Hi David
Now you know where I got my email address from
You probaly noted (yet another) theory on the name to do with Walls Hill, the Iron Age fort, local farms called "Castle Walls" (meaning Castle Wallace) and the "nickname" caerwall. A placename after the location of the Castle of the Welsh.
Brilliant but my Uncle Tom was dismissive - he said "it was just a nickname". He said that "the Caldwell's" always called themself "Caldwell" and always spelled it "Caldwell".
I had trouble relating the brilliant Caerwall theory back to the Caldwell name and spelling anyway,
Gauldwell Castle in Moray probably has absolutely nothing to do with the Caldwell family but it does back up my Gauldwallys theory by proving that this name can be evolved out of the celtic. There are several alternative names for that Castle and they all back up my theory including "Gallvall". In this latter instance Gall might be alluding to "foreign" rather than "lowland". The proginator of the family and castle founder, Freskin, is variously thought to be a Pict or a Fleming. I wonder if he was Welsh (British) from Strathclyde. His family seems to have had links back to Ayrshire. In this case Freskin might have been a proto-Caldwell without the surname and his castle was that of the lowland (or foreign) welsh. He was a paladin of David I, who lived on the Honour of Huntingdon (midlands England) well into his maturity. David brought Normans in to Scotland and obviously was quite at home with French.
Freskin is sometimes known as de Moravia meaning from the district of Moray (that was probably why he was thought "a Pict") but bear in mind that the French for walled enclosure is Mur and its adjective Mure (pronounced Murray?). One of Freskin's line of descent became Murray's (from Moray) - so its close but it doesn't help (unless someone can throw further light on it). Mure might just be a French translation of Caerwall - but then it probably is not and it doesn't help us get back to Caldwell.
Confused - so am I
If I didn't say it then he bone wouldn't be there to chew.