10,000-7000 BC Resettlement in present day Scotland by hunter-gatherers (stone age paleolithic people). The face, jaw and teeth are about 10% more robust than ours. The paleolithic people have the short stocky build common today among Eskimoes, but with longer faces. Although often described as primitive and savage, these people leave behind cave paintings and burial sites showing artistic skill and belief in the afterlife. The drawings of animals are far more naturalistic and three dimensional than the images typical of those drawn during later Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations. The healed bones indicate that the maimed and crippled were cared for by their family. (cf. Late Stone Age Hunters of the British Isles by Smith, Christopher. Publisher: Routledge (1992). hard cover: ISBN: 0415031613. paperback: SBN: 0415072026.) Their spiritual beliefs likely encouraged the development of language, but more important was the universal appearance of the FOXP2 gene on chromosome 7, without which humans lack capacity for speech. (Gary F. Marcus and Simon F. Fisher. “FOXP2 in Focus: What Can the Genes Tell Us About Speech and Language?” Trends for Cognitive Sciences 7: 257-262 (2003).)
“As hunters and gatherers, the ancestral people probably lived in small egalitarian societies, without property or leaders or differences of rank. These groups engaged in constant warfare, defending their own territory by raiding that of their neighbors. When they grew beyond a certaim size of 150 or so people, disputes became more frequent, and with no chiefs or system of adjudication, a group would break up into smaller ones along their lines of kinship.” (Nicholas Wade, Before the Dawn, The Penguin Press, 2006, p. 21.)
One of the advantages of the small community is that the risk of starvation was lessened by sharing of the meat of a large animal among the “extended family.” Id.
The smallness of these kinship communities allows a genetic mutation to displace all existing variants within a few generations through a random process called genetic drift. Id.
Not all of the paleolithic people were cave dwellers. The oldest house in Britain — a hut — has been found near Howick, Northumbria. It was constructed of wooden posts embedded in a circular pattern, tied together at the top, and covered with thatch. Shellfish and nuts were roasted on a hearth in the center of the hut. Carbon dating shows that the hut was erected about 7600 B.C. and occupied for about 100 years. (Britain’s Oldest House@f0 A Journey into the Stone Age, by Julian Richards, accessed August 1, 2006.) Next to the hut was an artesian spring.
For those of today’s Caldwells whose male ancestors averaged more than 6 feet in height, they may be skeptical that their ancestors are genetic recipients of these paleolithic people. However, DNA analysis may be available to resolve this issue.
A land bridge between Europe and Great Britian aided the migration of paleolithic people into Great Britain. About 7000 BC the rising seas flooded the land bridge, and estuaries, where the paleolithic population was densest. (cf. Atlantis of the West: The Case for Britain’s Drowned Megalithic Civilization, by Paul Dunbavin, 2003, p. 293.)
7000-4000 BC Evolutionary changes in DNA lead to lactase tolerance in the peoples inhabiting Northern Europe and Great Britain concomitant with domestication of cattle. (Albano Beja-Pereira et al, “Gene-Culture Coevolution between Cattle Milk Protein Genes and Human Lactase Genes,” Nature Genetics 35: 311-315 (2003).)
DNA of the cattle show that European cattle descended from cattle around the Black Sea. (John Hammond, Nature 201, 121-121 (11 Jan 1964).)
4000 BC neolithic transition in Great Britain emergence of sedentary agricultural communities and advanced craftsmanship, thousands of years after middle east herders, crop growers, and pottery makers established the earliest known neolithic settlements. A defining characteristic of the agricultural communities is the storage of surplus food, unknown to the paleolithic peoples. The surplus had to be stored, protected, and distributed and required a greater level of social organization. (Nicholas Wade, Before the Dawn, supra, p. 179.)
Melting glaciers eventually led to a flooding of an inland lake now called the Black Sea, raising its level 100 feet and changing it from fresh water to salt water about 2500 B.C. Remnants of the original neolithic settlements have been found underneath the Black Sea far from the present shoreline.
This flood, coupled with a warming climate, likely prompted immigration into western Europe and Great Britain.
The romantic portrayal of the first farmers living in harmony with the environment — Adam and Eve — is challenged by evidence of life and death struggles and rapid environmental change: indiscriminate burning of woodlands, clearance of forests for grazing and crops, development of heath soils, extermination of many species, rise in influence of elitist priests in charge of astronomical observatories (e.g., Stonehenge) upon which farmers depended to choose the time for seed planting, multiple carbonized cremated skeletons in burrows and pits, construction of megalith stone tombs and monuments, development of common language beyond the immediate community, organized warfare, hillforts, stone circles, corrals, and preoccupation with sacrifice and ritual to save communities. The neolithic mummified Iceman found in 1991 in the Italian-Austrian Alps gives us a clue of the typical clothing worn daily in the colder climates. The fatal arrowheads embedded in his ribs reveal the dangers of straying from one’s village. Fossil hunters may raise their fists in denial that modern man is descended from savages, but a survey of neolithic skulls found 1 in 14 smashed by an axe. (cf. “Archaeology: The environmentalist myth,” by Jared M. Diamond, Nature 324, 19-20 (06 Nov 1986); First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies, by Peter S Bellwood, 2004, p. 81; The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany: New Revised Edition, by Aubrey Burl, 2000, p. 440. Healed treplanned (drilled) holes in skulls evidence the earliest use of surgery to alleviate hematoma and resulting increased intracranial pressure. (“Evidence for stone age cranial surgery.” Kurt W. Alt, Christian Jeunesse, Carlos H. Buitrago-Téllez, Rüdiger Wächter, Eric Boës, Sandra L. PichNature 387, 360-360 (22 May 1997).)
The ready supply of copper and tin in southern Britain, with which bronze is made, encourages the migration of the Beaker people, and the development of the bronze age, 3000-1800 B.C. The Beaker people give rise to the Wessex culture — stone battle axes, metal daggers with elaborately decorated hilts, and precious ornaments of gold and amber. Graves reveal golden cups like those of the Mycenae, implying trade between Wessex and Greece. Bronze Age Britain, August 1, 2006, BBC.
Arrival and spread of Late Bronze-Iron Age and neolithic Celtic material culture. (1000 BC to 100 BC) The metal working skills of these people is as exquisite as anything done by the Egyptians and Mesopotamians, and works against the Roman portrayal of these people as barbarian and uncultured.
DNA studies confirm comparatively little acquisition of neolithic Celtic DNA in any part of United Kingdom. DNA studies link the neolithic Celtic DNA to migration from Halstat-La Tene civilization of southern German, where today remains the town of Calw surrounded by artesian springs (“wells”). The Celtic tribes of Halstatt-La Tene typically were tall and light skinned, in contrast to the dark and swarthy paleolithic people that first reoccupied Scotland.
The most publicized article about the origin of the Caldwell surname was written in the 19th century by a Thomas Caldwell, a descendant of the Cub Creek Caldwells. He retold what he asserted was a legend passed by word of mouth. He wrote that the ancestors of the Caldwells of Scotland can be traced back to the Cold Well Estate near Toulon France, as well as to Barborassan Pirates sailing the Mediterranean Sea and living at ports of Algeria, Sardinia, and Spain, as well back to the Pre-Reformation Protestants of Italy known as Albigenses and Waldenses. The Caldwell legend penned by Thomas Caldwell can be found verbatim at a website authored by Michael Caldwell, entitled the Origins of the Caldwell surname. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/6455/history.html).
Michael Caldwell debunks the legend, stating that the most likely origin of the surname is from the Anglo-Saxon words, “caeld weille,” for cold well. I have gone a bit further than Michael, by asserting that the surname was adopted after “high numbers” of Anglo-Saxons migrated into the lowland counties of western Scotland (Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, and Lanark), from the midlands of England, where there were numerous settlements called Caldwell identified in the Domesday Book, preceding the Norman Conquest of AD 1066. John, Brian and Tom Caldwell have not flatly ruled out the Anglo-Saxon hypothesis that Caldwell derives culturally from the Anglo Saxon words, “caeld weille,” but have pointed out plausible evidence of Viking, Celtic, or Welsh (British) origins of the people who adopted this surname. The DNA evidence rebukes the mass migration effect but implies that the earliest Celtic Caldwells in Scotland may have Anglicized themselves by adopting an Anglo-Saxon surname, just as they adopted English as their language.
The Anglo-Saxons were tall in stature, as were the descendants of Celtic tribes from La Tene and Halstatt — the men averaged 6 feet in height, much taller than the paleolithic people, who averaged 5’6″ in height, and the Beaker people who migrated to Great Britain around 2000 BC.
Stories of Anglo-Saxon migration are included in the writings of Gildas (ca. A.D. 540) and Bede (A.D. 731) and hinted at in Anglo-Saxon sagas, such as Beowulf. But Bede never left the monastery in Northumbria and thus was not able to confirm by observation the mass migration of which he wrote. Contrary to Gildas and Bede, many of today’s archaeologists attribute the sudden change to an Anglo Saxon surnames largely to rapid acculturation through trade, with only small number of Germanic immigrants (perhaps a male in a military elite) settling in Britain.
In the paper, *Y Chromosome Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration,” Michael E. Weale, Deborah A. Weiss,Rolf F. Jager, Neil Bradman, and Mark G. Thomas, Mol. Biol. Evol. 19(7):1008–1021 (2002), the authors state their study is the first to analyze DNA Y chromosome data from an east-west transect across Central England and North Wales to evaluate evidence of male population migration from Friesland (the estuary borderland between Denmark and northern Germany) to central England. The DNA Y chromosome is transmitted only through the paternal line, and therefore can be linked to paternal surnames. The authors state that by using a hypothetical rate of 0.1% background migration rate annually, an Anglo-Saxon immigration event affecting 50 to 100% of the Central English male gene is required to explain the current DNA pattern. But if annual migration rate was 0.3%, that would imply that one in six of today’s Central English males descend from Frisians (or a population identical to Frisians) that immigrated to England after the Anglo-Saxon period and that an equal proportion migrated earlier.
Other DNA studies have shown that Iberian (Basque), French, and Central-Northern Italian populations have been shown to have similar Y chromosome compositions, presumably reflecting their common heritage in the European Palaeolithic. One in five lowland Scots has a similar Y chromosome. (Wilson, J.F., Weiss, D.A., Richards, M., Thomas, M., Bradman, N., and Goldstein, D.B. (2001). See also: Bosch, E., Calafell, F., Comas, D., Oefner, P.J., Underhill, P.U., and Bertranpetit, J. (2001).)
High-resolution analysis of human Y chromosome from Irish, Welsh, and Scottish populations. chromosome variation shows a sharp discontinuity and limited gene flow between northwestern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. (Experimental Procedures. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 68, 1019–1029.)
Centuries of banishing the Welsh to the margins of British history are coming to an end, according to an American academic. Professor Chris Snyder, of Marymount University, Virginia, says modern science is forcing historians and students to accept that the real Britons – the predecessors of the English – had a bigger impact on the history of the British Isles than was traditionally assumed. He says generations of historians, including the Venerable Bede in 731AD, have put an Anglo-Saxon spin on their interpretations of the past, belittling, maligning or ignoring the contribution of the Welsh and other pre-Saxon peoples. But more recent research – especially by archaeologists – is providing firm evidence that the invasion by Angles and Saxons was much slower and smaller than Bede and others have claimed. Now, says Prof Snyder, historians are having to accept that the Welsh, Cornish and other Britons had a lasting influence after the Anglo-Saxons arrived. With DNA tests and other technology being deployed increasingly in archaeology, the traditional view of British history will become increasingly untenable, Prof Snyder predicted yesterday. ‘The problem with the Welsh and other Britons is that they were Christian and had simple graves. ‘The pagan Anglo-Saxon graves tend to yield a lot more information because they have more burial goods,’ said Prof Snyder, who has some Scottish and Irish ancestry. ‘A lot of burials in England have been interpreted as Anglo- Saxon but now more archaeologists are prepared to look at these as graves of British-speaking people from British communities under Anglo-Saxon rule. ‘We are trying to establish how we can label a burial in England as British or Anglo- Saxon. In the absence of supportive goods, that makes it necessary to use DNA samples or measurement of bones. This will help us settle the question of how much the British underlies the Anglo-Saxon.’ cf. Anglo-Saxon spin halted to credit the Welsh at last. (cf. “US historian says archaeology and DNA is putting the real Britons back centre stage”; [FIRST Edition] Rhodri Clark. Western Mail. Cardiff (UK): Nov 18, 2003. pg. 5.)
