CathernQsh at 19:00, 29 January 2026

2026-01-29T19:00:35Z

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[[File:Agra 03-2016 13 Agra Fort.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Tomb of John Russell Colvin inside the [[Agra Fort|Red Fort of Agra]].]]
[[File:Colvin family memorial.jpeg|thumb|Colvin family memorial in the chancel of All Saints church, Little Bealings, Suffolk]]
The '''Colvin family''' is the family descended from James Colquhoun Colvin (1767–1847), the son of Alexander Colvin (1718–1791) and Elizabeth 'Bettie' née Kennedy (1714–1795). James was a merchant trading between London and Calcutta during the [[East India Company]]. This [[Anglo-Indian]] family was intimately involved with the [[British Raj]], first as traders and then as administrators and soldiers. Their descendants continued in service to the [[British Empire]] and later in some of its constituent countries.

==First generation==
In 1802 James married Maria Jackson (1780–1834) at [[Fort William, India]]. Among their children were:
* Elizabeth Jackson Colvin (1803–1856) who [[cousin marriage|married her cousin]] Alexander Colvin (1787–1864)
* Anna Maria Colvin (1804–1867) who married [[Robert Colquhoun (East India Company officer)|Robert David Colquhoun]] (1786–1838)
* Bazett David Colvin JP (1805–1871) see below
* John Russell Colvin (1807–1857) see below
* Binny James Colvin (1809–1895) who married Helen Catherine née Best (1818–1910) daughter of John Rycroft Best of Barbados
* Henrietta Hall Colvin (1812–1841) who married Rev. Ellis Walford (1803–1881)
* James Edward Colvin (1814–1814)
* Edward Thomas Colvin (1815–1857) who married Mary Anne Browne (1822–1877) daughter of Dr John Browne, Surgeon General in the Bengal Medical Service
* Margaret Matilda Colvin (1817–1894) who married Walker Pitcairn (1808–1857)

Maria's eldest sister had married a Thomas Binny, who had traded at Madras and retired to [[St Andrews]], Scotland. It was in their household that Bazett, John, and Binny Colvin passed their childhood.<ref>p18-19. Colvin, Sir Auckland. ''John Russell Colvin. The Last Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Under The Company.'' [[Rulers of India series]]. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1895 [http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/CADAL/B31388255/]</ref>

==Bazett David Colvin and his children==
Bazett David Colvin (1805–1871)<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32518?docPos=9 ONDB article on Sidney]</ref> was the eldest son of James.

In 1840 Bazett married Mary Steuart née Bayley (1820–1902) the daughter of [[William Butterworth Bayley]] a director and chairman of the British East India Company from 1834 to 1858. Among their children were:
* Lt Col William Butterworth Colvin (1840–1883), commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Fusiliers from 1881 until his death at Bellary in 1883.
* Bazett David Colvin MA (1842–1924) who migrated to Australia and married a widow Jessie Stanley Phipps née Tomlins (1859–1924)
* Robert Colquhoun Colvin (1844–1844)
* [[Sidney Colvin|Prof Sir Sidney Colvin]] MA LLD (1845–1927) - critic, curator, and great friend of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]].<ref>[[s:The Times/1927/Obituary/Sidney Colvin|''The Times'' obituary on Wikisource.]]</ref>
* Maria Colvin (1846–1847)
* Agnes Colvin (1849–1849)
* Caroline Louisa Colvin (1852–1852)

In 1847 he inherited his father's estate at The Grove, Little Bealing, near [[Ipswich]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.onesuffolk.co.uk/LittleBealingsPC/Aboutus/Brief+History+of+Bealings.htm |title=Village history |access-date=2011-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124211344/http://www.onesuffolk.co.uk/LittleBealingsPC/Aboutus/Brief+History+of+Bealings.htm |archive-date=2011-01-24 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==John Russell Colvin and his children==
[[File:Colvin Gate memorial, Bulandshahr.png|thumb|Colvin memorial gate, Bulandshahr: named for Elliot Colvin]]
[[John Russell Colvin]] (1807 – 1857), the second son of James, rose to be lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces of [[British Raj|British India]] during the [[Indian Mutiny|mutiny of 1857]], at the height of which he died.

