The first reference to Castle Caldwell by that designation occurs in the year 1683, although the structure had been purchased by Sir James Caldwell ( c. 1720-1784) more than two decades earlier (1662) and occupied by him perhaps as early as 1749 as a renter. (Busteed, Mervyn. “The Practice of Improvement in the Irish Context - The Castle Caldwell Estate in County Fermanagh in the second half of the Eighteenth Century.” Irish Geography, Volume 33(1), 2000, 15-36, p. 21, citing Cunningham, John B. “Castle Caldwell and its Families. Enniskillen: Watergate Press (1980); see also, Busteed, Mervyn Austen, 1944-. - Identity and economy on an Anglo-Irish estate : Castle Caldwell, Co. Fermanagh. London : Academic Press, 2000.)

There is a conflict in references as to when the Estate was first rented and occupied by Sir James Caldwell. Busteed says 1749. (Busteed, supra, p. 21.) P. J. Duffy states that James Caldwell first rented part of the estate in the 1660's. (Duffy, P.J. “The Evolution of Estate Properties in South Ulster 1600-1900.” In: Smith, W.J. and Whelan, K. (Eds.) Common Ground: Essays on the Historical Geography of Ireland presented to T. Jones Hughes. Cork: Cork University Press, 84-109 (1988).

In June of 1683 the head of the family, Sir James Caldwell, was granted an hereditary baronetcy. (Busteed, supra, p. 21.)

James Cunningham, county Fermanagh historian at Adam4Eves@aol.com, explains the history of the title of baronet. “On the 22nd of May [, 1603, King] James added the title, Baronet, to the ranks of the kingdom. The title was specifically created to defend and improve the Province of Ulster which was now to be planted with English and Scots following the flight of the Irish princes to the Continent. Those who bought the title of Baronet were to aid in the building of towns, churches and castles and should be willing to proffer their lives, fortunes and estates in the performance of these duties.

“Should there be any spark of rebellion in Ulster they must be ready to defend it and for this purpose to continually maintain 30 foot soldiers there. The price of a Baronetcy was £1,095 and the King promised to create only 200 of this rank in order to speed up their sale. At the same time the title of Baron could be had for £10,000, a Viscount, £15,000 and an Earl for £20,000.”

In the hope of securing a peerage (e.g., as earl), Sir James Caldwell renamed the structure "Castle Caldwell," although in an age of cannon balls and dynamite it no longer served effectively as an impregnable fortress and lacked a retinue of knights-vassals to defend it. The structure had semi-circular projecting flanker towers, attributes of any respectable castle. (Rowan. A. The Buildings of Ireland: North-West Ulster: the Counties of Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone. Harmondsworth: Penguin (1979). I am unsure whether the structure would have qualified for the descriptors “Hall” or “Manor,” the common terms for estate homes in England and Scotland, because it did not have a great hall nor a manorial court. Designation as “Plantation House” would pass muster in my opinion.

Sir James was born in 1720. (Busteed, supra, p. 24; some sources say 1722.) He was part of a Caldwell clan that had made a fortune as merchants in Enniskillen, buying low and selling high. He served for several years in the diplomatic and military service of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. (Busteed, supra, p. 25.) In December 1753 he married Elizabeth Hort, daughter of the archbishop of Tuam and niece of Lord Shelburne, the future Prime Minister. (Busteed, supra, p. 25.) In 1752 he was made Colonel of militia in county Fermanagh, in 1756 Sheriff and in 1759, he raised and equipped a troop of cavalry, the Enniskillen Light Cavalry, to fend off an anticipated French invasion. (Busteed, supra, p. 25; Taylor, F “Johnsonia from the Bagshawe Muniments [hereinafter references as “B”] in the John Rylands Library: Sir James Caldwell, Dr. Hawkeswortth, Dr. Johnson and Boswell’s use of the ‘Caldwell Minute,’ Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 35, 211-47) His ability to speak Gaelic eased his ability to muster the cavalry.

Castle Caldwell was originally built by Sir Francis Blennerhasset, son of Sir Edward Blennerhasset of Norfolk, East Anglia, England, one of the original Undertakers, between 1612 and 1619, following dispossession of native Irish (Catholics) and grant of the land in 1610 to Sir Edward, by England’s protestant King James I (VI of Scotland). (Busteed, Mervyn. “The Practice of Improvement in the Irish Context - The Castle Caldwell Estate in County Fermanagh in the second half of the Eighteenth Century.” Irish Geography, Volume 33(1), 2000, 15-36, p. 27. Sir Edward Blennerhasset acquired knighthood by payment of £50 to King James, who knighted 700 within three months on payment of that sum each in 1603, the year he became king of both Scotland and England.

As stated by county Fermanagh historian James Cunningham: “The Undertakers of the Ulster Plantation were so called on account of the many obligations they had to undertake to carry out as part of their land grants. If duties like building a strong, fortified, house or castle and the building of a church were not carried out they could be heavily fined or have their land titles revoked entirely. As a result in places Undertakers claimed non-existent tenants and building erected or in progress where these did not exist either.”