In his latest book, The Britons (Blackwell Publishing), Prof Chris Snyder questions the view of historians from Bede onwards that the British were overwhelmed by massive Germanic immigration and a series of bloody wars. The fact that ‘British’ is now the adjective for everyone in Great Britain represents a victory for the original Britons, according to Prof. Snyder. ‘The Britons lost the sovereignty of the island in the Middle Ages. You could argue that they won it back by this adoption of ‘British’ by the English. It means the Britons won in the end.”
“A new survey of Y chromosomes in the British Isles suggests that the Anglo-Saxons failed to leave as much of a genetic stamp on the UK as history books imply. “The Celts weren’t pushed to the fringes of Scotland and Wales; a lot of them remained in England and central Ireland,” says David Goldstein, of University College London. Goldstein’s team collected DNA samples from more than 1,700 men across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They took 400 DNA samples from continental Europeans, including Germans and Basques. Only men whose paternal grandfathers had dwelt within 20 miles of their current home were eligible. The Y chromosomes of men from Wales and Ireland resemble those of the Basques, the team reports in Current Biology. Some believe that the Basques, from the border of France and Spain, are the original Europeans.” (cf. Life: Dispatch: News from Nature, The International Journal of Science: Surprising Lack of Anglo-Saxon DNA. The Guardian. Manchester (UK): Jun 26, 2003. p. 7.)
“The first analysis of DNA passed from father to son across the UK has shattered the Anglocentric view of early British history. For decades, historians have believed that successive waves of invaders, such as the Anglo-Saxons, drove out the indigenous population of the British Isles, labeled Celts, pushing them to the fringes of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. However, work by a team of scientists on the Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son, has shown the native tribes left their genetic stamp throughout the UK and not only in the “Celtic fringe”. The evidence suggests that Anglo-Saxons tend to dominate British history merely because they kept better written records than their indigenous counterparts. A large number of native people remained in England and central Ireland and were never entirely replaced by the invaders, often surviving in high proportions throughout the British Isles, according to the research by Professor David Goldstein, Dr Jim Wilson, and a team of experts at University College London. The study was based on comparing Y chromosomes from Britain with the invaders’ Y chromosomes, represented by descendants of Danes, Vikings (in Norway) and Anglo-Saxons (in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany).” (cf. “DNA Suggests the Celts held their ground; Scientists Shatter Anglo-Saxon Myth”; [2 Edition] Stephen Stewart. The Herald. Glasgow (UK): Jun 25, 2003. pg. 11.)
Dr. Jim Wilson, a population geneticist from Orkney who is now based at University College London, said: “The recent paper was based on a study carried out on Orkney to tell if the inhabitants were descended from Vikings. “It found the genetic profile was halfway between Norway and Ireland, suggesting that the Vikings did have a significant effect on the population. “In the new study, samples were collected from the whole of Britain in a grid pattern. The study contradicts the notion of the complete replacement of the indigenous people by incoming Anglo- Saxons. “The data set doesn’t show that but illustrates that the English are largely indigenous in origin. We wanted to look at whether culture and genetics go together. “In Orkney and Shetland they spoke Norwegian until the 1700s and there we have a strong case for genes and culture going hand-in- hand.”
Dr. Wilson and his colleagues established that Y chromosomes of Britain’s indigenous populations were almost identical to those of the Basques, who live on the French- Spanish border and speak a language unrelated to the Indo-European tongues that swept into Europe 8000 years ago.
207 BC. People living in southern Germany during Roman times may have witnessed a comet impact 5,000 times more destructive than the Hiroshima atom bomb. Scientists believe a field of craters around Lake Chiemsee, in south-east Bavaria, was caused by fragments of a huge comet that broke up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Celtic artifacts found at the site, including a number of coins, appear to have been strongly heated on one side. This discovery, together with evidence from ancient tree rings and Roman reports of “stones falling from the sky,” has led researchers to conclude that the impact happened about 207 BC. Tree rings show that vegetation growth slowed down in around 207 BC, possibly because of the “nuclear winter” effect of dust blotting out the sun. More than 80 craters were found in an elliptical area 36 miles long and 17 wide, ranging in size from 10 to 1,215 feet across. The largest, filled with water, now formed Lake Tuttensee. Around the site the team found clues that suggested an impact from space, including rock heated into glass and minerals associated with meteorites. The most likely cause was a low-density comet, 0.7 miles (1.1 kilometers) wide, that broke up at an altitude of 43 miles and fell in pieces to Earth, the scientists reported in Astronomy Magazine. They wrote: “The main mass of the projectile struck the ground at 2,200 miles per hour, releasing an amount of energy equivalent to 106 million tons of TNT.” The bomb that destroyed Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War had an explosive force of just 20,000 tons of TNT. “Even from 10 kilometers away, sound from the impact would have reached 103 decibels – loud enough to cause strong ear pain. Up to 90% of the trees would have blown over; the rest would have lost their branches.” Forest beneath the blast would have ignited suddenly, and continued to burn until the shock wave blew the fire out, said the scientists. The conflagration had left a thin layer of ash in and between the craters. Roman authors at the time wrote about showers of stones falling from the sky and terrifying the local population. Because of these events, the Senate in 205 BC ordered that a conical meteorite known as the Needle of Cybele, which had been worshiped in Asia Minor, be brought to Rome.
This destructive event possibly may have accelerated dispersion of neolithic Celtic people into France and Great Britain, and surge of Damnonii migrants into Renfrewshire, Scotland. The experience likely would have removed any doubt among many that heaven possessed awesome powers.
I googled the combination Calw and Tene and all I got was pornography. The words Hallstatt and Calw gave me what I was looking for. Hallstatt is located in Austria and Calw in Germany. Hallstatt is the site of archeological findings from the early Iron Age Celtic culture that prevailed in western Austria and southern Germany, and Tene is the site farther to the west, near the border between Germany and France, of similar findings from the later Iron Age. Calw lies between Tene and Hallstatt. The descendants of these Celtic cultures became the Damnonii that were the occupants of Renfrewshire, Scotland, and the Levern Valley, when the Romans arrived in the first century. On-line images of Tene show the landscape closely resembles Renfrewshire. The lands around Tene and Hallstatt abounded in artesian springs and shallow lakes on which the Celtic tribes built dwellings on poles stuck in the lakes. Shafts were dug to mine ore in Tene/Hallstatt. These Celtic cultures were renowned for their metal work, as you can easily confirm by seeing the gold metalwork online. These Celtic originally came to Renfrewshire to look for ore. They must have found the land to be just like home and stayed. Like the Damnonii, the Celts in Hallstatt and Tene grew crops and owners of farm animals requiring pasture. If you search amazon.com you will find an “Atlas of the Celtic World,” that shows the pattern of migration frm Hallstatt/Tene to Renfrewshire.
1st century BC Caesar wrote: “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres,” in which he distinguishes the Celtic tribe occupying northern France from the Gallic tribe and Belgiae peoples. It was not until the 1700s that historians began using the term “Celtic” to refer to inhabitants of the United Kingdom. In Ireland, nationalists created myths of Irish Celtic ancestry mainly to preserve the Gaelic tongue and solidify Catholic unity. Merchants catered to the whims and passion of tourists for anything that looked passably Celtic. In Scotland, the recent revived quest for Scottish autonomy and restoration of Scottish parliament did not seek to revive the Highland Gaelic nor restore Catholicism. Revived interest in Celtic origins lent the Scots dignity, not cause for rebellion. (Marcus Tanner, The Last of the Celts, 2004.) Caesar’s quip, “Veni, Vedi, Vinci,” applied only to Gaul, and possibly England, but not what is present day Scotland. No arch of triumph was ever erected to celebrate Caesar’s occupation of Great Britain.
43 AD Emperor Claudius orders the invasion of Britannia.
1st century A.D. Roman general Agricola occupied the region surrounding Glasgow.
In A.D. 84 the Romans erected the fort of Vanduara on high ground, now covered by houses and streets in Paisley. The 800’+ peaks of the hills (laws) surrounding the Levern Valley of East Renfrewshire (about 15 miles SW of Glasgow) provided a military advantage. Roman soldiers could see Solway Firth to the south, Ireland and the undulating plains of Ayrshire to the west, the Firth of Clyde and Highlands to the north and what eventually developed as Glasgow, Renfrew and Paisley to the northeast, and much of the lowlands to the east.
Agricola’s secretary, Tacitus, wrote that a Britannic iron-age tribe or people called Damnonii hunted in and resided at the Fereneze Forest that covered much of the present day Neilston Parish within the Levern Valley (about 10-15 miles SW of Glasgow), and another tribe, Maeataem, on Mearns Moor. He describes them as barbarians, drinking to excess and sacrificing innocents.
The Damnonii were simple farmers, forming small settlements, and hunting when crops were poor. The Damnonii built huts on logs on shallow lakes, as a means of protection. They had successfully resisted several invasions by the Highland Picts. The unconquered Damnonii were relatively powerful at the time of the Roman invasion. They had erected a hillfort that served as their capital. Hillforts commonly were erected at artesian wells and also served as sites for communal worship or pagan sacrifice.
Like most Celts, the Damnonii worshipped many gods and goddesses under a highly sophisticated religious system governed by the Druids. Druids sacrificed criminals or tribal outcasts in wicker baskets, an early form of the Wicker Man burning ceremonies which developed in the third century A.D. In the century following the reformation, burning witches at the stake was particularly enduring in Renfrewshire. The last burning at the stake in Scotland for witchcraft occurred in Renfrewshire around AD 1700.
The Druids revered the birch and oak trees. These trees abounded in the Levern Valley. The oak trees were mighty, strong, enduring and steadfast, living generation after generation. Until men devised iron-cutting tools, the oak resisted all attempts to fell it. The oak tree reached from earth to heaven. Touching a piece of oak wood was thought to bring good luck. The shade of the oak tree was favored for gatherings of large numbers of people. The etymology of the word “Druid” derives from “dru-wid,” meaning “knower of oak trees,” but “deru” also means truth or troth and so could also give the meaning “knower of the truth.”
The Damnonii were sun worshippers, and celebrated the summer solstice by ceasing all work and gathering together in large open-air camps meetings for the last week of June. When the Damnonii became Christianized, these summer solstice gatherings lent themselves to evangelical revivals. “The lunar month which takes its name from Jupiter, the Oak-god, begins on 10th June and ends on 7th July. Midway comes St John’s Day, 24th June, the day on which the Oak King was sacrificially burned alive. The Celtic year was divided into 2 halves, with the second half beginning in July, apparently after a 7-day wake, or funeral feast, in the Oak King’s honor.
The groves of birch trees were recognized to be a single plant. The Celtics regarded the birch grove as the lady in the Woods, displaying graceful femininity and light-filled grace. Today’s Green Movement shares with the Druid-Celts this tree-hugging cult, willing to sacrifice jobs on the altar of environmentalism. A tree of extreme hardiness, birch thrives in places where oak would die. Although the wood of oak is used for building due to its strength and durability, the resilience and specific magical properties of Birch lend the use of its fiber to very specific ends. Maypoles were often of Birch, as were the twigs used to ignite the Beltane fires, signifying new beginnings and a fresh start. The Yule log is, traditionally, birch also. Cradles made of birch are said to protect the infant from harm, particularly of a psychic nature. For the same reasons it is said that a small piece of birch carried upon a person will prevent kidnapping of the individual by the sidhe, or the Faerie Folk.
The Damnonii formed an alliance with the Romans, to prevent southward movement of Picts and other wild highland tribes.