He married Emma Sophia, daughter of Wetenhall Sneyd, a vicar in England; they had ten children,<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6013?back= ONDB]</ref> many of whom continued the family connection with India.

* James Henry Bayley Colvin (1828–1879), of the Bengal Civil Service.
* Bazett Wetenhall Colvin (1830–1909) who married Mary Elizabeth née Graham (1839–1916) daughter of Major-General Joseph Graham (1799–1880)
* Russell Pakenham Colvin (1834–1892) who married Emily Mary née Mitford (1844–1916), widow of Bernard Augustus Hewitt
* [[Elliott Graham Colvin]] (1836–1883) who married Edith née Cunningham (1846–1914)
* Sir [[Auckland Colvin]] (1838–1908) who married Charlotte Elizabeth née Herbert (1838–1865)
* Emma Colvin (1840–1877) who married Col George Falconer Pearson (1826–1923)
* Maria Worsley Colvin (1841–1869) who married Rev. Simon James Gordon Fraser (1825–1904)
* Clement Sneyd Colvin (1844–1901) who married Alice Jane née Lethbridge (1850–1885)
* Constance Colvin (1845–1902)
* Sir [[Walter Mytton Colvin]] (1847–1908) Barrister at Law, who married Annie née Money (1847–1908)

Bazett Wetenhall, Elliott Graham Colvin, and [[Walter Mytton Colvin]] all passed distinguished careers in India, and a fourth, Clement Sneyd, C.S.I., was secretary of the public works department of the [[India Office]] in London. The third son, [[Auckland Colvin]] (1838–1908), was lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces and [[Oudh]], and also served in Egypt. He co-founded the Colvin Taluqdars' College in [[Lucknow]]; he also published a biography of his father in 1895.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.earl-soham.suffolk.gov.uk/history/romance2.htm |title=Earl Soham - History: "History & Romance" text |accessdate=2003-11-27 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709081248/http://www.earl-soham.suffolk.gov.uk/history/romance2.htm |archivedate=2011-07-09 }}</ref>

==Further generations==
[[Elliot Colvin (died 1940)|Sir Elliot Graham Colvin's]] daughter [[Brenda Colvin]] (1897–1981)<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46400?docPos=4 ONDB]</ref> was an important landscape architect, author of standard works in the field, and a force behind its professionalisation.

One of Clement Sneyd's sons became Admiral Sir [[Ragnar Colvin]], [[Order of the British Empire|KBE]], [[Order of the Bath|CB]], and fathered [[John Colvin (diplomat)|John Horace Ragnar Colvin]],<ref>[http://blogs.abc.net.au/offair/2009/08/its-not-only-double-agents-who-lead-double-lives.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100127104233/http://blogs.abc.net.au/offair/2009/08/its-not-only-double-agents-who-lead-double-lives.html|date=January 27, 2010}}</ref> the [[Cold War]] diplomat. Another son Sir C. Preston Colvin had much involvement in railway administration in Burma and India.<ref>{{cite web |title=COLVIN, Sir C. Preston |work=Who Was Who |publisher=A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press|date=October 2012 |url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U224019 |accessdate=2 December 2012}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

John Colvin's son was the Australian journalist [[Mark Colvin]] (1952–2017), who wrote of his own and his father's careers in his 2016 book ''Light and Shadow: Memoirs of a Spy's Son''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-31/mark-colvins-memoir/7954598 |title=Light And Shadow: writing a memoir to understand a father |work=ABC News |last=Colvin |first=Mark |date=31 October 2016 |accessdate=11 May 2017}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Colvin (surname)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Colvin, Sir Auckland. ''John Russell Colvin. The Last Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Under The Company.'' [[Rulers of India series]]. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1895.Cloth. 214pp. Has been digitised by [[Google Books]].

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colvin Family}}
[[Category:Colvin family| ]]
[[Category:British people in British India]]

Colvin family - Revision history

CathernQsh at 19:00, 29 January 2026