Information on Caldwells. I am trying to decipher the descendants of Governor Gabriel Slaughter -- and his daughter, Mary, married James Caldwell. Following is and excerpt that discusses part of the Caldwell lineage.

Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 4th ed.,
1887, Boyle Co.

CHARLES CALDWELL. The name of Caldwell is an honorable one in American annals. No family made a brighter record for patriotism and bravery during the war of the Revolution and in the trying pioneer times, when the States were coming into shape on new soil. From Rhode Island to Florida and as far west as Texas, this family extends to-day, growing
out of the parent stock described in this sketch. Stanch defenders of
Presbyterianism they have been friends of education, influential in
politics and useful members of society. The earliest record of the
Caldwell family relates to three brothers, John, Alexander and Oliver,
who were seamen on the Mediterranean in the latter part of the
fourteenth century under two men named Barbarossa. The influence of
the latter was ended by the governor of Aran, after about twenty years,
and those connected with them scattered over the world. The three
brothers returned to Toulon, in France, where they had been born, and
settled near by, at Mount Arid. Earning the enmity of Francis I, of
France, after his escape from imprisonment under Charles V, of Germany,
the brothers were again forced to change their location. Going to
Scotland they purchased, near Solway Firth, the estate of a bishop
named Douglass, with the consent of James I, on condition that the said
brothers, John, Alexander and Oliver, late of Mount Arid, should have
their estate known as "Cauldwell," and when the king should require
they should each send a son with twenty men of sound limbs to aid in
the wars of the king. An heirloom is a cup, from which it is seen that
the estate took its name from a watering-place. The cup represents a
chieftain and twenty mounted men, all armed, and a fire burning on a
hill over the words "Mount Arid," and a vessel surrounded by high waves.
Joseph, John Alexander, Daniel, David and Andrew, of Cauldwell, went
with Oliver Cromwell (whose grand-mother was Ann of Cauldwell) to
Ireland, of which he was the lord governor. After his promotion to the
protectorate of England they remained in his interest in Ireland until
the restoration of Charles II, when John, David and Andrew fled to
America. Joseph died in Ireland and Daniel continued there, but
several of their children immigrated to America, settling on James
River, Va., and elsewhere. Another account renders it improbable that
the last John, mentioned above, came to America. His son, John
Caldwell (as the name had come to be spelled), married Margaret
Phillips in County Derry, Ireland, where several children were born to
them. December 10, 1727, they landed at Newcastle, Del., going thence
to Lancaster County, Penn., and about 1742 in Lunenburg (now Charlotte)
County, Va. Here they were joined by relatives, forming what was known
as the "Caldwell Settlement" for many years. John Caldwell was the
first justice of the peace, and his son, William, the first militia
officer commissioned by George II for that section. He died and was
buried by the side of his wife in 1750. Their children were William,
Thomas, David, Margaret, John, Robert and James. Each of these men
contributed some things to American history. James Caldwell, D.D., the
seventh child, one of the founders of Princeton College, was murdered
by British soldiers at Elizabethtown, N.J., and his descendants
received, by way of pensions, clerkships at Washington for many years.
Two of his sons led in founding the Liberia colonization scheme, and
gave name to Caldwell, Liberia. Martha, daughter of William Caldwell,
became the mother of John Caldwell Calhoun, the statesman. The whole
family was distinguished for patriotism during the war of the
Revolution. One son, John, died while lieutenant-governor; was buried
at Frankfort, and honored with a monument at public expense. He gave
name to Caldwell County, of which he was an early settler. Samuel was
a major-general in the war of 1812, and the first clerk of Logan County
court. Both were members of the Legislature frequently, as was Robert,
who presided in the House when the famous resolutions of 1708 were
adopted. The latter's daughter, Eliza, became the wife of O.H.
Browning, Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior. Mary, daughter of
Robert, married Dr. R.C. Palmer. David Caldwell was buried in the old
churchyard in Lunenburg County, and his widow with her children settled
at the point marked "Caldwell's Station" (near Danville) on Filson's
map of Kentucky of 1784. One of the sons was John, who married Dicey
Mann, having descendants David, William, Beverly, Polly and Phoebe.
Robert moved from Virginia in 1781 and settled where William L.
Caldwell now resides, near Danville. He took up several thousand acres
of land at that point and was identified with the Pioneer life and
early settlement of what was then Mercer County. He married Mary Logan
and had a large family of children, who have occupied various positions
of responsibility and trust in Kentucky. He led a plain and
unostentatious life; was early identified with the Presbyterian Church
at its first development in his locality and many of the early
religious meetings of that body were held in his primitive, yet
substantial dwelling. This ancient building, which was probably erected
soon after his first settlement, is still standing on the farm of his
grandson, William L. Caldwell, and is now used as a barn. It was a
large building constructed of hewn logs, sealed with cherry plank
sawed by hand and joined by hand-made nails. Robert Caldwell died in
1806, and his remains were interred upon the farm where he had passed
the greater part of his industrious life. William Caldwell, one of his
sons, married a Miss Wickliffe, a sister of Gov. Wickliffe; was an
extensive farmer, and in his business and social relations commanded
the respect and confidence of a large circle of friends. He had but
two children, Lydia, who married a Mr. McCord of Washington County, and
the late Charles Caldwell of Boyle County. The latter, whose name
appears at the head of this sketch, received a good English education
in his youth, and upon attaining manhood married Elizabeth, daughter of
Jeremiah Clemens of Danville, and shortly after settled on the farm
where his grandson, Jeremiah C. Caldwell, now resides. He was one of
the most prominent and successful farmers Boyle County has ever had,
