Marianne Colston

Colston, Marianne née Jenkins, 1792—1865

by Benjamin Colbert

Marianne Jenkins Colston was the daughter and heir of William Jenkins (c. 1751-1837), of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, and Sarah Jenkins, née Watkin. On 1 November 1819, she married Edward Francis Colston (1795-1847), descendent and heir of the wealthy Bristol merchant and benefactor, Edward Colston (1636-1721; ODNB).

Immediately after their marriage, the couple set out on the continental tour recorded in Journal of a Tour, during which time their first child, Arabella Sarah (1820-91) was born ('She is, probably, the first English child who has been baptized on the summits of the Simplon', writes Colston [1:351]). Three other children followed: Edward (1822-64), William Jenkins Craig (1824-67), and Samuel Hunt (1825-54).

In Paris, near the conclusion of their tour, Marianne Colston readied her journal for the press, the first volume of which was printing while Colston was still writing up her concluding remarks on her return visit to Paris (1822, 2: 257n). Simultaneously, François Le Villain (fl. 1820-30) prepared the lithographs for her drawings, comprising an additional folio volume accompanying the two-volume Journal, published by A. and W. Galignani in Paris in 1822 and reprinted by Whittaker in London the following year.

After their return from the Continent in 1822, the Colstons resided for a time in Somersetshire before removing to a Colston property in Oxfordshire, Filkins Hall. In a letter to Sir Robert Peel of 1843, Marianne Colston recalls a subsequent residence of ‘some years’ at Weymouth until, in May 1840, they purchased Roundway House, Wiltshire. Marianne Colston remained at Roundway House after her husband’s death in 1847 (the North Wiltshire census of 1861 describes her as a ‘landed proprietor’ and head of a household that included at that time two of her sons and a daughter-in-law, two granddaughters and a grandson, three visitors, and fourteen servants). She died 3 October 1865, aged 73.

Sources:

Colbert, Benjamin. 'Marianne Colston'. Transculture: The Blog of Wolverhampton University's Centre for Transnational & Transcultural Research (CTTR). Web. 15 Dec. 2020.

Colston, Marianne. Letter to Robert Peel, 7 Jan. 1843, Roundway Park, near Devizes, Wilts. MS 40522, ff. 137-41. British Lib., London.

‘Edward Francis Colston’. The Peerage: A Genealogical Survey of Britain as well as the Royal Families of Europe. Comp. Daryl Lundy. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2020.

London Chronicle, no. 5434 (21-23 June 1791): 595. Gale Primary Sources: Burney Newspapers Collection. Web. 15 Dec. 2020.

The Standard, no. 3033 (Friday, 27 Jan. 1837). Gale Primary Sources: 19thC British Library Newspapers: Part II. Web. 15 Dec. 2020.

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