This file of Caldwells from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland in Pennsylvania, USA c1911 forms part of the vast archive of 3,000+ pages of genealogical records relating to COUNTIES TYRONE, DONEGAL, LONDONDERRY & FERMANAGH provided without charge or subscription by CoTyroneIreland Welcome to the Premier Website & Research Tool for Cos. Tyrone, Donegal, Londonderry & Fermanagh Genealogy (cotyroneireland.com) A complete list of records pertaining to Surname & Family Records, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on this website can be found at the foot of this file.
"Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania; Genealogical and Personal Memoirs, Volume III," edited by John Woolf Jordan (The Lewis Publishing Company: 1911)
James Caldwell, the earliest paternal ancestor of Elizabeth Georgiana (Caldwell) Riter, of whom we have any record, came from Newton-Stewart, Parish of Ardshaw [Ardstraw?], County Tyrone, Ireland, bringing with him to Pennsylvania, in 1736, a passport or church certificate, dated June 10, 1736, signed by the minister and church-wardens of Ardshaw parish, which was countersigned by a civil magistrate, William Colhoun, Esq., of that parish. A photograph of this curious passport is now in the possession of the subject of this sketch, Hon. Frank Miller Riter, a lineal descendant of the bearer.
pages 1618-1621
James Caldwell settled in Little Britain township, Lancaster county, being among the earliest settlers of that section, most of whom were emigrants from the North of Ireland. His name appears of record in various activities in that section, principally pertaining to the founding and support of the Presbyterian Church of Little Britain. He was probably of too advanced an age to take any active part in the War of the Revolution, in which his four sons participated, John, the eldest, holding a captain's commission in the Lancaster County Militia, and James and Oliver rendering active service in the ranks. John and Oliver are named as executors of their father's will, dated August 15, 1783, and probated April 14, 1785, in which he clevises his home plantation called "Slate Hill", and other lands, to Oliver, subject to certain privileges to his wife Mary. To his other sons, John, William, James and Andrew, is given but ten shillings each, with the statement that he had already liberally provided for them. Legacies are also given to his daughters, Mary, wife of William Money, and Agnes, wife of John Atchison.
Mary, the wife of James Caldwell, maiden name unknown, but by tradition known as Calhoun, survived her husband fifteen years. Her will dated September 7, 1799, probated February 26, 1800, gives small legacies to all the children mentioned in her husband's will, and a daughter-in-law, Alice Caldwell. Oliver, the son, who had inherited the homestead died there in 1813, devising it and other estate to his son James.
Andrew Caldwell, one of the younger sons of James and Mary Caldwell, was born in Little Britain township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1760. At the age of sixteen years, on February 20, 1776, he enlisted in the first artillery company raised in Pennsylvania for the Continental service, authorized by resolve of Congress as a "Company of Matrosses" in January, 1776, and of which Bernard Roman was appointed captain by the Pennsylvania Council of Safety, February 8, 1776. The company was raised for service in the proposed expedition against Canada, in which it participated. Andrew Caldwell was appointed corporal and sergeant on his enlistment, and when the company was encamped on the river Sorrell, on the frontiers of Canada, Captain Roman appointed him conductor of the company. The. original certificate of appointment is still in the possession of his descendants and is as follows :
By Virtue of the powers in me vested and to me Given by the Honorable the Continental Congress, I hereby appoint you Andrew Caldwell to be Conductor of said Company, and to exercise and perform the duty of and receive the pay as conductor and all and every person, Officer and private is to regard You as such as far as it particularly concerns the said Company, or in any matter while the Company may be concerned with others.
Given under my hand at Sorrell, this 15 day of May 1776.
B. Roman, Capt. Pa. Arty.
During the year of trying service in the wilderness, Andrew Caldwell was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and was evidently in command of the company in February, 1777, at Ticonderoga, when the remnant of the Second and Fourth Battalions were directed to return with Colonel Anthony Wayne to Philadelphia to be disbanded, their term having expired. The following order from Colonel Anthony Wayne "To Lieut. Caldwell of the Artillery" is in possession of the family.
Head Quarters, Ticonderoga, 1 March 1777.
Mr. Caldwell:
Sir : You are to proceed with Capt. Roman's Company of Artillery for Albany tomorrow
morning at sun rise with one Sled to carry the Baggage. You will draw four days provisions
this Evening — On your arrival at Albany you are to wait on Genl. Schuyler for his
further Orders and the Route you are to take to Philada. You are to use every exertion
in your power to prevent any Insult being offered to — or Depredations being committed on
any of the Inhabitants through which you pass.
I am Sir,
Your most Humble Servt.
Anthony Wayne.
On this order, at Albany, was endorsed the following, in accordance with Wayne's instructions to report to Gen. Schuyler : —
Head Quarters, Albany, March 2, 1777.
Sir: You will march the Company under your command to Philadelphia with all convenient speed.
By order of the Genl.
K. Lansong, Junr. Sec'y-
To Lieut. Caldwell of the Artillery.