and became widely known as one of the largest and most extensive
cattle raisers and cattle feeders for the markets of the East. He also
speculated extensively in pork, at one time buying and packing large
quantities. He was a man of decidedly methodical and systematic turn
of mind, industrious, frugal and thrifty, of undoubted integrity and
uprightness of character, an elder in the Danville Presbyterian Church,
a trustee of Centre College, and a prompt and liberal supporter of all
worthy evangelical and charitable objects. He died in the possession
of a large estate accumulated by the exercise of these virtues, which
all admire but few emulate, and by the provision of his will left
liberal bequests to the Caldwell Female College of Danville, and the
Theological Seminary of that place. His only son, Jeremiah Caldwell,
married Margaret Wilson of Bardstown, and spent his life in agricultural
pursuits on his father's farm. He had two children: Charles, who died
in boyhood, and Jeremiah C. Caldwell who passed away at the age of
twelve years. The larger portion of the estate of Charles Caldwell was
devised to his grandson, Jeremiah C. Caldwell. He received a thorough
English education at Centre College, Danville, but being designed by
his grandfather to engage in farming operations, did not pursue the
entire curriculum, He was early inured to a life of industry, and
under the careful and judicious guardianship of William Logan Caldwell
developed such a stability of character and such a decided capacity for
the intelligent transaction of business, that the trustees of his
father's estate put him in possession of it nine years before they were
compelled to do so, and he is to-day one of the largest and most
successful farmers in Boyle County, a large handler of cattle for the
Eastern markets and a prominent business man. He has inherited many of
the characteristics of his grandfather, takes a lively interest in
church and educational matters, and is the president of the Farmer's
National Bank of Danville. He occupies his grandfather's farm, and is
the seventh in line of descent from John Caldwell, who immigrated to
this country in 1727. The line of descent is as follows: John,
William, Robert, William Charles, Jeremiah, Jeremiah C. Caldwell. The
latter married Annie Belle, daughter of Judge Fontaine T. Fox of
Danville, and has four children: Charles Wickliffe, Eliza Hunton,
Jeremiah Clemens and Fontaine Fox Caldwell. William Logan Caldwell is
the fifth in line of descent from John Caldwell, whose emigration to
this country together with the full genealogy of the family is
described in the preceding sketch. His grandfather was Robert Caldwell,
and his father James, the son of Robert. The story of the early
settlement of the latter on the place now occupied by the subject of
this sketch, has already been told. James Caldwell was the youngest
son of Robert and led an active and industrious career as a farmer on
the old place. He was a man of strong convictions, of original and
forceful ideas, an uncompromising follower of Henry Clay, and an
advocate of the gradual emancipation of the slave. He was a devout man
and a useful member and elder of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
near Danville, of which he was a liberal supporter. He died in
February, 1850. He was married three times, first to Mary, the
daughter of Gov. Slaughter, of whom were born three sons and one
daughter, who have now all passed away. For his second wife he married
Phoebe, daughter of John and Elizabeth Henderson and a representative
of an old Virginia family, by whom he had two sons, Rev. Robert H.
Caldwell, a Presbyterian clergyman of Boyle County, and William
Logan Caldwell. His third wife was Phoebe Caldwell, a distant relative
of his family, who died without issue. William Caldwell, to whom this
sketch is chiefly dedicated, was born on the ancestral place where he
now resides, March 13, 1827. He received a good English education, and
at the age of sixteen was placed in charge of his father's farm. Upon
the death of the latter in 1850 he inherited the family homestead and
has since devoted all his energies to its cultivation and improvement.
He is a man of high character, of generous impulses and unswerving
rectitude, and it can be truthfully said of him that no man in Boyle
County is more worthy of the esteem of his fellows, nor enjoys in a
higher degree their confidence and respect. He has been the executor
of many trusts, which he administered with fidelity and satisfaction;
has led a simple, blameless life, carefully avoiding public station and
undue notoriety and confined himself strictly to the legitimate phases
of agricultural life. As a farmer he is both successful and
progressive, and is recognized as one of the leading breeders of
"jacks" and "jennets" in the United States. He is also an extensive
breeder of high class cattle and hogs and of thorough stock in
general. He is a member of the board of directors of the Central
Kentucky Stock Association and sends a monthly report of the conditions
of the farming districts of the State to the Department of Agriculture
at Washington. He is an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of
Boyle County, a director in the Boyle National Bank at Danville, a
commissioner of the State Deaf and Dumb Asylum at the same place, and
president of several turnpike companies. Politically he was formerly
an old line Whig, but now acts with the Democratic party. During the
civil war he was true to the Union cause, and even when surrounded by
the officers and troops of the South, boldly proclaimed his fidelity to
the general constitution of our country and his faith in the ultimate
triumph of the national arms. He was married, in November, 1847, to
Ellen B., daughter of Eli Crumbaugh, of Caldwell County, Ky., and has
had nine children, of whom eight survive: James B., who occupies a farm
adjoining his father's; Robert C., a practicing physician at Bloomfield,
Ky.; Nannie C., who is ardently engaged in home missionary work and
travels extensively; William L., Jr., who resides with his father;
Ella, widow of Dr. R.C. Palmer, Jr.; Maria, who resides at home;
Obadiah B., a student in Centre College, and Lucy E., a student at
Caldwell College.

Caldwell Barbarossa Douglass Cauldwell Cromwell Phillips Calhoun
Browning Lincoln Palmer Filson Mann Logan Wickliffe McCord
Clemens Wilson Fox Slaughter Henderson Crumbaugh Palmer
=
Caldwell-Ky Logan-Ky Mercer-Ky Washington-Ky Lancaster-PA
Lunenburg-VA Charlotte-VA RI FL TX VA DE France Germany Scotland
England Ireland Liberia

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