AD. 128 Romans completed Hadrian’s Wall and erected a line of forts throughout Renfrewshire in order to protect themselves from the Picts, the inhabitants to the north of the Clyde of Firth. The Romans constructed a mini-fortress on the hill overlooking Loch Winnoch, the future site of Castle Semple (about 25 miles SW of Glasgow). The remaining mound is still visible today. A Roman road is built on one of the hills adjacent to the Caldwell Estate for access to a nearby peak. There may have been a Roman wooden fort at what later was used as the site of the Caldwell Castle. From the peaks of adjacent mountains the Roman scouts would have in view more than half of the population of Scotland in the 1st century. The Levern Valley is particularly narrow at Caldwell, so it would have been an ideal location for a Roman fortress, especially given the ample supply of fresh water from its artesian springs.
In the later centuries of their occupation of Scotland, the Romans took children of local chiefs to Rome, where they were held as hostages, ensuring the continued allegiance of their families to Rome. These children were educated in Roman ways and the Christian faith. The consequence was that before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of 450 BC, many Celtic and Britonic peoples were already Christianized.
AD 410 The “Peace of Roman” or Pax Romana, of the island ends as troops are recalled by Emperor Honorius to protect the Roman Empire. Bloody conflict is quick to fill the void that is left in its wake. The Picts and the Scotti (the Roman word for bandits or raiders), unruly barbarians who lived in the unconquered lands north of Hadrian’s Wall, spill over the borders in droves and roam about the countryside freely, raiding unprotected British villages, killing inhabitants, carrying off women and children to be their slaves or sacrifices for their gods.
The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica provides a brief summary of subsequent events: “{A]fter the Romans retired (410) the territory was overrun by Cumbrian Britons and formed part of the kingdom of Strathclyde, the capital of which was situated at Alclyde, the modern Dumbarton. In the 7th and 8th centuries the region practically passed under the supremacy of Northumbria, but in the reign of Malcolm Canmore became incorporated with the rest of Scotland. During the first half of the 12th century, Walter Fitzalan, high steward of Scotland, ancestor of the royal house of Stuart. settled in Renfrewshire on an estate granted to him by David I. Till their accession to the throne the Stuarts identified themselves with the district, which, however, was only disjoined from Lanarkshire in 1404. In that year Robert III erected the barony of Renfrew and the Stuart estates into a separate county, which, along with the earldom of Carrick and the barony of Kings Kyle (both in Ayrshire), was bestowed upon his son, afterwards James I. From their grant are derived the titles of earl of Carrick and baron of Renfrew, borne by the eldest son of the sovereign. Apart from such isolated incidents as the defeat of Somerled near Renfrew in 1164, the battle of Langside in 1568 and the capture of the 9th earl of Argyll at Inchinnan in 1685, the history of the shire is scarcely separable from that of Paisley or the neighboring county of Lanark.”
Included in the references for the Encyclopedia are these particularly promising items: Description of the Sheriffdom of Lanark and Renfrew (Maitland Club, 1831); Craig, Historical Notes on – Paisley (Paisley, 1881); and A. H. Millar, Castles and Mansions of Renfrew (Glasgow, 1889).
Additional information can be found in John Paterson, The History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigtown, 3 vols, 1863-1866, and William H. Metcalfe, History of the County of Renfrew from the Earliest Times, paperback, January 2004, ISBN 09026648875, Zeticula Press.
AD 450. The Britons hire the Anglo-Saxons as mercenaries for protection against the Picts and Scots. Under Hengist and Horsa, the heathen, but civilized Anglo-Saxons begin making plans for their own conquest of Britannia.
Stories of Anglo-Saxon migration are included in the writings of Gildas (ca. A.D. 540) and Bede (A.D. 731) and hinted at in Anglo-Saxon sagas, such as Beowulf. Bede composed “Historica Ecclesiatica Gentis Anglorum” (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People), where “Gentis Anglorum” referred to the “Anglo-Saxons.” In Bede’s History, the Anglo-Saxons were God’s new “chosen” people elected to replace the sin-stained Briton in the promised land of Britain.” Milton would expand on this providential view in the 17th century. (Peter Ackroyd, Albion, 2002)
But Bede never left the monastery in Northumbria and thus was not able to confirm by observation the mass migration of which he wrote. Contrary to Gildas and Bede, many of today’s archaeologists attribute the sudden change to an Anglo Saxon surnames largely to rapid acculturation through trade, with only small number of Germanic immigrants (perhaps a male in a military elite) settling in Britain. Y Chromosome Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration. ME Weale, DA Weiss, RF Jager, N Bradman, MG Thomas – Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2002 – mbe.oupjournals.org
I would think that a likely explanation for the initial surge in migration of the Angles and Saxons to Great Britain was their fear of the ruthless Huns, who showed no pity to either women, infants, the aged, or clergy; by AD 451 the Huns occupied much of Germany and had sacked towns in France. The Huns were not sailors. But the Angles and Saxons lived on waterways and estuaries on the coast of Germany and Denmark and could travel by boat to Great Britain without being pursued. The Huns never invaded Great Britain.
Between AD 450 and 600 a warming climate and melting glaciers bring about a rise in sea level, inundating the marshlands and estuaries of southwest Denmark (occupied by Angles) and northern Germany (occupied by Saxons). These Anglo-Saxons immigrate west to Britain and settle throughout the midlands of England, distal from the estuaries, forcing out some of the original inhabitants, the Britons, who migrated west into Wales.
AD 450 – 800 After many years and a seemingly miraculous (for the Britons) setback at Badonsward, the Anglo-Saxons possess Britain and become converted to Christianity. Anglish (or English) becomes the official language of the state.
6th century AD Britons and Celts attempt to oust the Saxons. Medieval chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth popularizes the legend that a Britonic King Arthur Pyndragon might have been in the Levern Valley seeking to expel the Anglo-Saxons. English King Henry II is enraptured by these stories and orders excavations looking for King Arthur’s grave, but is unsuccessful.
Few could rival the successes of Rhydderch Hael, the Ruler of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Much of the information we have for this King comes from the Geoffrey of Monmouth. According to him Rhydderch Hael, or Roderic the Generous, was of Roman descent, although he had strong allegiances with the Welsh Kings, and like most other people in Strathclyde at that time he spoke the Welsh language. After uniting the Celtic tribes of the Damnonii, Votadini, Selgovae and Novantae, King Rhydderch seems to have come to the throne of Strathclyde sometime around 550, while he was still a relatively young boy, possibly no older than sixteen. Like the other Roman Britons, he retained a strong devotion to the Christian religion introduce by his Imperial predecessors. However, the Saxon tribes and the Britons in the south, under the leadership of Gwenddolau were still strong followers of the Druid religion, and even in Strathclyde, there still existed strong support for the pagan teachings. Eventually these dissentions broke into open battle, with the Christian forces of Rhydderch Hael meeting the pagan warriors of Gwenddolau at Arderryd, some eight miles north of Carlisle. Here the King of Strathclyde’s forces overran the invaders and today the battle is widely regarded as the decisive victory of Christianity over paganism, a marking point in British history. The following years of Rhydderch’s rule saw him establish peace and prosperity throughout his Kingdom, the centre of which was regarded as Dumbarton Rock, where he is thought to have held court. Unlike most Kings of the time, he is said to have died peacefully in his bed, having reached a considerable age. The alliances with Welsh Kings might explain the presence of Welsh names in vicinity of Caldwell.
AD 563 St. Columba came to Scotland from Ireland at age 42, around AD 563. He was a churchman and politician, the first statesman of the Celtic church in Scotland. He arrived before there was any notion of Scottish nationalism. He helped convert the Picts to Christianity and thereby unite the highlands with the lowlands. Much more than did the Church of Rome he quoted from scripture. He established a presbyterian form of church organization without a lay Kirk of Elders, based upon monastic administration governed by an abbot — called a presbyter. The Presbyterian Church of Ireland credits him with being the founder of the modern day Presbyterian church, while the Scottish Presbyterian Church reserves that honor to its native son, John Knox. Although there was an office of bishop he had no authority over the abbot, and was used purely for ordination and consecration. Columba showed no regard for the papacy. The first churches were simple buildings of wood and wattle, with hatched roofs. Columba was a man of action, not pious sloth. Like John Knox, he was hungry for influence and power, but lacked the printed Bibles that gave Knox an immense advantage in converting Catholics to Protestant.. Columba established a community on Iona that included church, refectory, a hostel for travelers, a common room for relaxation, kitchens, a sickbay, a library, a writing house, and a seminary where he taught pupils to become priests. His students copied scriptures –- gospels, psalms — and from these the ordained brothers preached, in the Gaelic tongue, to the people about, and beyond He fostered a personal religion of prayer and meditation, rather than mere attendance at mass and performance of rituals. Local children were taught to read, write, count, and sing. Some people would say that he should have been honored as the patron saint of Scotland, rather than St. Andrew, upon whom that title was granted in AD 1320 by Papal clergy. Venerable Bede wrote this we know for certain, that he left successors renowned for their persistence, their love of god, and their observance of monastic rites. The impact of St. Columba aids in understanding why the Scottish Reformation and conversion to Presbyterianism was so strong in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.
570’s Irish Christian missionaries, St. Ninian, St. Kentigen, and St. Columbia begin their work in Britannia (Mercia, Wales, etc.), Caledonia (Scotland), Northumbria, and Hibernia (Ireland). The Celtic church was a powerful missionary body sending missionaries throughout Europe.
AD 573 Pope Gregory sent Augustine to England because he wanted “non angli sed angeli” (not Angles, but Angels). The effect was initially to create a conflict between the Irish evangelists and the clergy appointed by and more subservient to the Pope.
AD 604 St. Paul’s Cathedral is erected in London.
655 Bede says that after King Oswy defeated Penda of Mercia, he gave the church 10-hide estates, including what became known as the Parish of Colewell, then known as Colwela, in Northumbria. (G.W.S. Barrow, The Kingdom of Scots, 2003, p. 27.)
7th century. Great monastic fervor sweeps the island. Angling Saxons erect a church at Caldwell, North Riding, Yorkshire, remains of which can still be seen. Another is built in Caldwell, Parish of Stapenhill, Derbyshire, and ultimately, is rebuilt and becomes one of four chapels under the control of Lichfield Cathedral. The surviving parish registers for Parish of Stapenhill (including Cauldwell) begin in 1660 because the midlands were at the center of the English Civil War, 1642-1660). Most parish records were destroyed during the War. The records that did survive would at best go back only to the preceding century. “Every parish of the Church of England was required to keep a register of baptisms, marriages and burials by the Injunctions issued in 1538 by Thomas Cromwell, chief minister of King Henry VIII, in his capacity as Vicegerent in Sprituals. The Injunctions were repeated at various times in the following sixty years, despite the religious changes, and were eventually reinforced by the Provincial Constitutions of Canterbury issued in 1597 and approved by Queen Elizabeth I in 1598. These required the existing registers, which were usually of paper, to be copied into more durable parchment volumes. Consequently, few of the original paper registers survive. Many of the copies made as a result of the Constitutions of Canterbury in fact only start from 1558 or later, and for some parishes the oldest surviving register begins in the seventeenth or even eighteenth century.” (Derbyshire Record Office.)
Strathgryffe (Strathclyde) by then extended to North Riding, Yorkshire, where there was a Caldwell settlement in North Riding. A road — Dere Street — extended from Edinburgh to the Caldwell settlement in North Riding and the port at York. (G.W.S. Barrow, The Kingdom of the Scots, 2d edition, 2003, p. 113.)
The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) describes the hamlet: “CAULDWELL, a hamlet in the parish of Stapenhill, hundred of Repton and Gresley, in the county of Derby, 4 miles to the S. of Burton-on-Trent.”
The following map shows the location of Cauldwell: http:// www. multimap. com/ map/ browse. cgi?GridE=425300&GridN=317200&scale=100000
Departing from a wind-swept abbey at Whitby at the mouth of the River Esk on the coast of Northumbria in the early seventh century AD, Abbess St. Hilda enjoyed the trip to the inland hamlet of Caldwell, a half day’s ride by horse north of what is now known as the Swale River, North Riding, Yorkshire. She liked the undulating hills and valleys gazed upon by a sun with its elbows resting on the horizon, the meadows under the covers of wildflowers amidst April rainbows, and deer, sheep, and cattle grazing on dewy grasses. Everywhere were artesian springs, symbols of fertility. The Swale River Valley uplifted her mood, in contrast to the gloomy moors prevalent along the Northumbrian coast.