John Caldwell posted in the ancestor database at this website information that the structure was originally known as Castle Hasset, and was one of a series of strongholds guarding the Lough Erne road. I understand that Hasset was a common abbreviation of Brennerhasset. Other sources indicate that Sir Francis Brennerhasset called it Hasset’s Fort.

Sir Edward’s brother, Sir Thomas Brennerhassert, had also been granted land in county Fermanagh in 1610 as an undertaker. A devout Puritan with utopian aspirations similar to those of the Puritans who founded a settlement at Plymouth Rock in America, far from Puritans perceived to be the corruptive decay of England, Sir Thomas solicited immigration of prospective Puritan tenants from East Anglia to county Fermanagh. In 1610, Sir Thomas wrote:

"The County of Fermanagh, sometimes Maguire’s County rejoice. Many undertakers, all incorporated in mind as one, they, there with their followers, seek and are desirous to settle themselves. Woe to the wolf and the wood kerne [outlaw] ! The islands of Lough Erne shall have habitations, a fortified corporation, market towns and many new erected manors, shall now so beautify her desolation that her inaccessible woods, with spaces made tractable, shall no longer nourish devourers, but by the sweet society of a loving neighbourhood, shall entertain humanity even in the best fashion. Go on worthy Gentlemen, fear not, the God of Heaven will assist and protect you."

The inaccessibility to which Sir Thomas refers derives from the surrounding countryside that was a mass of bogs and woods almost impossible to pass through, so the lake, Lough Erne, was the most obvious and easiest way to travel. It was still the main highway of Fermanagh until roads were made in the 17th Century.

John Cunningham writes:

“Thomas Blennerhassett came to Ireland and in 1611 was reported by Gatisfeth, one of the inspectors of the progress of the plantation, to have with him six people; a joiner, a carpenter, three workmen and one tenant and had erected Castle Hasset which is known today as Crevenish Castle. Gatisfeth reports that he has built a boat, and had some stones broken to make lime and some of it burnt. He had thirty trees felled and some squared and sawed. Castle Hasset was, a fair large Irish house built, with windows and rooms after the English manner, wherein is a kitchen with a stove, chimney and oven."

“Captain Pynnar, a Plantation inspecting officer on behalf of the Crown visited Castle Hasset and Thomas Blennerhasset’s Estate of Edernagh in 1618-19 and found a house built inside a Bawne [a high wall] which was 75 feet long, 47 feet wide and 12 feet high. It was protected with four flankers [towers]. The house itself was 20 feet broad and two and a half stories high and Thomas was living in it with his wife and family. He had begun to build a church adjoining the Bawne. He had also begun a small village nearby, possibly Kesh, which consisted of six houses made of cagework i.e. timber uprights interwoven with branchwood and plastered with mud. All the inhabitants were English.”

“One of the earliest enterprises engaged in by the new Plantation owners was the setting up of ironworks around the Erne. Vast areas of the countryside were covered in forest and these were systematically cut away and turned into charcoal to feed furnaces smelting low grade iron ore. There were two of these on the Blennerhassett Estates, one at Clonelly apparently owned by Leonard Blennerhasset and another at Rossharbour near Castle Caldwell on the Estate of Francis Blennerhassett.

“[Many undertakers and occupants] cleared the forests because they provided refuges for outlaws and other disposessed Irish who used the greenwood as a base to rob and murder and otherwise harass the new Planters. “The native Irish hated these ironworks with their furnaces blazing day and night and the visible destruction of the ancient landscape and made the destruction of these one of their first objectives in the 1641 rebellion.”

Cunningham states that “Thomas built Castlehasset and died on the 11th of March 1624. He was buried in the little chapel adjacent to the castle. He had been married twice, firstly to Frances Sampson of Harckstead, Suffolk and secondly to Elizabeth Sandys, daughter of Sir William Sandys of Dublin. His oldest son Samuel Blennerhassett was 24 but it was a younger son, Sir Leonard who succeeded to the property and obtained a regrant from the Crown in 1630.

“[During the outbreak of the 1641 Rebellion in Fermanagh native Irish set upon the local Plantation settlements] and began years of destruction and death with the burning of the village of Lisnarick. Some of the attacks on Fermanagh Planters are chronicled in the 1641 Depositions made soon after and preserved in the library of Trinity College Dublin.

“These Depositions have been the matter of considerable controversy over the years. In using them some have pointed out glaring errors of fact and others have swallowed them whole without criticism. Like most things they have to to taken with a certain amount of caution but overall there is no doubt that atrocities occurred and there is no doubt but that in other cases they were greatly exaggerated if not outright lies.

“By the end of October 1641 most of the Plantation strongholds in Fermanagh other than Enniskillen were in the hands of the Irish rebels led by their gentry. This was a planned and relatively controlled part of the uprising where the Planters were disarmed and had their saddle horses taken from them. A second phase of the rebellion came when the peasantry took the opportunity to rob and kill. From the true stories of that time and even more importantly the manufactured stories came much of the enduring hatred and mistrust between Protestant and Catholic in Ireland even to the present day. Stories of massacres of Protestants filled the minds of people in England and the horrors of Cromwell were fuelled by the tales that had been told.

