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School of Oriental and African Studies

Calvert, James


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0102 MMS/Special Series/Biographical/South Seas/FBN 33-36 (Boxes 645-648)

Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies

Title: Calvert, James

Date(s): 1837-1910s

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 4 boxes

Name of creator(s): Calvert | James | 1813-1892 | missionary
Calvert | Mary | 1814-1882 | née Fowler | wife of the missionary James Calvert

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born in Pickering, Yorkshire, England, 1813; a printer, bookbinder, and bookseller; while ill, a mystical experience drew him to missionary work, 1831; completed his studies at the Wesleyan Theological Institution, Hoxton, 1837; married Mary Fowler (1814-1882) and, with his wife and his friend John Hunt, sailed to Fiji for the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 1838; worked at Rewa and Lakeba; returned to England to oversee publication of the Fijian Bible, 1856; returned to Fiji, 1857; returned to England, 1866; served as a missionary in South Africa, 1872-1880; minister at City Road, London, 1881; Croydon, 1882; went to Fiji for the mission jubilee, 1885; toured Australia and America on behalf of the mission; retired to England; minister at Finsbury Park, 1887; continued to revise the Fijian Bible; died at Hastings, 1892. Publications: Copy of a Letter addressed to the Rev Dr Hannah ... on the death of the Rev John Hunt [1849]; 'Mission History', in Thomas Williams, Wesleyan Missionary: Fiji and the Fijians, vol 2, ed George Stringer Rowe (1858); edited: John Hunt's Entire Sanctification (1853); John Hunt's translation of the New Testament into Fijian, Ai Vola ni Veiyalayalati Vou ni noda turaga kei na nodai vakabula ko Jisu Kraisiti (1853); David Hazlewood's A Feejeean and English dictionary (2nd edition [1872]).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1837-1910s, of James Calvert and his wife Mary, including James Calvert's journals, 1838-1886 (some gaps), including his experiences in Fiji and South Africa; Mary Calvert's journal, 1863-1866; certificates, 1838, including those for ordination and marriage; personal and family papers, 1839-1887, including baptismal certificates, 1839-1846, photographs of children, and poems; correspondence of James and Mary Calvert, 1837-1892, the correspondents including John Hunt and other ministers, and members of the Calvert and Fowler families; memoranda books on missionary conferences in Adelaide, 1866, Grahamstown, 1873, 1880, and Bloemfontein, 1874; printed proceedings of conferences at Pietermaritzburg, 1877, and Natal, 1878; manuscript notes and addresses, 1830s-1890s, including autobiographical notes, sermons, and anecdotes of mission life; c30 bills, 1870-1890; press cuttings and articles by or about Calvert, 1840s-1910s.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted, but only to be viewed on microfiche.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

The papers were deposited with the Methodist Missionary Society and form part of the special series of biographical papers of individual missionaries.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited on permanent loan with the records of the Methodist Missionary Society from 1978.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Published on microfiche by IDC Publishers. Microfilm in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, Australia.

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds the records of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (Ref: MMS/WMMS), including letters from James Calvert (Ref: MMS/WMMS Australasia Correspondence Fiji).

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed Gerald H Anderson (1998); Alphabetical Arrangement of Wesleyan Methodist Ministers (1888); Wesleyan Methodist Church Minutes of Conference (1892), pp 30-2; British Library OPAC.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Mar 2002


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Autobiographies | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Clergy | Religious groups
Diaries | Nonfiction | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Evangelistic missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Evangelistic missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Linguists | Social scientists
Methodism | Protestant nonconformity | Protestantism | Christianity | Ancient religions | Religions
Methodists | Protestant nonconformists | Protestants | Christians | Religious groups
Ordained missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Photographs | Visual materials
Poetry | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Press cuttings | Newspaper press | Press
Religious movements | Religious institutions
Sermons | Religious texts | Religious doctrines | Theology
Travel abroad | Travel
Wives of missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Nonconformists
Nonconformity
Primary documents

Personal names
Calvert | family | of Fiji, South Africa and London
Calvert | James | 1813-1892 | missionary
Calvert | Mary | 1814-1882 | née Fowler | wife of the missionary James Calvert x Fowler | Mary
Hunt | John | 1812-1848 | missionary

Corporate names
Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society

Places
Province of Kwazulu-Natal | South Africa | Southern Africa