Co-Founder of Princeton College. Murdered by British soldiers at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. seventh child

Early Graduate of Princeton College-1759.
Shot by a sentinel at Elizabethtown Point, NJ., 24 Nov. 1781

This couple is buried at the Presbyterian Church at Elizabethtown, NJ.

James Caldwell graduated from Yale University in 1759; he was ordained minister in 1762 by the Presbyterians. He was killed by an American traitor named Morgan at Elizabethtown, NJ. N. J. Morgan was reputed to have been paid by the British for this assasination. Rev. James Caldwell was said to have conducted services with a loaded pistol on each side of his Bible. He served as a Chaplain in the Revolution in Col. Elias Drayton's Regiment of New Jersey.

James was one of the founders of Princeton University. He was described as a militant clergyman during the Revolutionary War. He graduated from Princton in 1759 and was ordained to the Presbytery of New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1761. He became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth. The loyalists offered a reward for the capture of this patriotic clergyman. His church, used as a hospital during the war, was burned in 1780. On 7 June 1780, Mrs. Caldwell was killed by a stray British bullet during an invasion. James was shot and killed on 24 Nov 1781 by an American sentry in a dispute over a package James was carrying. The sentinel was later tried and sentenced to death for the shooting.

A son of James and Hannah Ogden Caldwell, John E. Caldwell, was educated in France under the sponsor ship of General Lafayette. Two other sons led in founding the Siberian colonization and gave the name to Caldwell, Siberia.

In 1846, a monument was erected in Elizabethtown, New Jersey in memory of Rev. and Mrs. James Caldwell.