This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from any one of the places called "Caldwell" in North Yorkshire and Warwickshire, "Cauldwell" in Bedfordshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and other places named with the same elements such as "Chadwell", "Chardwell" and "Caudle Green". The place in Yorkshire is recorded as "Caldeuuella" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and shares with all the other places mentioned the same meaning and derivation, which is "the cold spring, or stream", from the Old English pre 7th Century "cald, ceald", cold, with "well, waell", spring, stream or well. The surname is also found in Scotland, where it derives from "Caldwell" in Renfrewshire. There are a great many variants of the modern surname, ranging from Caldwell, Cau(l)dwell and Cawdell to Cadwell, Cardell, Cardall, Coldwell and Chadwell. The christening of Edward, son of Abraham and Elizabeth Cardall, was recorded at St. John the Baptist, London, on September 29th 1699. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam de Caldwella, which was dated 1195, The Derbyshire Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King Richard 1, "The Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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