The abbess came to Caldwell chiefly not for its beauty, but to convert a community of pagan Anglo-Saxons devastated by recent war with Britonic tribes that had invaded from the west, and Mercian warriors from the south, each tribe bent on wiping out the men and women, the aged, infirm, and children. She was sure that sorrow of most of the inhabitants at Caldwell would be placated by reassurance of a promised better life. They would look forward to reunite with the souls of their lost loved ones.
The abbess led the Anglo-Saxons in the Lord’s Prayer:
Fæder ure u e eart on heofonum,
(Father our thou that art in heavens)
Si in nama gehalgod. to becume in rice,
(be thy name hallowed)
gewur e in willa,
(be-done thy will)
on eor an swa swa on heofonum.
(on earth as in heavens)
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg,
(our daily bread give us today)
and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa
(and forgive us our sins)
swa we forgyfa urum gyltendum.
(as we forgive those-who-have-sinned-against-us)
and ne gelæd u us on costnunge
(and not lead thou us into temptation)
ac alys us of yfele. so lice.
(but deliver us from evil. Truly)
The Lord’s Prayer, (Matthew 6:9-13), West Saxon Gospels. http://www. georgetown. edu/ cball/ oe/ paternoster-oe. html
David C. Fowler, The Bible in Early English Literature. London: Sheldon Press, 1977.
– * Geoffrey Shepherd, “English versions of the Scriptures before Wycliff,” in G. W. H. Lampe, ed., The Cambridge History of the Bible, vol. 2, Cambridge: University Press, 1969.
Bruce M. Metzger, “The Anglo-Saxon Version,” in The Early Versions of the New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), pp. 443-455.
* George K. Anderson, The Literature of the Anglo-Saxons. Princeton, 1966.
* John T. McNeill, The Celtic Churches, A History A.D. 200 to 1200. Chicago, 1974.
* Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. by Philip Hereford (London, 1935).
* Bertram Colgrave, ed., The Paris Psalter, vol. viii of the series Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile (Copenhagen, 1958).
* T.D. Kendrick, et al., Evangeliorum quattuor codex Lindisfarnensis (2 vols. Oltun and Lausanne, 1956, 1960).
* Walter W. Skeat, The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian, and Old Mercian Versions, synoptically arranged, with collations exhibiting all the readings of all the MSS.; together with the early Latin version as contained in the Lindisfarne MS., collated with the Latin Version of the Rushworth MS. (Cambridge, 1871-87; reprinted Darmstadt, 1970).
* James W. Bright, The Gospel of Saint John in West-Saxon (London and Boston, 1904).
* Joseph Bosworth and George Waring, The Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels in Parallel Columns with the Versions of Wycliffe and Tyndale; Arranged, with preface and notes, by the Rev, Joseph Bosworth, D.D.F.R.S.F.S.A. Professor of Anglo Saxon, Oxford; Assisted by George Waring, Esq. M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Magdalen Hall, Oxford. Third Edition, London: Reeves & Turner, 1888. Reprinted as The Gospels: Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, Wycliffe and Tyndale versions arranged in parallel columns. Fourth Edition. London: Gibbings, 1907.
* S.J. Crawford, ed., The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, Ælfric’s Treatise on the Old and New Testament, and his Preface to Genesis (Early English Text Society, o.s. 160; London: Oxford University Press, 1922; reprinted with the text of two additional manuscripts transcribed by N.R. Ker, London, 1969), pp. 76-80. Contains Ælfric’s treatise on the Old and New Testament, his preface to Genesis and the OE prose versions of the first seven books of the Bible.
– * Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (2nd ed. Oxford, 1952).
– http://www. bible-researcher. com/ anglosaxon. html
In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (AD 731), the monk Venerable Bede tells us that the Northumbrian King Edwin, had been the first of the Northumbrian Kings to convert to Christianity. King Rdwin had slain the Britonic warlord, Caedwella, and his little dog, Calval, not far from Caldwell. King Edwin in turn had been slain by the pagan Mercian King, Penda, in AD 633. King Edwin’s successor was his former rival, Oswald, who reigned between AD 633 to 642. King Oswald had converted to Christianity after winning a battle he feared he would lose, but surprisingly won. He attributed his unexpected win to his having prayed to the Christian God for a victory.
The dwellings at Caldwell were of timber, close to one another on small tracts of privately owned land where crops were grown. The outlying woods and meadows were held in common for cattle and sheep. King Oswald had the first stone structure erected at Caldwell — what became known as St. Hilda’s chapel — by Irish monks from Iona.
King Oswald had become acquainted with the Irish monks while in refuge at Iona, “lying low” during the reign of King Edwin. The fact that the Irish Church had encouraged the Christian Britonics to attack the heathen Anglo-Saxons did not bother him, once he saw the advantage of forging an alliance with the Irish Church.
King Oswald invited one of St Cumbria’s pupils, St. Aidan, from Iona to establish an Archbishophoric in Northumberland. St. Aidan chose an island close to Berwick. At the Whitby Abbey of St. Hilda, King Oswald resolved a bitter conflict between the Irish Church and the Benedictine monks subservient to the Pope, over the day on which Easter would be celebrated, and successfully mediated other ceremonial disputes, including the style of tonsure and robes that would be worn by the clergy. King Oswald’s diplomacy helped establish a national organization of the Catholic Church essential to its success in converting Britain.
(Rebecca Fraser. The History of Britain From the Romans to the Present A Narrative History. W. W. Norton & Co., 2003.)
Northumberland extended into lowland Scotland. During King Oswald’s reign he visited a village in Carrick (southern Ayrshire), which changed its name in his honor to Kirkoswald. Nearby a nucleated Anglo-Saxon farm village acquired the name Caldwellstoun. Possibly King Oswald had something to do with the place name of another settlement in the Levern Valley, 10-15 miles SW of Glasgow, that acquired the name, Terra de Caldwell.
The Abbess would have been pleased with the success the Irish monks were having in converting the Anglo-Saxons and teaching many of them to read and write. The Irish monks were the best read and most promising of the clergy in Great Britain devoted to studying the Greek and Roman classics. Their brethren in Europe saw many of their own copies of classical texts destroyed by German vandals. The Irish monks were determined to improve the literacy of the Anglo-Saxons. Perhaps the Abbess anticipated the outcome. Within 70 years all of Britain was converted to Christianity.
As King Oswald’s successor, his brother, King Oswy, carried on the evangelistic conversion, and encouraged Northumbrian monks to convert the pagan Mercians to the south. Among the first converted was Penda’s son, who succeeded to the Mercian Kingship.
Apart from St. Hilda’s chapel, the hamlet at Caldwell, North Riding, has no other recognized medieval historic significance, except for its presence near Scotch Corner, now a milestone at the junction of highways A1 and A66 near Richmond, by which travelers on the former Roman Road, called Dere Street (occasionally designated as Empire Street), can head west to Cumbria, Galloway, and Ayrshire or continue north to Edinburgh. Dere Street served as a drove road by which sheep from Edinburgh Scotland were driven to Scotch Corners, shorned of their wool, or occasionally driven further south to York.
The Abbey at Whitby served as a mother church and home base for itinerant monks that endeavored to convert their neighbors to the south, in the adjoining Kingdom of Mercia. The Romano-Britons of this region had already been Christianized, but the Saxons and Anglians had arrived after the Roman departure, and remained largely pagans.
The prominent families of Mercia were among the last in England to become Christians.
http://www.btinternet.com/~simonmarchini/History/mercian_history.htm
As virtually the only ones able to read and write, the clergy migrating to the capital of Kingdom of Mercia at Repton likely began the process of naming and recording the place names in the Kingdom of Mercia. This would have been essential to record keeping of the tithes owed or to the collection of rents.
The oldest known stone edifice in Caldwell, Derbyshire, of which there are still remains preserved today is an arch of a doorway that was part of a one room Anglo-Saxon stone church erected in the 8th century AD. and reused in the Norman rebuilding of the church. The Normans named the church St. Giles, in honor of a hermit in southern France who dedicated his life to helping the poor and belittled the importance of material wealth.
Caldwell, of Derbyshire, lies within the original boundaries and at the heart of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia, in the watershed of the upper Trent River. You can easily download a map of that heartland:
http://www.btinternet.com/~simonmarchini/History/mercian_history.htm
Caldwell of Derbyshire, lies midway between Burton (aka Burton-on-Trent) and Repton, both straddling the River Trent, with Repton further downstream. Repton was the original capital of the Kingdom of Mercia.
The Kingdom of Mercia expanded such that by AD 790 it reached south to the adjacent county of Warwickshire and as almost far south as London, west to Wales, and east to East Saxony and Middle Anglia. During this period of expansion, St Chad (St. Ceadda) persuaded King Offa of Mercia to change the capital from Repton to Lichfield and for Lichfield to become an Archbishoporic. This meant that Caldwell, Derbyshire, was no longer subordinated to the Archbishophoric in Northumbria (Yorkshire).
This change in Diocese did not bring any luck to Caldwell, Derbyshire, or to the Mease River Valley in which the Penda dynatsy had reigned. The Kingdom of Mercia sustained heavy losses from the invasion of the Danish and Scandinavian Vikings, beginning about AD 790.
The Swale River lies out of sight of the inhabitants at Caldwell, North Riding, but easily reached by traversing the undulating hills and dales. What St. Hilda saw as the main attraction of Caldwell was to the Normans an unacceptable military disadvantage.
William the Conqueror’s son, Rufus, recognized the relative defenselessness of the region, and erected the first Norman stone castle in Great Britain, at Richmond, a market town overlooking the cliffs abutting the Swale River. Because the foundation of the castle was solid rock rather than compacted dirt, Richmond Castle remains one of the best preserved medieval Norman castles in Great Britain.
Further losses were sustained when two years after the Norman Conquest of AD 1066, both Caldwell, North Riding, Yorkshire, and Caldwell, Derbyshire, were depopulated on the orders of William the Conqueror He preferred William the Bastard as his signature. The region declined into relative poverty until the mid 13th century, when the discovery of vast coal beds up to 4000 feet underground revived the economy of the Mease River Valley. Caldwell, Derbyshire lies about 4 miles to the south of Burton Abbey. The coal beds lie just to the south of Caldwell.
The War of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster provide another explanation for population decline and the relative paucity of Caldwells in the English midlands, compared to their far more numerous numbers in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.
An 1811 map showing Caldwell is available online.of South Derbyshire from D. P. Davis, History & Descriptive View of Derby.
http://www.burton-on-trent.org/1-History/Local%20Maps/BGS0030s-derby-comp.jpg
I zoomed in and located the four buildings of Caldwell alongside what seems to be one-wagon wide dirt road passing through Caldwell in a curvilinear path, connected at each T intersection with main roads that connect much larger settlements.
Travelers likely would have bypassed Caldwell, Derbyshire, and remained on the main road linking Lichfield (in the direction pointed by the 8 o’clock hand from Caldwell) to Burton straddling the Trent River (Burton-on-Trent) (1 o’clock hand relative to Caldwell), and Repton (2 o’clock), another village.
A list is provided of freeholders who lived in and near Burton on Trent in 1757. There is none of Caldwell surname within Burton on Trent. The list reveals one freeholder with the surname Caldwell at Stapenhill: William Caldwell (of that spelling).
http://www.burton-on-trent.org/1-History/Local%20Maps/info_on_1760_maps.htm
Burton of the 1760s is described as a village with one main street running north and south, paved just a few years before 1760. Burton then had two taverns and one grammar school. There were two poorhouses occupied by a half dozen women. An open market was held every Thursday. Id.
The Doomsday Survey of AD 1086 (written in Latin) identifies more than a dozen settlements in the midlands, called Caldwell, or variant spelling thereof, all established before the Norman Conquest of 1066, thereby refuting the notion that the place name Caldwell is of Anglo-Norman origin. The Anglo-Saxon word for artesian spring is “Cauld Weille.” The possibility therefore exists that from the time that the Romans withdrew and the Angle mercenaries remained, there was a place in the Levern Valley, Renfrewshire, named “Caldwell,” however spelled. The clergy using the Latin alphabet might have spelled it “Caulduellis,” as the Latin alphabet had no “w.” A Celtic scribe unaccustomed to pronouncing the letter “d” might spell it “Calwell.”
