Edwin Colenso
Edwin, youngest son of Samuel May Colenso and Mary Veale
Thomas, arrived in Geelong
on the Berkshire, which docked at Point Henry at 10:00am on the 3rd of October 1848. The Berkshire
had left Plymouth on the 9th June 1848. His
eldest brother William had immigrated to New
Zealand in 1834, another brother disappeared
to Canada
around 1853. One of his sisters, Jane Emily married a Napoleonic soldier,
another married a saddler and moved to Walsall
Foreign. Cornwall was changing and
many of its native population were traveling to all corners of the British
Empire.
Edwin was recorded on the passenger list as “Edward Collins”
a 24 year-old carpenter from Penzance.
I found this record after discovering from his obituary in the Geelong Advertiser that he had arrived in Geelong in October 1848. This
narrowed the search down to three ships. Ironically Collins was the name my
grandmother chose to replace Colenso, when she changed her name after being
divorced by my grandfather.
Obituary
Geelong
Advertiser, July 1897.
THE
LATE MR EDWIN COLENSO
Hardly
a week passes without a vacancy occurring in the ranks of the old pioneers
who settled early in this part of the colony, and today we have to mention
the death of Mr Edwin Colenso, who died at his
residence, Noble-street, Chilwell, on the 30th ult. Mr Colenso arrived in
the bay in October 1848, and was among the first undertakers who opened
business in this town. He joined the mad rush to the diggings early in the
fifties, and participated in the Ballarat riots,
taking sides with the late Hon. Peter Lalor at
the famous Eureka Stockade. He had the rather sensational experience when
returning to Geelong, having been
"stuck-up" by bushrangers, robbed of his hard earned gold, and
was left in a perfectly nude state, by them, lashed to a tree*. He was
discovered by a settler shortly after, and was released. He was employed at
his trade in one workshop for 42 years, having successively served Messrs
W.B. King, J.W. Hudson, and W.B. King and Sons, undertakers of Moorabool-street. Mr Colenso
came from the Penzance (Cornwall) family, several
of whom have distinguished themselves in the literacy and scientific world,
notably the late Right Rev. John William Colenso D.D., Lord Bishop of
Natal, and celebrated arithmetician, and the Rev William Colenso, the most
eminent living authority on New Zealand botany, and the first printer to
set up the press in that Colony for the Royal Missionary Society. Mr Edwin Colenso died at the age of 70 1/2 years.
* I think he probably argued with the bushranger to earn
this treatment.
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On the 5th
January 1850, Edwin married Eliza Borrill
Cook, from Lincoln. They had 4
children, only two surviving infancy, before Eliza died on the 21st October 1858. Their
children were:
- Samuel
Robert, born and died in Geelong
in 1852
- Samuel
Robert, born in 1853 in Irish Town,
died after a long and painful illness on the 8th October 1890. He never married.
- John,
born 22 November 1853
in Irish Town,
died in 1933 in Geelong,
married Sarah Ann Hopkins and had 11 children
- William,
born 2 March 1856, died
14 March 1857
On the 12th
February 1859 Edwin married Martha Austin, from Bristol.
They had 11 children.
- Edwin
Austin, born 1860 Chilwell, died 21 Dec 1898 of Typhoid in Melbourne,
married Barbara Waixel 31 May 1882 in Fitzroy
and had 9 children. He was bus driver when he married.
- William
R, born 15 August 1861
Geelong,
died 26 December 1939.
He had a son in Sydney in 1887, wife Helena Hand (nee O’Brien) and had
another family in Victoria, wife Margaret Jackson with 7 children. The
Sydney Branch of the family is most likely descended from him.
- Mary
Jane, born 1863 Chilwell, died 1865 Geelong.
- Emily
Caroline, born 1865 Chilwell, died 7th December 1950,
married Alfred Allan Winstanley and had 12
children.
- Richard
Alfred, born 1867 Geelong,
died 23 August 1923 in
South Yarra, married
Grace Ann Hodge 1891 and had two children.
- Thomas
Henry, born 1870 Geelong,
died 12 August 1950 in
Deepdene. He married Elizabeth Gilchrist Bain in
1894 and had 4 sons and a daughter. After Elizabeth
died in 1940 he married Mabel Ellen Ash.
- Amelia
Virginia, born 1872 in Geelong,
died 1898 Benalla, married Robert Courtney Feltham in 1890 and had three children.
- Joseph
Austin, born 1874 in Geelong,
immigrated to New Zealand
in 1902 and died there in 1939. He married a fellow Victoria Emily Ince in 1902 in Dunedin,
settled in Oemaru and had three daughters.
- Benjamin,
born and died in Geelong
in 1876.
- Alfred
George, born 1877 in Geelong,
died in 1950. He married Maria Margaret Edith Ash in 1904 and had one
daughter.
- Albert
Ernest, born 1880 in Geelong,
served with the Scottish Horse and the Bushveldt
Carbineers in South
Africa. He married the sister of another
Australian Soldier and settled in Durban,
dying in 1954. He had a son and a daughter.
Most of the Australian Colenso family is descended from
Edwin, the majority still in Victoria,
but some moved to Queensland and son
William had his original family in Sydney.