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.

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.

[3] 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 1863, Hariata and Hare Pomare, members of a tour party of Māori organised by Wesleyan lay preacher William Jenkins, stayed with the Colensos.

[2] Latty entered St John's College, Cambridge in 1866, and Elizabeth and Fanny left England in October of that year, returning to Auckland by early 1867.

[3] At this time, Elizabeth travelled to Norfolk Island to help in the work of the Melanesian Mission, at the request of Bishop John Selwyn.