There are historical documents showing references to the place name Caldwaellen, AD 942, in present day Derbyshire, according to Kenneth Cameron, The Place Names of Derbyshire, Cambridge, Eng., Cambridge University Press, 1959, p. 625.
The Doomsday Book of AD 1086 constitutes the first census of England. Written in Latin, it describes a hamlet of Caldewelle in the southwest region of Derbyshire, within the Repton and Gresly Hundred (an Anglo-Saxon administrative unit that, along with the “shire,” survived the Norman Conquest). Doomsday Book, English & Latin, text and translation edited by John Morris. Chichester: Phillimore, 1975-1986, vol. 27. The Doomsday Book states:
“In Caldewelle, Aelferic had 2 c. [caraucates] of and taxable. Land for 2 ploughs. Now in Lordship 1 plough; 6 villagers with 1 plough. Value before 1066 and now, 20 s. King William gave this manor to the monks for his well being.”
The word Aelferic may have referred to Aelferic Abbey, rather than the monk Aelferic, who had died several decades previously.
This unchanged evaluation is some evidence that William the Conqueror did not subject Caldewelle to waste. This does not rule out the possibility, however, that all of the men in Caldewelle were slain or fled north into Scotland.
Like the rolling hills around Caldewelle ideal for midland sheep grazing, similar grasslands and ample artesian springs in scarcely populated land was available in Renfrewshire.
The wool industry so dominated the thinking of medieval Englishmen that they spoke of spinning a tale, unraveling a story, or holding on by a thread. The truth was made of whole cloth. Unmarried women over 40 were spinsters.
800’s Normans [This was their name in the Netherlands, Germany and France. They also became known as the Danes by the British] were fierce and warlike tribes who made piratical expeditions to all parts of the European seas (primarily Britain, Germany, Friesland, Flanders, and France), plundering by land and sea, and often overrunning large tracts of country, usually by means of cruel and ruthless methods. They were, perhaps, the only barbarians who applied the highest title of magistracy to denote the leader of piratical squadrons, whom they termed Vikings or sea-kings. The poverty of their country (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) compelled them to adopt this mans of subsistence, and their religion inspired them with a love for daring enterprises, assuring them that warriors fallen in battle were admitted to Valhalla, the northern paradise. For 200 years the Normans invade Britannia. Although there is much devastation, many Normans, including a famous leader Canute, are converted to Christianity by their victims. (Encyclopedia Americana: “Normans”, 1986.)
843 Many of the Pict and Scot clans unify under Kenneth I against the invading Normans.
871 The Saxon king, Alfred the Great, plays an important role in defending Britannia from the Danes. After repelling them, he turns his attention to rebuilding his war-ravaged country. Trade flourishes, as well as education and research. The Saxon Chronicles take shape during this time and becomes a useful tool to popularize the evolving Old English.
911 The Treaty of St.-Claire-sur-Epte is signed where King Charles III the Simple of France cedes the lands of Neustria (Present day Normandy) to the Norman leader Rollo in order to save France from further Norman invasions. Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, embraces Christianity and is baptized under the name of Robert. His followers similarly abandoned their roving and piratical habits and confessed Christ. However, they still retained their marks of Scandinavian origin and their warlike ardor.
9th century Norsemen raid Strathgryffe –which straddles Lanark and Renfrewshire–as far as Paisley.
10th century Gaelic speech is still current in the Levern Valley among the peasants, but English was becoming prevalent.
Danes from Dublin, Ireland, invade the lowlands, and seize land to protect a trade route from Dublin to York. Scottish King Malcolm I (943-54) agrees to be a vassal of English king Edmund, in exchange for help. A succession of English Kings seeks to prevent these incursions by erecting a line of forts in Renfrewshire. The possibility exists that a stone Caldwell Castle, the first of several, was erected in the Levern Valley in the 10th century, and that an Anglo-Saxon band of soldiers or knights established a community called Caldwell. This is speculation, not proof.
AD 1034 Upon the death of Aethelred the Unready, Scottish King Malcolm II seizes Strathclyde
The clans of Scotland unify for the first time under Malcolm II against their common enemy, the Danes.
AD 1066 Led by William I the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, the Normans invade the British Isles and defeat the Angles and Saxons (in England) at the Battle of Hastings. William I did not see himself as conquering, but rather as reclaiming the throne that was deprived of his kinsmen when the Saxons recaptured the throne. Among the regions most devastated by William I are Derbyshire and Yorkshire, within which are located two of the chief Caldwell settlements. Most of the inhabitants who did not seek refuge in Scotland were slain.
AD 1072 Radical cultural shifts begin to occur in Britannia. Changes include a complete transition of customs, manners, and entertainment as well as a transition of language from English to Anglo-Norman. Highland Dancing originates in the Highlands when Margaret, the wife of King Malcolm Canmore, introduces Norman entertainment at the Scottish Court. It is likely that modern ballet and Highland Dancing have common roots in the classical dances of the day. It is during this time that Malcolm promises, vaguely, allegiance with William the Conqueror.
AD 1086 The Domesday Survey does not cover territory above the River Tees, and thus, would not have recorded the presence of the settlement of Colewell (Colwyla) in Northumbria or Caldwell, Renfrewshire, if then present.
AD 1092 William Rufus cleaves Northumbria and sends peasant colonists from the south to settle in the north and cultivate the area around Carlisle. Upon Henry I’s death, Scottish king David I takes over Carlisle, the capitol of Strathclyde. King David I encourages English resettlement and chartering of Estates in the lowlands of Scotland. This provides a plausible time when a Caldwell Estate may have been chartered in Renfrewshire.
AD 1097-98 Priory of Coldingham founded by Edgar, King of Scotland, and attached to the convent of Durham, north of Berwick.
In 1161, the name “Neilston” was first mentioned in documents as the name of a manor. It derives from Neil’s ”tun” or “manor.” Neil is a Gaelic name.
In 1163, Walter Fitzalan (1136-77) [a Bretonic name] from Shropshire, England, was appointed High Steward of Scotland and was the first of four hereditary “Stewarts” of Scotland. (R.W. Eyton, History of Shropshire (1854-60); G.W.S. Barrow, The Kingdom of the Scots, 2d edition, Edinburgh Press, 2003, p. 314.) Walter I was the feudal overlord of Strathgryffe (intially a region within Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire), including the Levern Valley. He has to be distinguished from but has been often confused with his elder brother, William Fitz Alan, a large landowner in England.
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Walter I was succeeded as steward by his son, Alan,1177-1204, who in turn was succeeded by Alan’s son, Walter II, 1204-41. (G.W.S. Barrow, The Kingdom of the Scots, 2d edition, Edinburgh Press, 2003, p. 315.). Alan was the last of the Stewart clan to have no surname. Walter II was commonly known as Walter Stewart.
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The lands of the Stewarts include what today is known as the Forest of Ferenze and Ferenze Hills, in Neilston Parish, as well as virtually all of modern day Renfrewshire, and the region encompassing Prestwick and eastward within Ayrshire. The word “Forest” originally meant “King’s reserve,” not “woods.” Peasants caught with bow and arrow within the Forest were subject to summary execution.
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The Stewarts also owned lands in the highlands (Bute), and in various pockets in the eastern lowlands (Innerwick, Mow, and Ledgewood). These are all shown in a sketch. (G.W.S. Barrow, The Kingdom of the Scots, 2d edition, Edinburgh Press, 2003, p. 313.)
Walter I originally granted 1/10th of his venison from this forest to the monks at Paisley Abbey, taken by him “in fermison,” a French derived word meaning “the close season for stags and time for hunting hinds, 11 November-2 February.” In subsequent charters and cartularies, “Fermison” became known as a location with a variety of other spellings, e.g., Forineisum, Ferineisun, Formeson, and ultimately, Ferenze. (Barrow, supra, p. 316.)
The fact that the Stewarts owned lands in both Renfrewshire and in Ayrshire likely eased the ability of Caldwells from Renfrewshire to relocate to Ayrshire, particularly near Prestwick and eastward, that Tom Caldwell has identified as part of “Caldwell country.”
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In AD 1163, Cluniac monks – known for rejection of material possessions, in contrast to the St. Benedictine Order that had been at Dumfermline since the 7th century AD — relocated from Renfrew and founded Paisley Abbey. The austere Cluniac monks ironically persuaded the wealthy landowners to cede much of their land to the Abbey in exchange for promises that candles will be lit for their souls for eternity. The acquired lands are cleared of the trees so that the land can be leased or “farmed” to tenant farmers. Within a few centuries vast tracts of land in Renfrewshire are denuded of any trees. The enclosure of the lands to aid the raising of the sheep leads to the dispossession of many tenant farmers. Sheep do not provide the manure that horses or cattle had, and gradually the soil becomes more impoverished. Henry Graham writes that the people blamed Providence rather than their own improvidence. The inability of the tenants to leave their land without permission of the landowner, and the obligations they owed their landlord in services and food, served to shape the determination of many Scots to immigrate to lands where they would owe no obligation to church or government, the Promised Land that would deliver them from slavery and humiliation. This was not an easy task. The medieval mappamundi, which shows the world as a disc with Jerusalem at the center and the ocean on its rim, shows Scotland diametrically opposed to Paradise. (J.D. Mackie, A History of Scotland, 1964, reprinted Penguin Books, 2d edition, 1991, p;. 11.)
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In 1170 Sir Robert le Croc was granted a fief of the Levern Valley by Walter I.
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1124-53 The reign of Scottish King David I. The King grants the lands within the Parish of Colewell in Northumbria to Walter Corbet, a knight. In 1124, David I, who grew up in England and married a Norman wife, said to be the wealthiest woman in England, and renovates the Celtic (Pictish) form of government of “Scotland” to introduce many of the Anglo-Norman formalities in church and state (e.g. sheriffs, and clergy). These changes attract many more Norman and Flemish settlers to the bonnie Lowlands of Scotland.
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AD 1165 William the Lion, Celtic King of Scotland, after unsuccessful negotiations with Norman King of England, Henry II, sets a precedence by aligning with Louis VII, King of France against England (in what would become known as the Auld Alliance). [This is an interesting relationship as the rulers of England are/were Norman and Normandy was part of France!]. In a boundary dispute with England over Northumbria, William is captured and forced to sign a treaty in Normandy recognizing the superiority of the English Archbishops over the Church of Scotland. Scotland’s independence is retained in 1193 due to the war between England and France and the diligence of William, and his successors. As William and his advisors work to secure restoration of Scottish independence, many civil improvements are made. For instance, Thomas a Becket founds the abbey at Arbroath, the Church of Scotland rebels and is granted direct access to the pope, and many burghs in Scotland are chartered. The Scottish flag has a lion recognizing William’s 49 years of tremendous service.
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1180 Lazar House founded by Sir Robert de Croc between Crookston and Neilston, probably at Chappell.
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1200 Marion de Croc married to Walter, grandson of the High Steward.
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Before his death in 1204, Walter II granted a large portion of Neilston Parish as a prebend to Cluniac monks settled at Paisley. The term “prebend” means an estate devoted to support the church, monastery, or cathedral. He also granted a large portion of lands he owned southeast of Castle Semphill Loch. I do not know whether or not this resulted in any diminution in the size of or splitting of the Caldwell estate, but it certainly meant that the Caldwell estate was surrounded by land under control of the clergy. By the 14th century the Abbots and Bishops owned most of farmland in Renfrewshire and their annual rental income far exceeded the rental income going to the nobles. Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay in the mid 19th century would write his famous History of England, in which he observed that before the reformation, many Scottish men entered into the service of the Catholic Church because of the opportunities for great wealth. The other pathway of upward mobility lied with the monarchy and nobles, who were inclined to reward merit. Under King Henry VIII, a son of a butcher rose to become High Chancellor of England, Cardinal Wolsey.
