The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Calvert, Rev. James
Calvert, Rev. James, the well-known Methodist Missionary, was a native of Pickering, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He was sent out in 1838, in company with John Hunt, to labour amongst the cannibals in Fiji, where he remained for eighteen years, during which time he witnessed marvellous triumphs of Christianity. In his labours among the Fijians he was ably assisted by his heroic wife, Mary Fowler Calvert, who was in every way a model missionary's wife, and much of the wonderful success of those years was due to her patient, self-denying labours. By Mr. Calvert's ministry the Fijian King Thakombau was converted to Christianity, renounced polygamy, and for many years after lived a consistent life. His last act as a king was to cede Fiji to Great Britain. In 1856 Mr. Calvert returned to England, and during his stay in the country superintended the printing of the entire Scriptures in the Fijian language. In 1872 he was sent out by the Wesleyan Missionary Society to South Africa. He died at Hastings in 1892 at the advanced age of seventy-nine.