I don't think this is the origin of Caldwell but the notion is weird and it does have a few teeth.

My Dad came home one night after some serious discussion over a few ales and pronounced that someone had told him that Caldwell was a literal English translation of Bene Dicte. Presumably he had been talking with a Latin scholar. Full of my teenage curiosity I tried to question my father for more detail or reasoning, but without success. It was a chance remark, a curiosity, and nothing more.

Nevertheless I filed it away as something to remember.

Over the years I have been somewhat fascinated by the fact that Caldwell's seem to have popped up reasonably close by Benedictine Monasteries.

What does this mean - well I realy don't even like to hazard a guess. If the monks were referring to themselves in the "Registrum" then surely they would have referred to themselves in Latin in a Latin document? It obviously was a proper local name by the time the "registrum" was compiled.

Caldwell in Derby is close by a Bendictime Monastery, the monks who founded Paisley came from Much Wenlock which is further away but not too far from Worcestershire where Caldwell's are found.

Lots of Caldwell's to the south of Paisley itself and now a Caldwellstoun attached to the Abbey of Crossraguel in Carrick - a daughter house of Paisley.

Is it possible that the Caldwell's were a family of lay farm managers who had become a sort of hereditary appanage to the Cluniac Monks of the Benedictine Order?

There - I did it - I hazarded a guess - and a guess it is.

I like Galdwallys more as it has a certain "style" about it But I am not beyond throwing anything and everything into the ring for serious debate.

Of course isn't it true that Benedict Arnold had a Caldwell mother? (grin)

If the family was indeed closely associated with the Benedictine Order then we might expect to see Caldwell's popping up in the vicinity of each new Benedictine house as it spread from the source of the name. As this is something that should be reasonably well documented it is another rich and fertile area to browse in search of the family origins.

To those who read this and just follow their own family tree back until it inevitably hits that tree growing in the middle of the road I offer this rich consolation:

Many hours of reading and researching old works, following up little clues found on the internet, learning great slabs of information on the social conditions and intrigues of ancient times. The joy of finding something that few others know about (and perhaps they don't really care) but that knowledge will give you some respect as a true historian. Creating wild theories as castles in the air hoping desperately that someone will find some other evidence to prove what you have theorised or, often just as good, produced an argument the demonstrably disproves what you have said so that you can move on with certainty that that idea was a nonsense.

Bit by bit theories are advanced and some hold water but most might be fanciful, but as we weave and dance the stronger ideas will gradually coalesce into a more reliable picture.

The process of my research has narrowed down the field of the Caldwell ancestry into being somehow connected to the Honour of Huntingdon and the Renfrew/Ayrshire area of Scotland. Caldwell's migrated in great numbers to Northern Ireland and later to North America.

There was obviously a large enough base-stock bearing the family name to make it reasonably common and it is hard to believe that it did come form one single family with the surname. I thnk there might have been a number of people bearing the surname when it was first adopted - but it was a regional name because we can point to locations where it seems to have originated. If it were an occupational name or a nickname we might expect it to have more diverse origins.

Someone may know of tables on the web or have the expertise to predict the average growth of families over the centuries. This could be done reasonably easily given population statistics (and guesses) and assuming that those bearing our name multiplied in a similar proportion. By applying the present day numbers of those bearing the surname we might be able to guess back to how many would have to have been called "Caldwell" in say 1250.

Rough and ready but much more scientific than trying to "prove" descent from William Caldwell Chancellor of Scotland.

What I am saying is "I am tossing up research ideas quite frequently" "I challenge those truly interested to follow up some of these leads".

I am quite happy to agree with or debate rationally with anyone who finds superior material that they can bring forward. Part of the interest is in finding the true roots of the family.

The great prize will be to find the common past and trace forward and "who knows" you might just find the point where tracing your personal family backwards happens to meet tracing "all Caldwell's" forwards. The tree might then jump back into the forest.

Tom