“Rory Maguire was the brother of Lord Maguire who had been captured attempting to seize Dublin Castle on October 23rd, 1641. He was later executed at Tyburn in London. Rory led the rebellion in Fermanagh and was one of the most prominent individuals in the campaign until his death in 1648.

“In the end Rory Maguire was killed leading an attack at Jamestown, near Carrick-on-Shannon on November 13th, 1648. Another chapter had closed in the story of what has now become known as Crevenish Castle rather than Castle Hasset.

“Anne Blennerhassett, the wife of Francis Blennerhassett of Castle Caldwell near Belleek made a deposition after the war about her sufferings at this time. Her husband, herself and their children had been captured at the beginning of the rebellion on October 23rd, 1641. They were held in Castlehasset i.e. Crevenish Castle for seven weeks and then sent to Ballyshannon Castle where her husband Francis Blennerhassett was shot by the rebels on Christmas Eve 1641.

“She estimated that they had lost in lands, cattle, sheep, horses, corn, ready money, buildings, improvements to lands and their ironworks to the value of £1,860 sterling. She names those who robbed her as Rory Maguire, Collo Maguire and Hugh Buie Maguire (possibly of Tollimakein) and their soldiers, confederates and accomplices whose names she does not know.

“Among the atrocities she claims to have heard about while in captivity is the murder of her son-in-law, Thomas Redman who was hung up to die on tenter hooks and his wife (her daughter) tortured until she told where their money was hidden and the she and her children killed also. She also says she overheard rebel soldiers at Castlehasset brag of having hanged several Protestants on the churchyard gate where Mr Flack was minister. [presumably Ardess Church]

“Mr Flack and his wife and his wife’s brother and other Protestants to a total of 21 were put on a boat and taken down Lough Erne on their way to Ballyshannon. (The Irish were evicting Planters by the same route that most of them had come to this part of Ireland) However, soon after they landed, probably at Belleek, their escort left them and they were attacked and slaughtered either by their former escort or another band of rebels.

“She claims that their escort had threatened them with this fate the night before but if they had been all murdered how would this be known ? This Rev Mr Flack must be the clergyman who Leonard Blennerhassett indented the lands of Mullochmore [Mullaghmore] and Gortkeryn [Gortgeran] for a yearly rent of 40 shillings on the 2nd of August, 1634.

“Ann Blennerhassett and her children along with many other Protestants spent about a year and a half in the Ballyshannon area before a ship was willing to take them to Dublin on their way to London and Norwich.

“One of the original proposals for the Plantation of Fermanagh was that of 40 individuals, chiefly of Norfolk and Suffolk, who were willing to invest £40,000 in taking all of the available Plantation land in the county. This included the lands from Lower Lough Erne to the sea now in Donegal. They intended to have a market town, "… on the south side thereof at Bellike, and from thence, three miles nearer the sea, to erect a strong corporation." (Ballyshannon) They requested additional land along the coast "for the necessary use of the inhabitants of that corporation for bringing in or transporting their commodities." They said they would erect 40 manors and requested 60,000 acres, "… the Loughe, Islands therein, Fishings, and the sole command thereof … " They promised to bring in 1,000 able men and wished to have Sir Thomas Chichester (brother to Sior Arthur) and six assistants for a year to get their Plantation set up. A list of applicants follows of whom only a few obtained grants. See, Rev George Hill. An Historical Account of the Plantation of Ulster at the commencement of the seventeenth century 1608-1620. Irish University Press 1970, pp. 144-6

In the parish books of the Parish of Saint James in Norwich are numerous entries concerning the Blennerhassetts. Most concern licences allowing them to eat meat at times when this was forbidden. They are referred to as being "in weake state of body" or "the state of their bodyes requiring the same."

John Cunningham has posted online ghost stories about the Hassets One of the most notable ghosts associated with the place was "Old Hasset" who drove a coach with four headless horses across the rooftops of Norwich. As this headless coachman cracked his whip flashes of fire lit up the whole city. In Barsham in Suffolk a similar ghost named "Old Blunderhazard" was said to drive out every Christmas Eve in a coach and six horses to visit Hassets Tower in Norwich and return to Barsham before "he may snuff the morning air."

Given the presence of two Brennerhasset estates, on one of which was Hasset’s Fort and the other, Castle Hasset, it is easy to understand why the two might be confused for one another. Castle Hasset did not remain long in existence till it fell into decay for we find in a letter of Henry Blennerhassett of 1662, who was High Sherriff from 1658 to dated May 22, 1697 to his wife says: "I did give John Moffett power to set a new Manor Hassett Mr. Kirkwood did no good in Crevenish. The house is ruinous and the orchards spoiled.