The company returned to Philadelphia, most of its members badly broken in health from the hardships endured, and on April 1, 1777, Lieutenant Caldwell was commissioned second lieutenant of Captain Coren's Independent Company of Artillery, Pennsylvania Line, commanded by "the Honorable Brigadier General Henry Knox." This company was chiefly employed for the next two years in the laboratory in fixing, manufacturing and repairing ammunition and arms for the Continental army. On April 5, 1779, on petition of Captain Coren, it was considered as part of Pennsylvania's quota and placed on the regular pay roll as such. Captain Coren, however, refused to act under the authority of Colonel Flower, of the Ordnance Department, and asked that his company be sent into active service, which was refused for the reason that a large number of the members were invalids from the hardships endured at the time of their service in the First Artillery Company. The remnant of the company was in 1781 incorporated into Colonel Thomas Proctor's artillery regiment. Long ere this, however, on July 23, 1779, Lieutenant Caldwell resigned to seek more active service. He enterd the Hospital Department, and becoming proficient therein was commissioned surgeon's mate for the Continental Army, in June, 1780, and filled that position until the close of the war.
After the close of the Revolutionary War, Andrew Caldwell located in New York, where he carried on the drug business at Pearl and Wall streets, and is referred to as "Dr. Andrew Caldwell." A letter written by him from Philadelphia to his brother, Oliver Caldwell, under date of December 23, 1789, states that he was married in September of that year to Elizabeth Barker, of Philadelphia. Confirming this statement The Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Evening Post, under date of Friday, September 11, 1789, contains the following no... [several lines omitted from original typescript page] ...Caldwell of New York to the amiable Miss Eliza (Elizabeth) Barker of this City."
He, however, could not have been permanently out of New York, for the date of the birth of his second son, William, as given in the Bible record, states that this son was born in New York, and gives the date of his birth as May 12, 1794. A letter from the widow to the brother of her deceased husband, Oliver Caldwell, at Peach Bottom Ferry, Lancaster county, dated Philadelphia, June 3, 1797, announced the death of her husband as on the second day of March last, i.e. 1797, and refers to her two sons James S. and William, aged five and three years respectively.
The account books of Dr. Andrew Caldwell, while conducting the drug store on Wall Street, New York, during the period succeeding the Revolutionary War, are in the possession of the subject of this sketch. They are models of care and precision, peculiar to that day, and show sales of drugs, etc., to Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and a number of other persons, prominently associated with the patriotic cause during the Revolution.
Elizabeth (Barker) Caldwell, the widow, married (second) at the Second Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, November 29, 1798, John Delameter. She died February 1, 1824, aged 65 years, and her second husband died December 7, 1829.
Dr. Andrew and Elizabeth (Barker) Caldwell had two sons — James S., of whom presently; and William Caldwell, born in New York, May 12, 1794.
Dr. James St. Clair Caldwell, eldest son of Dr. Andrew and Elizabeth (Barker) Caldwell, was born in the city of Philadelphia, December 11, 1791. He studied medicine, but did not practice his profession. He lived during his early life at the old Springettsbury Manor, in Philadelphia county, which had been purchased by his father, but later removed to 164 North Ninth Street, in the city, where he died January 30, 1853. Dr. Caldwell married, May 13, 1818, Maria Howell, who was born at Morrisville, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1798, and died at 164 North Ninth Street, Philadelphia, June 29, 1865. She was a daughter of Amos and Martha (Jones) Howell, of Morrisville, formerly of New Jersey, and a descendant of Edward Howell, founder of Southampton, Long Island, in 1640, and one of the most eminent men of his day in the Province of New York. He came to Lynn, Massachusetts, from the Manor of Westbury, in the parish of Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire, England, and was the leader of the Lynn company that colonized Long Island in 1640.
Westbury Manor, Buckinghamshire, has been held by his family since its purchase in 1536 by his ancestor, William Howell, who was descended from Howell, Prince of Caerborn-upon-Uske, about A. D. 1250, and bore that prince's arms ; Gules three towers triple towered, argent. Martha Jones, the mother of Maria (Howell) Caldwell, who died at Morrisville, Pennsylvania, December 19, 1821, aged 68 years, belonged to one of the prominent early families of Trenton, New Jersey.
Dr. James S. and Maria (Howell) Caldwell had five children, the two eldest of whom died young; those who survived were: Elizabeth Georgiana, the mother of the subject of this sketch, who was born at Springettsbury, Philadelphia, January 2, 1825 ; William Gustavus, born March 18, 1829, died February 25, 1873, married, May 14, 1868, Mary A. Donnely, of Philadelphia, they had no children; and Francis Marinus Caldwell, born November 6, 1831, at the North Ninth Street house, and died at 4814 Chester Avenue, Philadelphia, December 1, 1908, a member of the Society of Cincinnati, and vice-president of the General Society, having succeeded to membership in the Pennsylvania Society on the death of his brother without male issue in 1873; both were officers of the State Society ; Francis M. married, in 1854, Elvira Comfort, daughter of Aaron Comfort, of Philadelphia. They had one daughter, Annie E. Caldwell, who died February 19, 1880, when twenty-five years of age, unmarried. Her mother had died a number of years before. Francis M. Caldwell, after the death of his first wife, married Elizabeth Haines Van Horn, by whom he had two sons — Harry S. Caldwell, born September 20, 1868, and died June 29, 1877, and Francis Gustavus Caldwell, born August 2, 1862.
Further Co. Tyrone records can be viewed here:
Surnames & Family Records, County Tyrone
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