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1214-1286 The years of relative prosperity due to the work of William are considered, by the Encyclopedia Americana, the Golden Years of Scotland.
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1246 Robert de Sempill of Eliotstoun, Chamberlain (steward) of Renfrewshire, witnessed a charter to the Paisley Abbey.
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1200-1300 All important civil disputes were formerly settled either by arbitration or in ecclesiastical tribunals, according to the approved laws and customs, but during the 13th century, the king’s Justiciar acquires increasing authority. Cf. Regesta Regum Scottorum. In 1305, King Edward I formerly provides for four justiciars, one part for Lothian, one for Galloway, and two for lands beyond the Scottish Sea. (Barrow, supra, p. 81.)
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“In ‘The History of Neilston’ (1910) by Doctor David Pride, there is an item covering the Estate of Caldwell, stating:-
‘In 1294, the boundaries marched with the Steward’s forest of Fereneze.’” (Barry Robertson, Caldwell Mystery, 2-23-02) Dr. Pride was referring of course to the Terra de Caldwell located in the Levern Valley beside the Levern River, about 10 miles SW of Glasgow, along the main road between Glasgow and Ayr. Likely Dr. Pride utilized the year of 1294 in the “Tabula” (Table of Contents) that was affixed in a reprint of the Registrum Monasterii de Passelet.
Rosanna E. Folk interpreted this Tabula as showing the year of the recording in the Registrum. (See: The “Right in Front of Your Face” Award, Rozanne E. Folk — 17:12 12/22/05.) There is a subtle difference, however, between these two interpretations. Dr. Pride looks upon the Registrum entry as earliest documentary evidence of the boundaries of the Terra de Caldwell. Rosanne E. Folk utilizes 1294 as the year of the recording in the Registrum.
I wonder whether 1294 was the year in which a license or permission was conveyed to Paisley Abbey but the conveyance was not recorded until 1306 or 1307. As observed by Tom Caldwell, the Registrum’s entry refers to the name of the King as Robert I. Robert was not King in 1294. John Baliol held that title then. Robert I reigned from 1306 to 1329. A witness to the recording was Ayrshire Sheriff Crawford, who died in 1307.
I suspect that it was not the practice for the Cluniac monks at Paisley to make any reference in the journal to the year before and after Christ’s birth, i.e., B.C. & A.D., a calendar system favored in England, ever since the Northumbrian monk, Venerable Bede, popularized this calendar system in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
The Cluniac monks at Paisley Abbey possibly rejected the year of birth chosen by Bede as disputable or unproven, or necessitating approval by the Pope. Instead, the Registrum uses a non-controversial and easily verifiable system of calendaring by the year in which the King reigned.
This Registrum entry no longer appears to be the earliest known record in Scotland of the name Caldwell. There is a previous 13th century charter (1274?) establishing the Cluniac Crossraguel Abbey. The charter included conveyance of “Caldwellstoun”’s rental income and leases to the Abbey. The Cluniac monks did not create the place name “Caldwellstoun.” Its existence predated the Abbey. Omitted from this grant was another place in Carrick, called Caldbeck.
Caldwellstoun is not included in the ordinance surveys of place-names of Scandinavian and Gaelic origin. (cf. Place-Names on Maps of Scotland and Wales, Ordnance Survey: glossary of common Gaelic and Scandinavian place-name elements.)
The suffixes -toun or “-ton” derive from Old English (Anglo-Saxon) word meaning “farm” or “ferm-toun.” This Anglo-Saxon word was appended to both Gaelic and Britonic (Gaelic) place names, so we cannot determine merely from the suffix that the name Caldwell originates from Anglo-Saxon.
Although inhabitants of these farms or fermtouns were usually relatively immobile, as successive generations tended to remain in place, it is unknown whether or not there were any Caldwells residing at Caldwellstoun in the 13th century.
Possibly a walk-through inspection of the nearby Kirkoswald cemetery to the south of Caldwellstoun or through any of the Maybole graveyards to the east would reveal gravemarkers with Caldwell surnames. But those cemeteries were not built until the late 13th century, and acid rain probably has effaced many names. Perhaps so,epne has published a CD or book with the gravemarkings.
According to www.thecumbriadirectory.com, “Kirkoswald…is named after Saint Oswald, king of Northumbria in the 7th century. He visited the area after which St Oswald’s church was named in his honour….The village was given a market charter in the 13th century.”
The decline of Caldwellstoun might be traced to the Reformation. All of the lands of Crossraguel Abbey were seized and distributed to a baron. Caldwellstoun would no longer have received any free seed, sheep, or cattle delivered by the Abbey.
Another factor could have been overgrazing and lack of soil amendments, as the owner enclosed grazing land, replaced cattle with sheep, ignored manuring the land, and sought to maximize short term profit. It was not until the late 19th century that agricultural reform sought to undo the harm done by these destructive practices.
Caldwellstoun likely suffered severely from the Plague of 1598. The plague killed 2/3’s of the people of Kirkoswald in 1598.
Caldwellstoun does not lie adjacent to the A77 Glasgow-Stranraer trunk road within sight of Crossraguel Abbey, and would not have been frequented by nearly the number of travelers that passed by or rested at Caldwell Estate in the Levern Valley. In the eighteenth century, the Mures at the Caldwell Estate hosted gatherings attended by the leading figures of the Scottish Renaissance (Adam Smith, David Hume, et al.) The Mure of Caldwell Estate was renowned for its gardens.
In July 1818, John Keats explored the Crossraguel Abbey, as part of an extensive walk covering Northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, confirming that by then, the Abbey was a ruin. Robert Louis Stevenson passed by in 1876, dismissing the Abbey as “dilapidated.”
The Levern River traversing Terra de Caldwell powered numerous mills at the beginning of the Industrial revolution in the 1800s and likely contributed to the proliferation of Caldwell surname in Neilston Parish. The nearest mills serving Caldwellstoun possibly were those on Raven Beck that runs through the village of Kirkoswald. Its water power was once used for three corn mills, a paper mill, and a mill for carding and spinning wool.
Any Caldwells attending grammar school at Kirkoswald might have been in the same classroom as Robert Burns.
Maybole, capital of Carrick, derives from Old English.
Maybole is among the oldest Carrick settlements and accordingly, existed when the Northumbrian Old-English influence was strongest.
“When Girvan was a sandy knowe
And Crosshill lay beneath the plough,
And Dailly stood-no one knows how-
Stood the auld toon o’ Maybole.”
— Anonymous
A search of the historical literature indicates that Carrick, during the 7th and 8th centuries, was a blend of English and Gaelic speaking inhabitants.
In the early seventh century the expanding English kingdom of Northumbria reached the Irish Sea and occupied much of Lowland Scotland. (Northumbria 500-1100: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom by David Rollason, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 63; The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain: 660-1649, by N A M Rodger, p. 6.)
Northumbria’s English culture was distinct from that of the Celtic and Nordic amalgram of northern Scotland. (Internal Colonialism, by Michael Hechter, Transaction Publishers, 1999, p. 112.). By the beginning of middle ages in the 12th century, the Northumbria English dialect and culture were barely distinguishable from that spoken in lowland Scotland. (Northumbria 500-1100: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom, by David Rollason, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 65.) Anglo-Saxon speaking Northumbrians had remained in Carrick despite the Gaelicization of the prevalent speech. cf. Lane, Alan (Dec. 1996) “Saxons in the first Scottish Kingdom” British Archaeology 20 http://britac3.britac.ac.uk.cba/ba/ba20/ba20feat.html.
It was during the seventh and eight century that most of the settlements in Great Britain acquired the place names that remained with them to this date, including the dozen or settlements in England called Caldwell or variant spelling thereof listed in the Domesday Book of 1088 (e.g., Colwela, Cauldwel, Caldwylan, Cauldueille, etc.)
Gaelic became more prominent in Carrick after the Kingdom of Northumbria declined to a mere earldom in the latter eighth century and loosened its hold on Carrick. cf. Brooke, D. 1983 ‘Kirk-Compound Place-Names in Galloway and Carrick’, Transactions of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 58, 56-71. Brooke, D., 1991, ‘The Northumbrian settlements in Galloway and Carrick: an historical assessment’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 121, 295-327.
According to Percy H. Reaney and M. Wilson, the surname Caldwell derives from Old English/Anglo-Saxon words meaning “cold spring or stream.” (A Dictionary of English Surnames, 3rd edition, by P H Reaney, M Wilson, 1991, p. 80.) Reaney and Wilson also mention that Caldwell has been used in Celtic to refer to a “dweller near the hazel trees.” (Reaney and Wilson, supra, p. 88.)
Contributor David Caldwell from Manitoba and Ayrshire contends that the Scottish surname Caldwell likely comes from the Celtic word for hazel. A similar claim was made in the Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names, With an Essay on Their Derivation and Import, by William Arthur, M.A., Sheldon Blake & Co., New York, 1857, reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2005, P. 89, acknowledging Caldwell as a common English surname but attributing the local Scottish surname to “Col-wold,” i.e., the wood of hazels. The author provides no reference to back up this interpretation.
In Place-Names of Scotland, by James B. Johnston, the author identifies Celtic, Norse, and English Place-Names. He says of Caldwell (Renfrew): “Presumably “cold well.” Sc (cauld); OE (cald); Icel (kald-r). Cf. Coldwell, Calder.” Johnston’s book has been criticized for flawed methodology. He fails to back up many of his interpretations.
An Old English “cold well” derivation is listed in Scotland’s Place Names: Expanded Edition. David Dorward. Published by Mercat Press, 1995. pbk, 1873644507.
Supportive analysis that Caldwell derives from OE words for cold well can be found in Jacobsson, Mattias, Wells, Meres and Pools: Hydronomic Terms in the Anglo-Saxon Landscape (Uppsala, 1997).
About the late eighth or early ninth century, much of western Northumbria was retaken by Britonic occupation, including Renfrewshire and Ayrshire. The Gaelic-speaking Britons formed the Kingdom of Strathclyde. When this area was seized by the Scottish Kings in the late 10th or early 11th century, the area was renamed Cumbria. Before becoming King of Scotland, David I held the title of Prince of Cumbria.
Certified European historian Rozanne E. Folk (M.A., history) obtained a copy of the Registrum Monesterii de Passelat (Paisley Monastery). The first words in the Registrum referring to Caldwell are “Terra de Caldwell.” She found no mention of any individual with the surname Caldwell. Is there any possibility that she overlooked some reference in an entry of 1292 referring to a Caldwell, which the late Lesley Gordon claimed was present?
I understand that the term “de” commonly precedes a place name, rather than a surname.
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How far have we moved to a consensus favoring a reasonable probability that the entry referring to the land was made after the time when Robert Bruce, then Earl of Carrick and Baron of Renfrew, became anointed in 1306 by the Glasgow bishop as the King of the Scots (“Dei gratia Rex Scotorum”) and before the execution in 1307 of Reginaldo Crauford, mentioned in the entry, then Sheriff of Ayrshire? Reginaldo Crauford was slain in the expurgation of Templars in 1307. The entry refers to each such individual.
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Late 1307 was also the time that King Edward I invaded Scotland and Robert Bruce went into hiding. This might have been the year when the knight Caldwell died who left no male heir, but only his wife and daughter. After the mother’s death, his Estate may have passed to the daughter, whose status, wealth, piety, and perhaps romance resulted in a marriage proposal from Gilchrist Mure. Such a death would explain the absence of any Caldwell surname in the Arbroath Declaration of 1320. If the heiress were born in 1307, she would have been about age 26 when she married in 1333.
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Scot historian George Robertson claimed that the lands in question of the Caldwell heiress were located within the “Paroch Church of Neilstoun,” the patronage of which was given by Robert Croc, “Pro salute animae suae,” to the Monks of “Pasly” (Paisley), in the reign of Scottish King William [1165-1214]. (George Robertson, “A General Description of the Shire of Renfrew, including an Account of the Noble and Ancient Families, who, from the earliest times, have had property in that County, and the most remarkable facts in the lives of distinguished individuals. To which is added, a genealogical history of the Royal House of Stewart, and the several and illustrious families of that name, from the year 1034, to the year 1710; collected from public records, chartularies of monasteries, and the best historians and private mss. Published in 1710 by George Crawfurd, author of the Peerage of Scotland, &c, &c. and continued to the present period, by George Robertson, author of The Agricultural Survey of Mid Lothian, &c.” (hereinafter, History of the Shire of Renfrew, (1818), p. 41).
