Brief Life History of John
When Sir John Caldwell was born about 1662, in County Fermanagh, Ireland, his father, Sir James Caldwell, was 29 and his mother, Catherine Hume, was 40.
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Family Time Line
Sources (1)
- John, Sir Caldwell, "Ireland Marriages, 1619-1898"
Spouse and Children
Parents and Siblings
Siblings (11)
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World Events (3)
1672
Over 6,000 Irish boys and women sold as slaves since England gained control of Jamaica.
1690
William of Orange (William III) lands at Carrickfergus and defeats James II at Battle of the Boyne.
1692
Exclusion of Catholics from Parliament and all professions.
Name Meaning
English, Scottish, and northern Irish: habitational name from any of several places in England and Scotland, variously spelled, that are named with Old English ceald ‘cold’ + well(a) ‘spring, stream’. Caldwell in North Yorkshire is one major source of the surname; Caldwell in Renfrewshire in Scotland another. Possibly also from Caldwell (Warwickshire), Caldwall (Worcestershire), Cauldwell (Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire), Caudle Green (Gloucestershire), Caudle Ditch or Cawdle Fen (Cambridgeshire), Chadwell (Essex, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Wiltshire), Chardwell (Essex), or Chardle Ditch (Cambridgeshire, early recorded as Kadewelle).
Irish: when not the English surname, this is an Anglicized form of Ó Fuarghuis or Ó hUarghusa ‘descendant of (F)uarghus’, a personal name whose literal sense ‘cold’ + ‘choice’ was reinterpreted as coming from fuaruisce ‘cold water’.
History: Several Caldwells emigrated from Scotland to America by way of Ireland in the 18th century. James Caldwell (1734–81), a son of settler John Caldwell, was born in Charlotte County, VA, and was a militant clergyman during the revolutionary war. Andrew Caldwell, a Scottish farmer, emigrated to North America in 1718 and started a family in Lancaster County, PA. His son David was a Presbyterian clergyman and well-known revolutionary war patriot.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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