John William Colenso

1814–1883 · Church of England · Natal, South Africa

John William Colenso (1814–1883) was the first Bishop of Natal from 1853, a mathematician and Zulu grammarian who translated much of the Bible into isiZulu. His critical work on the Pentateuch and his defence of Zulu converts brought a sentence of deposition from Bishop Gray of Cape Town in 1863, which the English courts refused to enforce.