Cunningham states:

“Most of the Plantation Castles in Fermanagh were built on the edge of Lough Erne for several reasons. Having one flank protected by the lake made the castle easier to defend and made escape easier in time of rebellion.” I would argue that this hoped for advantage was of limited value. According to the Annals of Ulster, “all the Church of Lough Erne together with Cluain Inis (Cleenish) and Daimhins (Devenish) were destroyed by Gentiles (Vikings)”. The Vikings entered Donegal Bay, established a base at Belleek and pillaged all the churches on the islands and shores of Lough Erne in 837 AD. Any structure built near the lake’s shore was within easy reach of the Viking longboats. In 923, it is recorded that a “Danish Fleet spent almost a year on Lough Erne.”

Ordinance maps of the region (Map Upper Lough Erne H243432 ) can be ordered online. See, www.guides-and-maps.com/maps/ ordnance-survey-ireland.html as well as walks.iwai.ie/l_erne/index.shtml.

Since 1913, Caldwell Castle has been owned by the Forest Commission and part of public parklands.

The location of the castle close to the shores of Lower Lough Erne ensured a plentiful supply of fish that abounded in the lake. (Busteed, supra, p. 30.) The castle is situated on a promentory from the northern shore, that provides not merely a scenic view, but a military advantage as well.

A barge or boat was used to transport family members to and from Enniskillen, the largest nearby town. Enniskillen lies on the road from Bellek to Dublin, to the southeast.
A stone replica 1.5 meters high in the shape of a fiddle stands by the gate recording the death of one Denis McCabe, a fiddler in Sir James Caldwell’s band, used to entertain his guests.

"To the memory Of Denis McCabe Fiddler who fell out of the St Partick Barge belonging to Sir James Caldwell Bart. and Count of Milan, & was drowned off this Point August Ye 13 1770

"Beware ye fiddlers of the fiddlers fate,
Nor tempt the deep lest ye repent too late,
Ye ever have been deemed to water foes,
Then shun the lake till it with whiskey flows,
On firm land only exercise your skill,
There you may play, and drink your fill."

The estate lands to this day are known for their outstanding beauty. During the time that Sir James Caldwell (1749-1784) resided at the Caldwell Castle for over three decades (1749-1784), he expended considerable effort to develop a parkland style that emphasized scenic views. Bogs were drained. Experiments were performed to determine which grasses would thrive best. Instead of clear-cutting the forests for their valuable timber, wooded clusters were preserved. Extensive and frequent juxtaposition of mountains with lough, long wide rivers, and undulating topography eased his task. (Busteed, supra, p. 20.)

When Sir James Caldwell (1720-1784) took up residency in 1749, the Irish Revolt of Catholics against the Anglo-Irish elite had just been eradicated. Plunkett Caldwell reports that Sir James had been a defender of Enniskillen during the Irish revolt (1740-1749).

Plunkett Caldwell had observed that although Sir James Caldwell’s earliest Caldwell ancestors had come from Scotland, he was not a Presbyterian but Anglican, and he and his descendants had intermarried largely with other Anglicans from England.

Following Sir James’s marriage in 1753, some renovation of the castle occurred in 1760. (Busteed, supra, p. 27, citing Cunningham, J.B. Castle Caldwell and its Families. Enniskillen: Watergate Press (1980).

In 1758 in a letter to his friend Rev. Philip Skelton, James recorded an incident concerning a tenant named Gallagher:

“Though very honest and laborious, by misfortune is the poorest of men, this Dr. Hartshorn can witness, he and I was driven into his house by a shower. We found his wife a week brought to bed, the man in the house without anything to feed or cover him and it raining in as fast as without. I gave him a present of a crown and his holding free for one year & when he was obliged to leave the country I forgave him the greatest part of his rent letting him take away his poor cow and all his hay.” (Busteed, supra, p. 30; Sir James Caldwell to Rev. Skelton 19th march 1758: B 3/17/66.)

Sir James succeeded in 1783 in obtaining funds from the Irish Parliament for construction of a canal and locks between Lower Lough Erne and the sea at Ballyshannon but the project was abandoned in 1794 for lack of funds. (Busteed, supra, p. 30.)

Following Sir James’ death in 1784, the Castle fell into ruins. In 1791, his son Sir John wrote:

“Part of the old house to the south was so shattered and its walls in so ruinous a state that I was obliged to pull it down entirely and a new and commodius building is now arising from its ruins.” (Sir John Caldwell to Col Henry Caldwell, Spring 1791: Bagshawe 3/35/21.) Sir John added an extension, the ground floor housing a museum with six rooms above. (Cunningham, 1980). One critic described the end result as “paste board Gothic facade.” (Somerville-Large, P. The Irish Country House: a Social History. London: Sinclair-Stevenson 1995, p. 189.)

Sir James was unyielding believer in an exclusively Protestant (Anglican) constitution. (Busteed, supra, p. 25.) He wrote a pamphlet in 1764 against a proposal to repeal part of the penal legislation to allow Catholics to lend money to Protestants and hold their land in security. (Busteed, supra, p. 25.)

Sir James was opposed to political aims of “Popery.” (Busteed, supra, p. 25.) He feared a rising of Irish Catholics in conjunction with foreign invasion. He wrote in 1771:

“There is an infinite difference between popular discontent in Ireland and in England ... in Ireland a Popish mob is the most dreadful instrument that could possibly fall into the hand either of a foreign or domestick [sic] enemy, and will always endanger for a time the subversion of the state.” (Sir James Caldwell. An Address to the House of Commons by a Freeholder. 1771, located in Bagahawe Muniments 3/21/77, p. 77.)

