Colchester was a fifth-rate warship of the Commonwealth of England's naval forces, one of six such ships built under the 1653 Programme (the others were , , , , and ). She was built by contract with Master Shipwright Henry Edgar at his yard at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and was launched on 23 February 1654 as a 24-gun fifth rate. She was named "Colchester" to commemorate the attack on that town by Parliamentary forces under Thomas Fairfax in 1648 during the Civil War.
Her length on the keel was recorded as for tonnage calculation. The breadth was with a depth in hold of . The tonnage was thus calculated at 287 bm tons. 
She was originally armed with 24 guns, comprising 18 demi-culverins on the single gundeck and 6 sakers on the quarterdeck. She took part in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1657) as part of Blake's fleet. At the Restoration in 1660 she was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS "Colchester". By 1665 she actually carried 28 guns, comprising 18 demi-culverins on the gundeck, and 10 sakers on the quarterdeck. In the Second Anglo-Dutch War she took part in the Battle of Lowestoft in June 1665. She was in the Caribbean in 1667 under Captain Arthur Laugharne when she was attacked and sunk on 24 March off Saint Kitts by the French "Armes d'Angleterre" (originally the English ).