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.

His surname is locative and it originates from the place name Colenso in the parish of St Hilary, near Penzance in west Cornwall.

[7][8] During the year ending 31 December 1840, he had printed 10,000 Catechisms, 11,000 Psalms, other religious texts and material for the schools; as well as 200 copies of the New Zealand Gazette for the colonial government.

[10] He was ordained a Deacon on 22 September 1844 following his theological studies at St John’s College, which was then located at Te Waimate mission.

[15] His travels took him through trackless forest, over the high Ruahine Range and across the Rangipo Desert and past the mountains of Ruapehu and Tongariro to the shores of Lake Taupō.

He visited regularly the Wairapara and Hutt districts,[18] where he was frequently at odds with the European lessees of sheep and cattle stations such as Kelly, McMaster, Grindell and Gillies.

In 1845, about a dozen sheep and cattle farmers had leased large areas of land from local Māori by mutual agreement.

Colenso also had strong views about drinking and horse racing which were a regular part of colonial life that Māori as well as settlers enjoyed.

In 1847, Judge Chapman, Doctor Featherston, the bank manager McDonald and the merchant Waitt visited the Hutt valley.

[26] In 1871, Colenso was the speaker at the Hawkes Bay Provincial Council when Ngāti Kahungunu had been persuaded by farmers, the Russell Brothers, that they could get their land back in what came to be known as the Repudiation Movement.

Lawyer and later Government Native Minister John Sheehan, who spoke fluent Māori,[27] acted on behalf of the Repudiation Movement.

His son from Elizabeth Fairburn, Ridley Latimer, attended St John's College, Cambridge, and finally settled in Scotland.