Elizabeth Colenso (; 29 August 1821 – 2 September 1904) was a missionary, teacher and Bible translator in New Zealand.
Early life
Elizabeth Fairburn was born at the Church Missionary Society (CMS) station at Kerikeri, 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 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.
Life with Colenso
Elizabeth became fluent in Māori, and in 1840, aged 19 years, was teaching Māori children and young people at her father's mission station at Maraetai. When Bishop Selwyn 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. 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 for the birth of her son Ridley Latimer (Latty).