Busteed characterizes Sir James as a “patriotic Irish landlord imbued with a strong sense of the duties and responsibilities towards tenantry, country, Crown and constitution which flowed from his religious beliefs and his place in society.” (Busteed, supra, p. 25.)

When the lease on the Catholic Church in Enniskillen ended, Sir James secured its renewal free of charge and at a low rent; he also gave permission for a Catholic chapel on his Estate and his mother contributed to its costs. (Busteed, supra, p. 26.). In 1767 the superior of the Irish College in Prague approved of his stance: “a signal proof of your not hating or persecuting any man merely on his being of a different persuasion of yours in point of religion, but on the contrary that you protect and promote them, whom you think Christians and loyal subjects of your Christian denomination.” (Ibid.)

The Castle Caldwell Estate was comprised of two tracts. The larger tract held 2100 acres, and lay in the extreme north west of county Fermanagh along the western and northern shores of Lower Lough Erne. To the northwest the Estate abutted county Donegal.

A drawing showing the estate’s boundaries is available on-line: Busteed, M. “The Practice of Improvement in the Irish Context - The Castle Caldwell Estate in County Fermanagh in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century.” Irish Geography, Volume 33(1), 2000, 15-36, pp. 22-23. The lesser block of 270 acres was situated near Belturbet in county Cavan. (Busteed, supra, p. 22.)

The Estate totaled 2370 acres, slightly exceeding the average size of a Plantation grant. (Busteed, M. “The Practice of Improvement in the Irish Context - The Castle Caldwell Estate in County Fermanagh in the second half of the Eighteenth Century.” Irish Geography, Volume 33(1), 2000, 15-36; Robinson, P. The Plantation of Ulster: British Settlement in an Irish Landscape 1600-1670. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan (1984); Robinson, P. “Plantation and Colonisation: the Historical Background,” In: Boal, F.W. and Douglas, J.N.H. (Eds) Integration and Division: Geographical Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Problem. London Academic Press, 19-48 (1982).

The Estate was sold by auction in November 1876. (Busteed, M., supra, p. 21.)

The family archives were deposited in the John Rylands University Library, Manchester. (Busteed, M. , supra, p. 21, citing Taylor, F. Hand-List of the Bagshawe Muniments deposited in the John Rylands Library. Manchester: Manchester University Press (1955).

The archives include 3500 documents covering the fifteenth through early nineteenth century. Some of them were used by Sir James Caldwell in an unsuccessful bid for a peerage. (Busteed, M. , supra, p. 22, citing Bagshawe, W.H.G. The Bagshawes of Ford: a Biographical Pedigree. London: Mitchell and Hughes (1886). They include correspondence with a wide variety of people prominent in the public life of Ireland and Great Britain, account books, rentals, estate correspondence, valuation surveys, deeds and leases. ((Busteed, M. , supra, p. 22, citing Smythe, W.J. (1976). “Estate Records and the Making of the Irish Landscape: an Example from County Tipperary,” Irish Geography, 6, 29-29 (1976).

The website of John Rylands University library describes the Bagshawe Muniments (rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data2/ spcoll/bagshawe/ ):

“Archives of the Bagshawes of Ford Hall and the Oaks, Derbyshire, one of the oldest families in the county. Members of the family included the Rev. William Bagshawe (1628-1702), the `Apostle of the Peak', and Colonel Samuel Bagshawe (1713-1762), who had a distinguished military career in Gibraltar, Ireland and India. The Bagshawes were related by marriage to two other families: the Caldwells of Castle Caldwell co. Fermanagh, Ireland, and the Murray family. Sir James Caldwell, 4th Baronet (c 1722-1784), involved himself in the political, social and economic affairs of Britain and Ireland and came into contact with many of the leading literary and social figures of the late 18th century. Lord John Murray and Lieutenant General William Murray, formerly Foxlowe (d 1818), were both distinguished soldiers.

“The Bagshawes played a prominent part in local and county affairs within Derbyshire and Yorkshire, and historians of those areas, as well as economic and social historians, will find much of value among the numerous household, business and estate records. There are large numbers of deeds and estate papers for properties in Derbyshire, particularly in Castleton, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Ford, Hope, Norton and Wormhill; and in Ecclesall Bierlow, Fulwood and Sheffield in Yorkshire. The collection also contains important material on military history, particularly on military service in Ireland and India in the mid-18th century and the American War of Independence, and on economic history (e.g. lead mining in Derbyshire during the 18th century). There are several volumes of sermons, treatises and journals of the `Apostle of the Peak' and other early Nonconformist ministers. Caldwell family papers include correspondence of Sir James Caldwell with many leading figures of his day, including George Townshend, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Dr Samuel Johnson, Dr John Hawkesworth, David Garrick and Arthur Young.”
“Finding aids: published handlist, F. Taylor, Hand-List of the Bagshawe Muniments Deposited in the John Rylands Library (Manchester, 1955).

