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 Olde 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, Coldwell and Chadwell. John Caldwell and Margaret Matthews were married at St. George's, Hanover Square, London, in 1581. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam de Caldwella, which was dated 1195, in the "Pipe Rolls of Derbyshire", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "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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