John Joseph Alexander Caldwell (1650 - 1717)

Born 19 Aug 1650 in County Donegal, Ireland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 12 Feb 1717 at age 66 in Monie Hundred, Stepney Parish, Somerset County, MD

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Greg Wendt [send private message], David Dexter [send private message], and Mary Helen Dunnam [send private message]

Biography

The following is from the "Pennsylvania Historical Society Magazine",Volume VI, 1916:^[1]

JOHN CALDWELL, the first of his surname to settle in Maryland, was in Somerset County, in that Proprietary, as early as 16 May, 1688, when a plantation of 300 acres, which he called “Bally Buggin,” was surveyed to him in Mony Hundred, on the north side, at the head of the Rockawakin, a tributary of Mony Bay. A few months later, 10 September, 1688, an adjoining tract of 380 acres, “Clonlett,” also on the north side of Rockawakin River, was likewise surveyed for him (Somerset Rent Rolls, if. 139, 147). On these united plantations, marshes to the right and left, with thick forest occasionally crowding to the water’s edge, in the extreme western part of the county named in honor of Lady Mary Somerset, sister of the Catholic Lord Proprietor Caecilius Calvert, John Caldwell, a non-conformist found a home and freedom from the fines and confiscations of Episcopal England. The date of his arrival in Maryland, the so-called “Land of the Sanctuary,” has not been ascertained, but it was, doubtless, shortly after the battle of Bothwell Bridge, which incited the nonconforming Scotch-Irish to renewed resistance against the hated oath of supremacy, and drove them into exile rather than submission. Bounded west by Mony Bay and the broad waters of Tangier Sound, east by the settlement later Princess Anne Town, north by the Wicomicco River and south by Manokin Neck, John Caldwell’s heart must have thrilled with glad contentment as he gazed over his expansive acres, beyond which flourishing settlements of Presbyterians dotted here and there, with other still stronger ones of the Society of Friends, while considerably to the southward stretched the Eastern Shore of Virginia, with a white population of a thousand or more souls, mainly of the Established Church. Almost none of the details of his life have come down the intervening centuries. With his fellow exiles and friends from the neighboring plantations he listened to the silver-tongued Reverend Francis Makemie and the moving eloquence of George Keith. With them too, he saw the overthrow of the Palatinate government, the decay of the ancient Capitol, St. Mary’s, and the rise of the new one, the city of Annapolis.

Other lands were purchased by John Caldwell besides the original surveys “Clonlett” and “Bally Buggin.” On 1 March, 1688, from Thomas Cox and Rebecca, his wife, he had 200 acres of “Maidenhead,” which he renamed “Caldwell’s Chance,” and which he and wife Jane conveyed to their son, John Caldwell, Jr. (Somerset County Land Records, 17061714, Liber C. D. 14, ff. 808). Also 63 acres called “Good Luck,” surveyed to him, 28 August, 1706, which latter tract was afterwards given to his son, James Caldwell. The name of Jane, wife of John Caldwell, occurs but one other time on the Somerset Records, the entry of birth of daughter Agnes Caldwell, 26 November, 1689. (Liber I. K. N. of Somerset County Land Records.)

Having seen his children’s children, John Caldwell, full of years, died intestate before 12 February, 1717.

=Event =

Event:

Type: Alt. Birth

Date: ABT 1645

Place: Scotland^[1]

Property

Property: a plantation of 300 acres called "Bally Buggin," on the north side, at the head of the Rockawakin, a tributary of Mony Bay

Date: 16 MAY 1688

Place: Mony Hundred, Somerset, Maryland, British America^[1]

Property: adjoining tract of 380 acres called "Clonett," on the north side of Rockawakin River

Date: 10 SEP 1688

Place: Mony Hundred, Somerset, Maryland, British America^[1]

Property: 200 acres of "Maidenhead" from Thomas Cox and Rebecca, his wife, which he renamed "Caldwell's Chance"

Date: 1 MAR 1688

SDATE 1 MAR 1689

Place: Mony Hundred, Somerset, Maryland, British America^[1]