This posting certainly invites hope that perusal of the Bagshawe Muniments may reveal something about Caldwells of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, not merely those of Castle Caldwell.

Castle Caldwell was relatively isolated and remote from Dublin. Responding to an invitation from Sir James Caldwell, a William Eden (Lord Auckland), writing from Dublin Castle on October 8, 1781, wrote:”I can scarcely flatter myself it can ever be in my power to make a tour so far from Dublin.” (Bagshawe Muniments B 3/15/30).
Sir James was a resident landlord who was critical of absentee landlords for their failure to improve the estate lands. (Busteed, supra, p. 26.)

James resisted pleas by his son John in 1777 to sell the ornamental timber because James did not want to ruin the beauty of the place. (Busteed, supra, p. 28.)

Castle Caldwell is located a few miles east of the village of Belleek and lies inland from the northwestern coast of Ireland. Sir James Caldwell owned a distillery at Beleek. (Busteed, supra, p. 24.). Sir James would collect guests at Enniskilen and convey them to Castle Caldwell in a 4 to 5 hour boat trip. (Busteed, supra, p. 27.) Sir James entertained them with theatrical entertainment, reading, conversation, drawing, Irish music played by a small band of his tenants. (Busteed, supra, p. 28.) The rooms of the Castle were described by one guest as “magnificant and made cheerful by good fires.” (Ibid.)

The demense in 1760 covered 430 acres, including 12 farms, two walled gardens of ytwo acres each with a variety of fruits, hot house, and grapery. (Busteed, supra, p. 28.) By the end of Sir James’ life in 1784, the demense covered 1000 acres, in which not less than 70 men were employed every day at work. (Busteed, supra, p. 29.) This expansion was due largely to draining lakes, bogs, and reclamation of wasteland. (Busteed, supra, p. 30.)

The estate encompassed both low lying lands and rugged mountainous areas. The soil was a thick clay 1 to 2 feet deep on a limestone rock. (Busteed, supra, p. 22, citing Young, A. Arthur Young’s Tour of Ireland (1776-79) London: ell (1892).) Only half of the demesne and leased portions of the land was arable. (Busteed, supra, p. 22.) Crops consisted largely of hay, oats for bread and animal feed, potatoes, flax, and barley. (Busteed, supra, p. 24.) As the linen industry developed, primarily in Belfast, Dungannon and Armagh, the Caldwell Estate increasingly sowed, harvested and processed flax. The demesne was distinguishable by the high percent of wooded land (21%), useful as a deer park, compared to 1% wood in the remaining land. (Busteed, supra, p. 24.) Only 2% of the demesne land was devoted exclusively to pasture, whereas 14% of the rest of the estate was devoted exclusively to pasturage. Bog covered 4% of the demesne but 15% of the rest of the estate. (Busteed, supra, p. 24.)

The Rent Roll of 1770 showed an annual rental value of just over £2291. In 31 cases single tenants leased the land and 16 cases, groups of tenants. Twenty of the surnames of the tenants on the Rent Roll Roll of 1770 have surnames usually assigned to Protestants in Ireland, while the remaining sixteen had Catholic names. (Busteed, supra, p. 24, citing .) The names of servants and landless laborers do not appear on the Rent Roll. (Ibid.)

The 1766 census of religion suggests that county Fermanagh was at least 60 percent Catholic. (Busteed, supra, p. 24, citing Crawford, W.H. The Political Economy of Linen: Ulster in the Eighteenth century,” in Brady C, O’Dowd, M. And walker, B. (Eds) Ulster: an Illustrated History. London: Batsford (1989). The majority resided east of Enniskillen.

Tom Caldwell has posted here on 1/07/03 excerpts from John B. Cunningham, Castle Caldwell and its Families. Enniskillen: Watergate Press (1980), regarding the “family tree” of the Castle Caldwells, beginning with William Caldwell, of Straiton, Ayrshire, whose son, John Caldwell, was born prior to 1630 in Prestwick, Ayrshire. Earlier Tom had posted similar information gleaned from R.M. Sibert, "History of Ireland" ca. 1858. Tom mentions that Cunningham gathered much of his information from the Castle Caldwell archives at John Rylands University, Manchester, England.

Tom expressed his opinion on 1/16/03 that the Caldwell's come across in Cunningham’s book as traders who took advantage of the Irish troubles to advantage themselves.
Plunkett Caldwell posted at this website on 6/12/02 the wills of the various male members of the Castle Caldwells.
On 6/10/02, Plunkett Caldwell posted at this website a “Pocket History of Rural Ulster, portions of which I repeat, because Plunkett’s posting provides a useful source for understanding the Anglo-Irish elite.

“The census of 1659(S Pende PRONI T 307)identified British and Irish by surname and grossly underestimated the number of Irish,as most were uneligible to pay tax and the census was in essence fot poll tax data;in Tyrone there are seven Caldwells listed.

