Benjamin CARVOSSO

CARVOSSO, BENJAMIN (b. Gluvian, Cornwall, England, 29 Sept 1789; d. Tuckingmill, Cornwall, 2 Oct 1854). Methodist preacher.

The son of William Carvosso, a simple man of legendary piety and for 60 years a Wesleyan local preacher and class leader, Benjamin was largely self-educated. Converted at 22 years, he soon opened a Sunday school and in 1813 became a local preacher. Accepted by the English Wesleyan Conference as a probationer in 1814, Carvosso served at home for several years before volunteering for the mission field. He m. Deborah Banks on 5 October 1819. He joined the NSW mission on 20 May 1820 after a brief stay in Hobart Town where he conducted the first Wesleyan service. He served in turn in the Windsor, Sydney and Parramatta circuits and helped launch the first Australian religious journal, the Australian Magazine. With his colleagues, Ralph Mansfield and William Lawry, Carvosso was involved in a struggle with his Superintendent, Samuel Leigh, and with the parent Missionary Committee in London over the relationship of the Wesleyan Church in NSW with the Church of England and with the Missionary Committee itself. He accused the Anglican clergy of 'extreme calvinism'. Shifted to Hobart after this quarrel, he ministered there from 1825 until his return to the English Conference (Cornwall) in 1830 and was especially known for his work among seamen and prisoners. Letters and journal entries relating to his Australian work are to be found in the papers of the (English) Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. Carvosso was noted both for his pastoral devotion and his evangelical fervour.

ADB 1; G Blencowe, The Faithful Pastor. A Memoir of the Rev Benjamin Carvosso (London, 1857)

DON WRIGHT