Property: 63 acres of "Good Luck" surveyed to him

Date: 28 AUG 1706

Place: Mony Hundred, Somerset, Maryland, British America^[1]

Marriage

Husband: John Caldwell

Wife: @I2096@

Child: Andrew Caldwell

Marriage: ^[1]

Christening

19 AUG 1665

Derry Cathedral, Derry, Ireland

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Pennsylvania Historical Society Magazine,Volume VI, 1916

• ALMOND/CHADWICK (US/UK) & ELLIOTT/OLIPHANT/HASTINGS/CALLAWAY (MD/DE) [[1]]

• Pauline Manning Batchelder, A Somerset Sampler: Families of Old Somerset County, Maryland 1700-1776 (Salisbury, Maryland: Lower Delmarva Genealogical Society, 1994).. N.p.: n.p., n.d..

• "Notes on the Caldwell Family of Kent County, Delaware," Genealogies of Pennsylvania Families from the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine: Volume I, Arnold-Hertzel (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1982), ; digital images, Ancestry (N.p.: n.p., n.d.), accessed; 26 February 2014; 280-290.

"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVKR-H87K : 24 May 2022), John Caldwell, ; Burial, , ; citing record ID 55597086, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

I found an old cemetery with his name Possibly???

• Find A Grave Memorial# 19898663
• Old St Pauls Cemetery, Baltimore City, Baltimore, Maryland

• Author: Thor Egede-Nissen Title: Egede-Nissen Web Site : MyHeritage.com family tree

Notes

The family first arrived in Maryland before 1688 when their names begin to appear in records there.

JOHN CALDWELL on Tax List 1675, Clonleigh, Lifford Parish, Co. Donegal,Ireland

John Caldwell and his wife Jennett came to Maryland's Eastern Shore by 1788 when they settled in old Somerset County. They called their first land acquisition "Balley Buggin" and the second was named"Clonlett," after two towns, Bally Bogan, and Clonleigh in Lifford Parish, Co. Donegal, Ireland. The misspellings of the names can be attributed to less than well educated clerks who recorded land and other legal ransactions.

FROM "PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATION," Vol. VI, 1916.

John Caldwell, the first of his surname to settle in Maryland, was in Somerset County... as early as May 1688, when a plantation of 200 acres, which he called "Bally Buggen," was surveyed to him in Mony Hundred, on the north side of the Rockawakin, a tributary of Mony Bay. A few months later, 10 September 1688, an adjoining tract of 380 acres, "Clonlett," also on the north side of the RockawakinRivert, was likewise surveyed to him. On these united plantations... John Caldwell, non-conformist, found a home and freedom from the fnes and confiscations of Episcopal England. The time of his arrival in Maryland, the so-called "land of the Sanctuary," has not been ascertained, but it was doubtless, shortly after the battle of Bothwell bridge (1679), which incited the non-conforming Scotch-Irish to renewed resisance against the hated oath of supremacy, and drove them into exile rather than submission. He made additional land purchases in Somerset County of 200 acres (which he named "Caldwell's Chance) and 63 acres. He was a Scotch Covananter, a Presbyterian who opposed the Episcopal form of clerical government by bishops. "The names John Caldwell used for two of his tracts, Bally Buggen and Clonlett suggest that he came from Lifford Parish, County Donegal, Ireland, where a John Caldwell appears on the 1675 tax list for Clonleigh, which is near a village named Bally Bogan. The family of John Caldwell who came to Somerset County, probably came to Ireland from the area of Solway Firth in Argyle, Scotland (later research proves Caldwell family came from Ayrshire - cec).

Acknowledgements

• Caldwell-2200 was created by Mary Helen Dunnam through the import of Foster - Hall - May 2014.ged on May 26, 2014.

• Caldwell-2085 was created by Ellen Ward through the import of Ward, Ellen Carol_Ancestors only_25 Mar 2014.ged on Mar 25, 2014

• Thank you to Greg Wendt for creating WikiTree profile Caldwell-1678 through the import of Wendt.ged on May 26, 2013.

Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Greg and others.