“Segregation also occured among the planters with the English occupying the towns and the Scots being left to pioneer rural settlement.The English were more tolerant of the Irish sharing townlands and using the Irish as herdsmen and labourers,yeomen and servants.In the Scots areas on the other hand segregation was pronounced,however this may be due to the make up of the Scots family unit.
“The inward migration of Scots of the 1650's had virtually dried up by the 1660's.The low rents and high wages which had attracted them gave way to higher rents and static wages coupled with falling agricultural prices and a change in religous tolerances as the commonwealth gave way in the 1660's to the Stuart Kingship. The primary supply area, the southwest of Scotland was inhabited mostly by covenanters who refused to accept the religious policy of the government and the brethren of Ulster were likewise inclined. The majority of ministers sent to Ulster during the Intereggnum were remonstrants in favor of the commonwealth and dissented from the re-established Church of Ireland. The result of driving the presbyterians into non-conformity created a major political problem for the Stuarts, it could be suggested that Henry Cromwells idea of not having an established church fueled the plantation with the necessary persons to make the plantation succeed. However by 1661,under the primacy of Archbishop Bramhall, some 61 of the 70 ministers in Ulster were expelled from their churches and although some fled to scotland many stayed to preach in barns and the fields.

“In Scotland the result was a rising and even greater persecution but in Ulster after Bramhalls death in 1663.the ministers started to return to their congregations and by 1664 the church had greatky recovered its former position. Research to date has not shown any significant upturn in immigration although internal migration certainly took place. Many areas which were to be later occupied by British settlers were still sparsely settled and a further influx of settlers did take place between the 1670s to the 1700s.

The early 1670s saw a dramatic worsening of the economic situation as aresult of the "Dutch Trade Wars"
Dr Mossom Bishop of Derry wrote:
“The country is in general so [im]poverished through want of trade that the tenants cannot pay their rents, the churches are in a state of bad repair and the inhabitants because of their extreme poverty cannot rebuild them.”
Plunkett Caldwell continues:

“There was probably widespread famine in Ulster in 1674-75 and in co Fermanagh reference was made to a great famine in the years 1674-75 were most land of the proprietors was waste and this continued for some years afterwards. By the late 1670s things began to improve as a report from the Barony of O@Nielland in co Armagh in 1682 presents aglowing account of vast quatities of wheat being annually carried into Antrim. However, Irish horse, cattle and victuals were banned by proclamation from being imported into Scotland. This improvement in economic cicumstances and the defeat of the covenanters at Bothwell Bridge brough about a resurgence of immigration to Ulster.Notable in this new immigration was the influx on English non-conformists occupying particularly the Lagan Valley an area already settled by English Quakers (Friends School Lisburn is a legacy of this settlement).

“In the west of the province in the 1660s there was a very sparse British population particulariy away from the larger towns contrasting sharply with Antrim where the population was relatively dense,but with internal migration and immigration the households in the west showed increases from four to eightfold by the 1740s.

“Much play in Ulster has been put on the Williamite Wars in fact Ulster was a theatre of hostilities for a short period of time and the result was no where near as catastrophic as the 1641 rebellion. In fact a new wave of immigrants from Scotland attracted by the cheap land post1690 numbered from 50000 to 80000.This was at the expense of the old tenants who had in great measure been ruined by the late troubles found themselves being surplanted by the new who could afford a small advance in the rent.The vast majority being Scottish presbyterians,many of whom moved to the Americas within a generation.

The fifty years between 1690 and 1740 was a period of consolidation when the plantation was indelibly imprinted across the face of Ulster. But a shock was in store. In 1739 just after Christmas a hard frost settled on the land and continued for seven weeks,almost completely destroying the potato crop. The following winter was bitter with freezing north winds,the lack of fodder killing of the cattle and horses, crops failed and starvation stalked the country.In the wake of hunger came typhus and dysentry and other shores would certainly have looked more fair.
The set backs of the 1740s led to problems on many estates but by the 1750,s things improved once again and the estate owners looked to internal migration to attract tenants as the appeal of North America slowed the inward migration from Scotland. The population of the province was estimated at some 1,000,000 people but the land itself remained underdeveloped. Development was to rely on population growth as opposed to the Scots resource of the previous century.The previous century could be looked at thus;
1640's population almost halved

1650's inward migration of Scots,estimate 80000
1660,sBad economic growth low migration
1670's Famine 1674-75
1675-1685 Improvement in migration
1686-90 Stagnation
1690's Vast upsurge immigration west of the province
1700's-20's Expanding population and internal migration establishment of linen industry
1730;Estate improvements
1740's Famine slows down growth
1750,s-60,s Estate improvements the establishment of the industrial town.

“Having looked at population trends I would now like to address the causes and effects that motivated the population.