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“Paroch” is a term referring to lands administered by a Catholic church prelate (such as an abbot or bishop) or presbyter (church council).
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But Robertson referred to more than one Caldwell Estate. There were at least three Caldwell estates to the west of Loch Libo. If the Caldwell heiress’s “Terra de Caldwell” was entirely to the east of Loch Libo, it was not in the location where Caldwell Tower presently stands, to the west and north of Loch Libo. Robertson used a drawing by Timothy Pont of the 16th century that shows all of the Caldwell tower castles to the west of Loch Libo. This map can be viewed on line at National Library of Scotland. The castles would be part of what Robertson described as western Caldwell.
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The vast majority of tower castles in Scotland were erected in what Barbara Tuchman describes as the “calamitous” 14th century.
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Scot historian G.W.S. Barrow, in The Kingdom of the Scots (1973), states that all lands west of Loch Libo were part of the Ferenze Forest and kept as part of the demense of Walter Fitz Alan, who conveyed to Robert Croc only the lands of Neilston Parish to the east of Loch Libo.
It is unclear whether the reference to the Terra de Caldwell included lands both to the east and west, north and south of Loch Libo. The present day Caldwell Tower lies to the north of Loch Libo. It is not truly a 14th century tower castle but erected in the late 17th century from stones taken from the prior castle that had been dismantled.
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The lands of Renfrew are the first-mentioned of the estates specified in the charter granted by King Malcolm IV in 1157, in favor of Walter, the founder of that family, whereby he confirmed a grant which had been made by King David, who reigned from 1124 to 1153. The office of high steward of Scotland was also conferred on Walter and his successors, who from thence took the surname of Stewart, often, but incorrectly, spelt Stuart. http://www.pressinfo.co.uk/renfrew/town.htm.
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I have expressed surprise at the Caldwell spelling emerging at the beginning of the 14th century. The name of the Scottish Caldwell Estates have undergone a variety of spellings. The spelling of “Caldwell” appears in the Registrum in 1294. A 1654 map uses the spelling Coldwel. (George Crawfurd and George Robertson, “A History of the Shire of Renfrew,” supra, p. 241.) In George Crawfurd and George Robertson’s History of the Shire of Renfrew, supra, Caldwel is the spelling most often used. In early correspondence to William Mure in the first quarter of the 18th century, Sir David Hume, famed Scottish philosopher, addressed his letters to William Mure at Calwell. Later letters used the Caldwell spelling. A January 11, 1760 pleading before the Scottish Lords of Session lists counsel as William Mure (1716-1776) of Caldwall. (Answers for William Mure of Caldwall, Esq.; to the petition and complaint of Daniel Campbell … William Grahame … and Alexander Cunnynghame, …, National Library of Scotland, microfiche). Throughout the nineteenth century, the Caldwell spelling was used by a later William Mure of Caldwell, author of numerous books. (See online catalogue, National Library of Scotland.)
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But there is yet another source indicating the spelling of Caldwell in the 14th century. According to Samuel Cowan, author of “The Lord Chancellors of Scotland,” W. & A.K. Johnston Limited, 1911, vol.1, at p. 163, William Caldwell was appointed Chancellor in 1349 and served until 1354, when he died. Cowan reports that William Caldwell presided over Parliament held at Dundee, where the Estates discussed the ransom of King David, who had been imprisoned for 11 years. Lord Chancellor Caldwell pleaded for payment of the ransom, but the nobles allied themselves with France, and invaded Berwick, then held by the English. The Scots, led by Baliol, were defeated. When Caldwell’s successor stepped in as Chancellor, the ransom was paid in 1354. Cowan writes that there are no documents describing the official duties of the Chancellor. He ranked below the High Steward but above the Chamberlain. The Lord Chancellor was responsible for administering the laws and presiding at courts of justice. p. 6. The position was usually given to the most learned and scholarly men of the time and most influential with the King. p. 11 Up to the Reformation, the Lord Chancellors were usually Catholic Prelates. p. 12. Many had university training in France or Italy. p. 6. In reading Cowan’s book, I discovered that Sir Reginald More never was appointed Lord Chancellor. He served only as Chamberlain.
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From various web sites I learned that William Caldwell was a prebend of the Diocese of Glasgow that encompassed both Ayrshire and Renfrewshire. I was unable to find or recall a reference indicating he was the bishop or archbishop, although many of his predecessors were. If so, he would have held positions both as head of the ecclesiastic and secular courts of 14th century Scotland. He likely would have been among the wealthiest individuals in Scotland, yet no document has been revealed establishing what lands he owned or possessed. As a prebend wanting to increase the tithes or rent payable to the Church, he likely would favor the clearance of forests so that land could be used for pasturage. The settlers who rented these cleared areas might have assumed Caldwell as their surname. Some historians are of the view that t main reason for proliferation of surnames in Great Britain between 1250 and 1350 was the introduction of record keeping to record who owed rents.
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Barrow lists in the Kingdom of the Scots (1973) the more important charters for lands Walter Fitz Alan granted to others. The list does not include reference to any Caldwell by surname or place name. Robert Croc is listed.
How then do we explain William Caldwell being a prebend (trustee) of lands used to support the Glasgow Diocese? Did Walter Fitz Alan or his successors designate William Caldwell to serve as the prebend, such that upon his death, management of the lands passed to another prebend or to the Church, rather than into his personal estate? Such a theory can explain the absence of a charter by which the lands became part of his hereditary estate. The administrative burdens associated with being a prebend for the benefit of the Church may have necessitated a highly educated and devout individual.
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With so many dying during the Plague of 1349-1350, William Caldwell would have been in the position as chancellor to ensure that the people to whom he designated successors to those who died without heirs would bear the Caldwell surname. Another consideration is that the Paisley and Glasgow abbeys and cathedrals were mother churches that promoted daughter churches in the outlying areas throughout Renfrewshire and Ayrshire. As prebend of the mother church, William Caldwell might have fostered adoption of the Caldwell surname among the members of these daughter churches. Finally, it appears that the use of surnames became much more common following the Plague. All of the chancellors after William Caldwell bore surnames, while only 5 of 12 before him used surnames. These circumstances could have played a large role in widespread and rapid proliferation of the Caldwell surname at the end of the 14th century in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.
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I previously wrote that Gilchrist Mure [aka Gilcrist Mure] acquired the majority of the Caldwell Estate in present day Uplawmoor, East Renfrewshire, Scotland in the 14th century. This was based upon two secondary sources: (1) “The Statistical Account of Ayrshire by Ministers of the Respective Parishes,” published 1800s by William Blackwood & sons Edinburgh, states Gilchrist second son of Sir Reginald [Mure], acquired the Estate of Caldwell by marrying the Heiress of Caldwell of that Ilk.” (See posting here, 3/6/02. David Caldwell, Manitoba) (2) Burke’s Landed Gentry states Gilchrist More acquired the estate of Caldwell in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire through marriage with the heir of Caldwell, of that ilk. (http://www.burkes-peerage. net/sites/common/sitepages/page13b-may.asp, From Caldwell To Tasmania)
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Tom Caldwell and Barry Robertson have asserted that the Caldwell heiress married Godfrey Mure, not Gilchrist Mure
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Tom Caldwell wrote 1/17/02 that a female Caldwell descendent married Godfrey son of Gilchrist Mure of Cowdams who became Mure of Caldwell. On 2/28/02, he again stated the heiress Caldwell married (?circa 1350) Godfrey son of Gilchrist Mure of Cowdams. He mentioned however, that his source was uncertain.
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In his article, “The Caldwell Mystery,” posted here on 2/23/02, Barry Robertson cited ‘The History of Neilston’ (1910) by Doctor David Pride, who wrote that the Caldwell Estate came to the Mures through the marriage, in 1347, of a Godfrey Mure to the heiress of Caldwell, she being of ‘That Ilk. Robertson also noted: “It seems that the Lady of Caldwell did not own all of the estate – a younger male branch of the family held Little or Wester Caldwell – the area surrounding the present Hall of Caldwell, including the area later to become the golf course. Little Caldwell did not come into the Mure possession until towards the end of the 17th century.”
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David Caldwell of Manitoba informs us that John Mure of Caldwell is the first who was designated the first of the name who appears designated “of Caldwell,” in 1409. In contrast, Barry Robertson had stated Godfrey became Laird of Caldwell in the right of his wife, taking the title due to its existence in the first place.
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William M. Metcalfe, D.D. (1840-1916), authored “History of the County of Renfrew, With a Map of the County,” 1905, Paisley: Alexander Gardner. Copies can be found at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City and at various universities (e.g., Cal Berkeley). It is now online at google/books. He wrote: “Godfrey Muir is the first who is designated of Caldwell.” (p. 105) Possibly this is because he is the first of the Mures to be born on the former Caldwell Estate.
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Metcalfe states that the estates of Caldwell in the counties of Ayr and Renfrew were acquired “at the close of the fourteenth century” by a marriage with the heiress of Caldwell of that ilk, then a family of some note, having given a Chancellor to Scotland in 1349. (p. 105) Metcalfe cited as his sole source “The Selections from the Family Papers Preserved at Caldwell, 1696-1853,” edited by William Mure. Glasgow: [printed by W. Eadie for Maitland Club]. no. 71 (part I).
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George Crawfurd (1710), History of the Shire of Renfrew, declares that the Caldwell Estate largely passed into control of the Mure family when a Caldwell heiress “of that ilk” married Gilchrist Mure in 1333.
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Metcalfe cited the Maitland Papers as the basis for stating that the heiress married Godfrey Mure in 1347.
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Which is more likely correct?
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Gilchrist Mure was born 1301 in Cowdans, Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland. He was the son of Robert Reginald Mure (1267 – 1329). He would have been about 32 if he married the Caldwell heiress in 1333. If she were age 24-26 when she married, her year of birth would be about 1307-1309. This is the time when King Edward I invaded Scotland, and Robert Bruce fled Scotland and went into hiding. Perhaps the struggle to protect him led to the demise of the heiress’s father.
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Gilchrist’s first son, Godfrey Mure, was born in 1352, possibly in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland. Clearly he could not have married the Caldwell heiress in 1347, and it seems unlikely his mother could have been the former Caldwell heiress.
I have read Metcalfe’s book, available online at google.books, but not the Maitland Club Papers. Assuming that Metcalfe correctly paraphrased the information contained in the these Maitland papers, I have to conclude that the Maitland papers are in error in linking a 1347 marriage of the Caldwell heiress to Godfrey rather than Gilchrist. Godfrey had not yet been born. Gilcrist needed a male heir. At the time Gilchrist married the heiress of the Caldwell Estate, she likely was kin of William Caldwell, then Prebendary of Glasgow, and soon to be appointed in 1348 Lord High Chancellor of Scotland.
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Tom Caldwell of Australia, John Caldwell of California, and David Caldwell of Manitoba, have kindly posted here the names of numerous Caldwells residing in Scotland and England, reaching as far back as records seemingly are preserved, to the 13th century A.D. John and Tom Caldwell each cited a charter or other document of Paisley Abbey in the late 13th century. The status of this Caldwell is unknown. Tom Caldwell says he is “associated” in some manner with Paisley Abbey. This suggests to me that he may have been a Prebendary, i.e., manager of the property held to support the Abbey. For castles, the property manager would have held the title of “butler.”
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In a book by George Crawfurd, History of the Shire of Renfrew (1710), he concluded that a Caldwell clan resided in Renfrewshire long before the ascension of Robert I (Robert Bruce) as King of Scotland and his death in 1329.
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Crawfurd drew his conclusion from records of a marriage in 1332 or 1333 (I forget the exact year) of the Caldwell heiress “of that ilk” to Gilchrist Mure, by which ownership of a large Caldwell Estate located at present day Uplawmoor, East Renfrewshire, Scotland. The Scottish words “that ilk” refer to landed gentry “in all respects substantially the same.”
