Caldwell

Background:  This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from any one of the places called Caldwell in North Yorkshire and Warwickshire, Cauldwell in Bedfordshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and other places named with the same elements such as Chadwell and Chardwell. The place in Yorkshire is recorded as "Caldeuuella" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and shares with all the other places mentioned the same meaning and derivation, which is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "cald", "ceald", cold, with "well", "wella" a spring, stream or well; hence "cold stream". The surname is also found in Scotland, where it appears in the late 12th Century (see below). Richard de Coldewell is noted in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Returns (1379). There are a great many variants of the modern surname ranging from Caldwell, Cau(l)dwell and Cawdell to Couldwell and Cholwell. Recordings from London Church Registers include: the marriage of Robert Coldwell and Agnes Hanshawe on May 1st 1547, at the Church of St. Mary le Bow; and the christening of Nycolas Coldwell on October 10th 1555, at the Church of St. James's, Garlickhithe. A Coat of Arms granted to the Coldwell family is a blue shield with a silver cross moline. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam de Caldwella, which was dated 1195, in the "Pipe Rolls of Derbyshire", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "The Lionheart", 1189 - 1199.

The derivation of this name from the old English ‘cealdwielle’, meaning ‘cold stream’, makes it impossible to state a definite territorial origin for the name. Certainly, old lands of that name are found in Renfrewshire, and the oldest record of a family bearing this name coming to prominence is in that district. Black records William de Caldwell holding land in 1342. Nisbet states that the Caldwells of that Ilk wore on their coat of arms four bars wavy to show water related to the name. He states that ‘this family continued for many hundreds of years in good reputation, by inter marriage with many honourable families and ended of late in the person of John Caldwell of that Ilk, one of the commissioners for the shire of Renfrew about the year 1693’. A branch of the family had emigrated to County Fermanagh in Ulster, where they purchased a fine castle which they renamed Castle Caldwell. Sir James Caldwell fought for William of Orange in Donegal in 1690. The name was also carried by settlers to the New World. Caldwell, New Jersey was the birth place in 1837 of Grover Cleveland, President of the United States. Erskine Caldwell, who died in 1987, was one of Americas greatest novelists.

Name Variations:  Caldwell, Coldwell, Caldwill, Cauldwell, Cauldwill, Cawldwell, Guildwell, Calewell, Caldewell.

References:
One or more of the following publications has been referenced for this article.
The General Armory; Sir Bernard Burke - 1842.
A Handbook of Mottoes; C.N. Elvin - 1860.
English Surnames; C.M. Matthews - 1966.
A Dictionary of English Surnames; P.H. Reaney - 1958.
Internet Surname Database: http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name=caldwell

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