“Linen development in the 1700's was probably the main cause of migration within the province. The linen triangle of east Tyrone,north Armagh and south Down produced major changes in the modes of agriculture, rent levels and land tenure. Population growth and these changing social and economic structures was propelling Ulster from its position of the poorest province and least developed in the country. The degree of regional penetration of the linen industry varied greatly.Northwest Ulster being East Donegal, Londonderry,and North Tyrone kept its own level of economic activity. Derry the major port was exporting linen yarn from the 1630,s and for much of the 18th century spinning was more important than weaving.Agricultural exploitation in the North West was being hampered by the large areas of infertile soils and unreclaimed wastes this harnassed to a remoteness from major markets and in fact a closure of certain markets on the mainland certainly did not help. However exports of beef, hides,butter and oatmeal from Derry were relatively substantial in the early part of the century but after 1721 they did not recover until the high war time prices of the 1790's. The increased population in the new linen manufacturing areas, Dublin absorbed most of the production, and the repealing of the "Cattle Acts" imposed almost a century before provided growing trade for Ulsters east coast ports.Tillage production, constrained by the slow pace of reclamation and limited demand from overseas markets, was largely orientated towards local or regional consumption. If there was a surplus it was adequate to maintain the population during years of shortage such as 1744-45 and 1756-57.

“The emphasis was primarily on a subsistence cultivation with the potato as a stable of planter and gael alike, with sheep and cattle (the Irish Black)being reared for the rent.

“Rent meant leases and these varied greatly. They are a great resource for genealogy sources and though rights in them were greatly eroded by the landlords there forms are worth noting.

“A three life lease, a common form of head tenancy in Ulster which generally ran for fifty years or more during which time the rents remained unaltered. The second type was the granting of a lease based on a father and son. Then a granting of a lease based on a lifetime. Finally the granting of a tenancy at will on a year to year renewal.It is obvious that the last lease would not inspire or motivate a tenant to improve the land as he cannot benefit from his efforts.This type of lease unfortunately was widely granted to the Irish with the inevitable outcome.
Leases granted after 1760 were mostly on a term of years usually 31 years being the most common form. By the 1790's estate owners had switched to s tenancy for one life plus 31 years,this gave way to tenancy at will. There was also non-determined holdings, those held in farm fee grants and leases in perpetuity. Such forms of permanent tenure were common in the early part of the 17th century. The official policy of the plantation had to require there systematic use as a means of attracting settlers of substance to the most turbulent,underdeveloped and lowly populated parts of the province.

“The estates underwent a degree of change with the conscientious owners dealing directly with there tenants granting a reasonable rent and lease thus sustaining development and land improvement. Others however dealt with middlemen who sublet land at will and reaped the profits.
“The concept of compact farms with their mosaic of small fields so characteristic of Ulsters agrarian landscape are of no great age and date from the late 17th century. The Rundale system was still the basis of agrarian organisation in much of Ulster up to the 1750's. The arable meadowland and rough grazing being the basis of it. The land was held jointly, though individual shares were intermingled and the plots were widely scattered to include lands of different qualities. Some on the constantly tilled infield some on the shifting patches reclaimed on the more remote outfield. This duality was common among Scots settlers throughout Ulster. The Tithe Allotment Books of Termonamongan and Ardstraw of 1826 and 1833 show that land was still held by 1st 2nd and 3rd quality.

“The territorial within which Rundale functioned was the joint farm, some of which evolved through partible inheritance (The Caldwells of Ballbogan),whereby single farms were subdivided into multiple tenancy farms in a few generations. The occupants of these farms lived in loosely clustered "Clachans",settlements the size of which depended on the number of joint tenants and the extent of the subdivision. Until the 1750's they averaged four to six families but by the 1820's when population was peaking twenty or thirty houses were common. In 1750 Rundale was practised in 3/4s of the province.

“The landlords had a vested interest in seeing the demise of this system and thus getting wastes reclaimed.They thus encouraged the settling of partnership groups from lowland areas already suffering population pressure to their summer grazing(Booley)grounds.The attraction to tenants settling such lands were the rents were appreciately cheaper than on the lower ground.On the Abercorn estate this land was half the price.The Duke of Abercorn is of the Hamilton family.
“To put this into a Caldwell sphere of influence it is possible to see this in the lease of William Caldwell of Magherageeragh.The first lease was granted from Edward Edwards for a term of 3 lives on the 21.10.1678, subsequently the Countess of Rosse regranted the leases to his grandsons, Samuel and Henry for three lives which was renewed by William on the 20.2.1830 who finally purchased parts of the farms on the 7.7.1849.This type of lease had given the family considerable rights. Audley Caldwell on the other hand was a classic middleman. Audley of Kileter Castlederg held his own land and house on 30 acres called Coolnahern Park and sublet a further 80 acres to six other tenants. He leased numerous acres in this area and between him and other members of the Caldwells they let or sublet some 2700 acres around Castlederg in the townland of

Killen.....................327 acres
Killen Near................279 "
Magherageeragh.............266 "
Mountain of Curraghmulkin..117 "
Meenacarragh ..............502 "
Kilreal Lower..............169 "
Slievedoo..................1040 "

They sublet most of the houses on these lands, so it would appear they farmed most of it themselves with labour from the houses they let.Audley was known as Sir Audley and the coat of arms in Castlederg churchyard has the same crest and motto as Castle Caldwell only the Castlederg shield is guarded by two greyhounds.”

Copytight 2003. David Andrew Caldwell