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   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/home.html ›
Full 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 & 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.

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

Archival Information

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

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

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