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Hypothetically King David I might have chartered a fief in the 11th century to an Anglo-Norman knight that became the first Caldwell Estate. King David I invited more than 1000 Anglo-Norman knights to settle in southern portion of Scotland. King Alexander III did the same But books have been published reproducing the known charters of David I and Alexander III, and if any mention is contained therein of any Caldwell, I assume someone would have publicized that document.
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By the 11th century, English-speaking people of Angle ancestry had migrated from Northumbria and Yorkshire into and occupied much of Renfrewshire. Many of the place names in Renfrewshire of settlements established by the 11th century reflect this migration. The suffix -ton as in “Houston”, or Hewe’s Town, is of English origin. Celtic place names remained more common in Ayrshire.
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A pattern emerges in which the given Christian names are characteristically English (e.g., John, David, Andrew, Alexander, etc.), rather than Scandinavian, Norwegian, Gaelic or Celtic, and the Caldwell surname is found virtually only among the Angles or their descendants, first in the Kingdom of Mercia, followed by Northumbria & Yorkshire, then Renfrewshire and Ayrshire, and virtually absent in areas of pure Viking settlements, such as in northern Scotland and the Hebrides, or strictly Gaelic speaking regions of Scotland, such as Galloway. This implies to me that the Caldwell place name is more likely derived from the Anglo-Saxon or Old English word, “cauld weille,” meaning artesian spring, rather than from any Scandinavian or Norse word, such as “kelda” or “kald,” for spring.
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There is ample reason to conclude that the earliest use of the place name and surname of Caldwell within Scotland originated in the Levern Valley of present day East Renfrewshire, and spread along the course of the Levern River into Ayrshire.
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Tom Caldwell objects by asserting : “The places of greatest concentration are not around the place Caldwell but rather in the area from Paisley-Kilbarchan through the Lochwinnoch area to Beith and Dalry then Saltcoats and Irvine down to Ayr. With outliers into Maybole, Coylton, Ochiltree and up the south bank of the Irvine River to Kilmarnock. Why it almost looks like a re-run of the lands held by the Stewarts (amazing). Funnily enough the Caldwells are found nearly everywhere the Wallaces originate. Perhaps they were Stewart followers from the Welsh Borders who spoke some recognizable form of Gaelic but different enough to be regarded as “Galdwallys” (foreign Welsh from Wales) in the land of the “Wallys” (the original Strathclyde Britons).” I have no weapons to deflect a blow, but maybe I can duck one by some quick dodging. In the 10th to 13th century, Ayrshire and Renfrewshire were sparsely settled and no records were kept of most individuals. No one really knows where the greatest concentration lies in those centuries. When Scottish King Malcolm Canmore ordered landowners to adopt surnames based on their possessions, someone assumed the title of Lord Caldwell, if a member of the nobility, or Laird Caldwell, if of lesser status, and the people who worked on or resided at the Caldwell Estate became known in Anglo-Norman as “de Caldwell” and in English as simply, Caldwell.
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The multiplicity of small farms in Ayrshire and their scarcity in Renfrewshire may have also been contributory to proliferation of the Caldwerll surname.
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1286 Alexander III’s infant daughter, last of Scotland’s royal bloodline, dies, leaving political unrest between the clans and competition for the “throne”. King Edward “Longshanks” of England, still ruling over Scotland, appoints John Balliol as “vassal” king. Balliol, goaded into defiance, begins war with England but is quickly defeated because of lack of support from the other clans vying for power.
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1305 William Wallace, later knighted Sir William Wallace, hero of the recent movie “Braveheart”, routed the English at Stirling Bridge. He later lost at Falkirk and was martyred by Longshanks.
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1314 Robert the Bruce I, whose father was an Anglo-Norman noble but whose mother was daughter of a Celtic Earl of Carrick, who had taken up the cause to free Scotland, together with 30,000 Scots, routed 100,000 English soldiers at the Battle of Bannockburn and recaptured Stirling Castle from the hand of King Edward Longshanks. This seats Robert the Bruce as Sovereign of Scotland. Scotland is a united kingdom once again. Men of Levern were present under the High Steward, and it is hypothesized that the last remaining male heir to the Caldwell Estate died.
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Early 1300’s Neilston Parish emerges as an administrative unit.
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In 1329 King Robert I died and is succeeded by David II.
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In 1332 a Caldwell Estate heiress of unknown name marries Gilcrist Mure. (cf. The Caldwell papers, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.) The marriage of the Caldwell heiress to a Mure appears to have occurred at a time when she was particularly in peril. “Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol, whom Edward I of England had placed on the Scottish throne as his vassal in 1292, led an army into Scotland and defeated the Scottish forces at Dupplin Moor in 1332. Balliol had English support, and his forces included the old Comyn faction which The Bruce had defeated and dispossessed in the early years of his reign. Balliol had himself declared King of Scots at Scone following his victory. Obviously, he owed his position to English support, and Scotland was once again in danger of becoming a vassal state. However, his reign lasted only a few months before Archibald Douglas and Andrew Moray of Bothwell drove him from the country, “with one leg booted and the other naked”. The son was of the same cloth as his father, the “Toom Tabard”.” Excerpted from Russ Jimeson, The Stewarts: An Historical Essay, http://members.aol.com/Windhover/stuart.html
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The years 1296-1328 encompass the War of Independence, initiated by William Wallace and Robert Bruce. Because Edward I’s policy of filling Scottish benefices with English incumbents, Scottish bishops and clergy sought ecclesiastical freedom and applied the enormous wealth of the church to aid the Scots in their War of Independence. The Scottish Bishops were relatively independent of the Pope. (Barrow, supra, p. 214.) As far as I can tell, the Caldwell Uplawmoor, Scotland did not sustain any forfeiture of the Caldwell Estate during these Wars. This suggests to me that the Caldwells either avoided the wrath of King Edward I, or that the male Caldwells who were the targets of his wrath had died in the War of Independence and Edward I elected not to forfeit the Estate that passed to the Caldwell heiress or which were held as prepends to support the Glasgow Diocese.
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Between 1349-1354, at the peak of the Black Plague, William Caldwell served as Lord High Chancellor of Scotland. He served during a period when the Scottish King David II was being held for ransom, 1346-57. Scottish nobles initially rejected Caldwell’s plea for ransom money refused to pay ransom and tried to retake Berwick but are defeated. Caldwell’s successor paid part of the ransom, David II is released, but the nobles reneged on full payment. He was a prebendary of the one of several prebends supporting the Glasgow Diocese. He may have been one of the ambitious men to whom Lord Macaulay referred. As Prebendary he would have been among the most wealthy. As Lord High Chancellor, among the most powerful. Usually the Lord High Chancellor was selected from the best educated among the clergy.
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In 1314 at Bannockburn, men of Levern were present under the High Steward and aided in the defeat of King Edward II and creation of Scottish independence. This might explain why the all the male Caldwell heirs to the Caldwell estate died, leaving only an heiress.
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The Caldwell surname does not appear on the Declaration of Arbroath, of 1320, signed by over 2000 Scottish nobles and clergy. This makes sense if Caldwell was a mere vassal of the Le Croc clan, and not part of the nobility or a high-ranking clergyman.
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1399 King Henry IV is the first English king to learn English. The Anglo-Norman language begins losing common usage and is used in civil services only until 1422 when English is reinstated as the official language of England.
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1414 Shire of Renfrew mentioned in the records.
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1456 The Guttenberg Bible is released the first mass produced Bible.
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1477 Lands of Glanderston in possession of Sir John Maxwell of Pollok.
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1500’s The bagpipes, which were popular all across Europe and the Middle East, and consisted of bag, chanter, blowpipe, and single tenor drone are altered by the addition of a second drone. The bagpipe had replaced the harp as the Celtic instrument of war. The bagpipes fit into the clan system where the chiefs have their own pipers. Colleges such as the MacCrimmons in Skye produced pipers and classical “CeolMor” piping music. [The bagpipes are mentioned in the Holy Bible in the book of Daniel where King Nebuchadnezzar commanded that when the bagpipe sounded everyone would fall down and worship the golden image (of himself) or be thrown into a furnace. Some people that I know would rather be thrown into a furnace then listen to bagpipe music!]
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1505 Lord John Sempill I founded the Collegiate Church of Lochwinnoch (Castletoun, Renfrewshire). This was one of the first schools in Scotland. Later he builds Castle Semple. The ruins of the peel tower and Collegiate Church are still very much in evidence today although Semple Castle was destroyed in 1560.
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1513 (1519?) Flodden Field. Men of Levern present. James IV and Scottish Knighthood bite the dust
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1540’s John Knox, Protestant clergyman, begins preaching reform. This movement gains political as well as religious prominence. Knox later preaches against Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth of England as the “monstrous regiment of women.”
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1540’s While, Mary, Queen of Scots is growing up in France, French garrisons are established to manage Scotland. National resentment to foreign rule, reinforced by the movement toward Protestantism, result in riots in which churches are burned.
1560 Scottish Parliament denies papal supremacy and forbids the celebration of Catholic Mass.
1565 Marriage of Henry, Lord Darnley to Mary Queen of Scots. Lord Darnley owns lands in Neilston Parish and may have been allied with or friends of a Caldwell residing in Neilston Parish. During Mary’s imprisonment, a Caldwell acting on behalf of the father of Lord Darnley sought to get Mary to confess to his murder. This story is told in a book authored by Alison Weir, Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley. Mention of Caldwell’s visit to Mary is made in a Letter allegedly written by Mary (she said it was a forgery). A reproduction of the text of the letter is attached as an appendix to Antonio Fraser’s book, Mary, Queen of Scots.
1572 Revd. Patrick Hamilton, first minister of the combined parishes of Neilston, Mearns and Kilbarchan.
1574 Scripture Reader in Neilston Parish. Parish school, under Scripture Reader.
1588 Plague and Famine in Neilston Parish. This might explain how portion of the former Caldwell estate was acquired by three Protestant knights recently arriving from France. The National Library of Scotland has 1654 map that can be seen on – line, that shows three Caldwell castles in East Renfrewshire
1572 Revd. Patrick Hamilton is the first minister of the combined parishes of Neilston, Mearns and Kilbarchan. He is Presbyterian.
1574 Scripture Reader in Neilston Parish. Parish school, under Scripture Reader..
1603 Union of the Crowns.
1650 Cromwell in Glasgow. Sermon by Revd. Zachary Boyd.
1666 Covenanters muster at Shitterflats near Beith, Ayrshire
Rullion Green. Local Covenanters rounded up and shipped to America. Ship was wrecked on Orkney Islands. On board was a John Caldwell. The Mure of Caldwell Estate was forfeited to Sheriff Dalzeill but restored a few years later. (G. Crawfrd, The History of the Shire of Renfrew, 1710.)
Tom Caldwell provided this comment: The “Battle of Rullion Green” near Edinburgh was a mere skirmish but it shocked the ruling party which took stern action against all who had supported this little rising. The Laird Mure of Caldwell and Caldwell of that Ilk who had joined a band of horsemen in support of the rising at Chitterflat but not actively taken part were forfeited along with many others. Both Caldwell and Mure fled into exile. Mure eventually got his lands back but Caldwell did not. It think that Caldwell of that Ilk ended up in New Jersey. Good fodder for you US researchers! General Tam Dalyell put down the rising – he was well trained in the Russian service – both ruthless and avaricious.
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1672 Conventicles at Mearns, Eaglesham and Lochgoyne.
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1676 Conventicles at Communion Hill, Neilston ”
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1712 – Presbyterian clergy barred from performing marriage or baptism. This may explain my inability to find any documentation for the birth of Andrew Caldwell, 1712-1757, my earliest known ancestor. I am relieved to learn he was not dour and laconic, with a black top hat, long coat, and Biblical beard, but well-loved and caring father and husband, a member of the Kirk, outspoken in his political views regarding liberty, venturesome and vigorous, a hardworking pioneer on the Pennsylvania frontier, married all his life to his childhood sweetheart, shrewd in selecting and holding onto some of the richest farmland in America, within Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.