Colenso – origins of the name
COLENSO is a locative family name probably taken from the Manor of Colenso in the Parish of Saint Hilary, Cornwall. There are three possible origins of the word from the Cornish language: kelyn su (dark hedged pool), kelyn dhu (dark hollies) or callen-su (dark layer of iron-ochre on a rock face).
Early bearers of the name were Robert de Kelentou, circa 1210 in Cornish Deeds, Sibil de Calensou in 1327 in Cornish Subsidy Rolls (granted by Parliament September 1327)
First records
Traditionally the main branch of the Colenso family is believed to be native of the parish of Madron in the town of Penzance on the Penwith peninsula. In fact the first child christened in this parish is Thomas the base-born son of Jane Calensowe on 1st September 1614.
The only previous records in Madron related to the family are the burials of John Callynsowe (6th January 1586) and Jane Calensowe (10th June 1607). There is another burial of a Jane Colensowe on the 21st September 1624. This is most likely the mother of Thomas mentioned previously.
Record-keeping started in Madron in 1577, but the christenings appeared to be lost from this date until 1592. However marriages and burials have been retained since 1577. The first family marriage in Madron appears to be Thomas Culensoe and Katheren Trewhella on the 17th September in 1638. The groom could be Thomas born in 1614 or Thomas, the son of James and Margaret Topp, born in Uny Lelant in 1611. Probably the latter as one of sons was named James and a daughter Margaret.
Other parishes have retained older records and provide evidence that an Alan Collensaw (various spellings) had children in St Erth and Ludgvan between 1568 and 1581. Alan may have been the father of Jane, mentioned previously. John Calensowe had children in Mawgan in Meneage between 1568 and 1579.
In the Cornwall Muster Roll of 1569, three men are mentioned John Calensow of Mr Vyvyan’s men in Mawgan in Meneage, Alan Kelansawe of St Erth and Harry Kelensawe of Uny Lelant.
Prior to this Muster Roll Jenkin Kelensow of Uny Lelant is mentioned in the 1545 Subsidy, Reynold Kelensoe of St Hilary is mentioned in the Military Survey of 1522. A Thomas Kellensow of Paul is mentioned in the 1522 Military Survey and the Tinners Muster Roll of 1535.
Colenso Manor
The manor of Calenso appears to have been part of the Estate of Francis Tregian (1548-1608) of Golden, near Probus, Cornwall. The Tregian Estates were forfeited to the Crown on the 1st April 1577. They appear to have been acquired by the Rashleigh family in 1610 and then by the Buller family by 1635 as part of what they called the Shillingham Estates. The parcel also included Golden, the principle Tregian Manor. The Calensoe Manor was sold to tenants after 1917 and exists now as three farms.
Coincidentally Sir Redvers Buller, who commanded the British forces at the Battle of Colenso on 15th December 1899 during the Second Boer War, owned the Colenso Manor in Cornwall. The Township of Colenso, situate on the Tugela River in Kwazulu Natal, was named after John William Colenso, Bishop of Natal 1853 – 1883.
Frequency of the name
In 1901 there were 182 people named Colenso in England, 6 in Wales and, in 1900, 52 in the USA. Even if the numbers were supplemented with those whose names were mispelled the name is not frequent. There have been around 2000 people born with the name Colenso (or variant) since the 1500s.
The Colenso family dispersed from Cornwall to Devon, Wales, Liverpool, Bristol, Wolverhampton and London. The first settler in the USA was Elizabeth Colenso with her husband James Woolcock in 1848. There are members of the family throughout the Commonwealth and former colonies, but very few left in Cornwall.
Celebrated family members
John William Colenso born St Austell (1814-1883) was a Cornish mathematician and cleric. He attended St John’s College, Cambridge and made his income by selling his copyright interest in highly successful and widely read manuals on Algebra (1841) and arithmetic (1843).
In 1853 he was recruited to be Bishop of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. While there he published the first Zulu Grammar and English/Zulu dictionary. He also translated the New Testament and other scriptures into Zulu.
He published a series of treatises on the Pentateuch and Book of Joshua from 1862 to 1879 in which he hypothesised that these books had different authors (until then the received wisdom was that they were the word of God handed down by Moses). He was accused of heresy and deposed from his post. He appealed to the Privy Council in London and cleared of the allegations and returned to his diocese.
Colenso championed the cause of the Zulus and railed against the invasion of the Zulu Kingdom by the British in 1879.
A township named Colenso was named after John William Colenso and still exists today. It is situated at a bend in the Tugela River and was the site of the Battle of Colenso in 1899 during the Second Boer War between the British under General Buller and the Boers. Four soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross and Winston Churchill, as War Correspondent, was taken prisoner while on his way there.
John William’s cousin, William Colenso, born in Penzance 1811-1899 travelled to New Zealand to work for the Church Missionary Society. He was responsible for printing a translation of the New Testament in Maori in 1837 (the first book printed in New Zealand). He translated the Treaty of Waitangi for the Maori chiefs and added the agreed Article Four of the Treaty.
William Colenso was an avid botanist detailing and sending previously unrecorded New Zealand flora to Kew Gardens and was the first New Zealander to be admitted to the Royal Society. The Colenso Society was founded in 2010 by academics and historians across New Zealand to “promote the study of the life and work of William Colenso”.
Colenso 