizabeth Fairburn was born at the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...

(CMS) station at

Kerikeri Kerikeri () is a town in the Bay of Islands, in the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It lies at the head of Kerikeri Inlet, a northwestern arm of the Bay of Islands, where fresh water of the Kerikeri River enters the Paci ...

, New Zealand, in 1821. She was the daughter of Sarah Tuckwell and her husband, William Fairburn. In 1834 William Fairburn and his wife opened a mission station at Puriri in the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

district. Their five children, Richard (aged 15), Elizabeth (13), John (11), Edwin (7), and Esther (5), remained at Paihia where they attended the CMS school conducted by

Marianne Williams Marianne Williams, together with her sister-in-law Jane Williams, was a pioneering educator in New Zealand. They established schools for Māori children and adults as well as educating the children of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in the ...

Life with Colenso

Elizabeth became fluent in

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

, and in 1840, aged 19 years, was teaching Māori children and young people at her father's mission station at Maraetai. When

Bishop Selwyn George Augustus Selwyn (5 April 1809 – 11 April 1878) was the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand. He was Bishop of New Zealand (which included Melanesia) from 1841 to 1869. His diocese was then subdivided and Selwyn was metropolitan bishop ...

visited the mission, he engaged Elizabeth to teach at St. John's College, which was then at the Waimate Mission. Here she met missionary and printer

William Colenso William Colenso (17 November 1811 – 10 February 1899) FRS was a Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand, and also a printer, botanist, explorer and politician. He attended the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and later wrote an acco ...

. The pair married on 27 April 1843. Following Colenso's ordination as a deacon in September 1844 the couple, with their infant daughter Frances Mary (Fanny), established the Waitangi Mission at Ahuriri, Napier. In September 1845 Elizabeth went overland to the Rev. William Williams' mission station at Tūranga,

Poverty Bay Poverty Bay (Māori language, Māori: ''Tūranganui-a-Kiwa''), officially named Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay, is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawke Bay. It stretches for ...

for the birth of her son Ridley Latimer (Latty). After several unhappy years of marriage, Elizabeth became aware that William was the father of Wiremu, a child born in 1850 to Ripeka Meretene, a member of the household. In November 1851 her husband was suspended as a deacon, and in 1852 was dismissed from the mission as the consequence of his adultery. Only after William's adultery became public knowledge in 1853 did the couple separate, though they never divorced. After her separation the CMS engaged Elizabeth to work as a teacher at the Kaitotehe Mission near

Mount Taupiri Mount Taupiri is a hill at the southern end of the Taupiri Range in the Waikato. The highest peak in the range, it rises to 288 metres above sea level and overlooks Taupiri township immediately to its south. It is separated from the Hakarimata R ...

in the Waikato.

To England

In 1860 the

First Taranaki War The First Taranaki War (also known as the North Taranaki War) was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori people, Māori and the Colony of New Zealand in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Is ...

broke out and the mission stations in the vicinity of the fighting were abandoned. Elizabeth took her two children, Fanny (17), and Latty (15), to England to finish their education, and settled in

Tottenham Tottenham (, , , ) is a district in north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, ...

, north London. In 1863, Hariata and

Hare Pomare Hare Pomare (died 1864) was a New Zealand Māori people, Māori, the son of Pōmare II (Ngāpuhi), Pomare II, who identified with the Ngāpuhi and Ngati Manu iwi. His wife, Hariata Pomare, was a Ngāpuhi woman from Te Ahuahu, near Ōhaeawai, who ...

, members of a tour party of

organised by Wesleyan lay preacher William Jenkins, stayed with the Colensos. On 26 October 1863 Hariata gave birth to Albert Victor, who was named after the Queen's deceased husband. On 4 December 1863 Elizabeth accompanied Hariata and Hare Pomare as interpreter on a visit to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

. Having grown up speaking the Māori language from a young age, Colenso helped oversee the publication in England of a Māori language edition of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

, a lengthy undertaking which continued until the mid-1860s. She also helped prepare the revised

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

for press, correcting the printed copy, and sometimes suggesting alternative translations.

Later life in New Zealand and the Pacific

Latty entered

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

in 1866, and Elizabeth and Fanny left England in October of that year, returning to Auckland by early 1867. In 1869 Elizabeth started a school for Māori children at the mission house at

Paihia Paihia is a town in the Bay of Islands in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is 60 kilometres north of Whangārei, located close to the historic towns of Russell, New Zealand, Russell and Kerikeri. Missionary Henry Wi ...

and kept it going until the end of 1875. At this time, Elizabeth travelled to

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and a ...

to help in the work of the

Melanesian Mission The Melanesian Mission is an Anglican missionary agency supporting the work of local Anglican churches in Melanesia. It was founded in 1849 by George Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand. History Bishop Selwyn's see was focused on New Zealan ...

, at the request of Bishop John Selwyn. Here, she translated Christian materials into the

Mota language Mota is an Oceanic language spoken by about 750 people on Mota island, in the Banks Islands of Vanuatu. It is the most conservative Torres–Banks language, and the only one to keep its inherited five-vowel system intact while also preservin ...

, which was chosen as the '

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

' of the Mission. In 1879 Colenso visited New Zealand and travelled to Ōtaki to see her daughter Fanny and son-in-law, William H. Simcox. In 1891 Elizabeth again visited New Zealand; this visit also included a visit to her family in Ōtaki. In January 1895 Fanny moved to

. Elizabeth retired from mission life in 1898, at the age of 76, by which time she was suffering increasing pain from rheumatism. She lived to the age of 83, dying on 2 September 1904 at Forest Lakes, Ōtaki.

References

External links

*
Short bio of E.F. Colenso and her husband
* Ross, C. (2006). "The Legacy of Elizabeth Fairburn Colenso", ''International Bulletin of Missionary Research'', 30:3, 148–152. {{DEFAULTSORT:Colenso, Elizabeth Translators of the Bible into Polynesian languages 1821 births 1904 deaths New Zealand Anglican missionaries Anglican missionaries in New Zealand Female Christian missionaries 19th-century New Zealand translators Translators from English Translators to Māori People from Kerikeri 19th-century New Zealand women writers Anglican missionaries in Norfolk Island Missionary linguists Female Bible translators Fairburn–Newman family Translators of the Bible into Māori