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Local figure

David Caldwell

David Caldwell, Presbyterian minister of the Buffalo and Alamance congregations, visited Governor Tryon's camp on May 15, 1771, with Alexander Martin to urge mild measures against the Regulators. On the morning of the Battle of Alamance he was riding along the Regulator lines urging the men to go home when the order to fire was given.

Source: Documenting the American South: William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina (1846)

1725–1824 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

1 work about David Caldwell is indexed here.

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Presbyterian ministers, among them Henry Pattillo of Orange, write against the Regulation While Tryon toured Rowan and Mecklenburg to raise troops, Presbyterian ministers Hugh McAden, James Creswell, Henry Pattillo and David Caldwell sent him a letter of loyalty condemning the Regulators, and the pastors also wrote to the colony's Presbyterians telling them to keep out of the movement. The letter was read to the Rowan militia and helped raise volunteers for the march on Hillsborough. People: Henry Pattillo, David Caldwell, William Tryon, Hugh McAden Place: Rowan and Mecklenburg counties · Also named: James CreswellInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 176
  2. Orange Presbytery holds its first meeting at Hawfields Church The synod granted the petition of David Caldwell, Hugh McAden, Joseph Alexander, Hezekiah Balch, James Creswell and Henry Pattillo for a presbytery of their own, covering all the territory south of the Virginia line. The new Orange Presbytery met for the first time at Hawfields Church that fall. People: Henry Pattillo, David Caldwell, Hugh McAden Place: Hawfields Presbyterian Church, then in Orange County (now Alamance County) · Also named: Joseph Alexander, Hezekiah Balch, James CreswellSearch the index · Internet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Henry Pattillo in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 44 (1967), p. 381
  3. David Caldwell goes between Tryon's camp and the Regulators before the Battle of Alamance At the request of his parishioners, some of them Regulators, Caldwell visited Governor Tryon's camp on May 15 with Alexander Martin to urge mild measures. On the morning of the battle he was riding along the Regulator lines urging the men to go home when the order to fire was given. People: William Tryon, Alexander Martin Place: Alamance battlefield (then Orange County)Search the index · Documenting the American South: William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina (1846)
  4. Hillsborough gets its first regular Presbyterian services After years of occasional preaching in the courthouse by David Caldwell, John DeBow and others, the Rev. Alexander McMillan began regular services there in 1777, shared with Little River and New Hope. Presbytery deposed him in September 1778, and the town had no organized Presbyterian church for many years. People: David Caldwell, John DeBow Place: Hillsborough courthouse · Also named: Alexander McMillanSearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 70
  5. The convention resolves itself into a committee of the whole with Elisha Battle in the chair After David Caldwell's attempt to fix governing maxims for the debate was set aside, the delegates went into committee of the whole, Elisha Battle presiding, and began reading the proposed Constitution clause by clause. The committee sat each day through July 31 except Sunday, July 27. People: James Iredell, Willie Jones, David Caldwell Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Elisha BattleDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, 1788
  6. The university makes David Caldwell of Guilford a Doctor of Divinity At the 1810 commencement the university gave honorary doctorates of divinity to David Caldwell, James Hall and James McRee. Caldwell's Latin diploma, dated in Person Hall, calls Chapel Hill Sacrarii Mons, the hill of the chapel. People: Joseph Caldwell Place: Person Hall · Also named: James Hall, James McReeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 186

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as David Caldwell, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by David Caldwell. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

House Joint Resolutions: May 3-15

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1779

House joint resolutions of May 3 to 15, 1779, 146 images of resolutions, messages and petitions. The House appointed a chaplain and acted on requests from Walter Gibson of Bladen County, James Glasgow and Captain Francis Tartason, among many others, with matters of militia, taxation, land grants and schools.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Caldwell, David, 1725-1824.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 285 ARN David Caldwell Arnett, Ethel Stephens · 1976

    Ethel Stephens Arnett's life of David Caldwell (1725 to 1824), pastor of the Buffalo and Alamance Presbyterian churches in Guilford County, who opened a log college in 1767 and practiced medicine he had taught himself. He was present at the Battle of Alamance in 1771, represented Guilford at the Halifax congress that adopted the state constitution in 1776, and sat in the Hillsborough convention of 1788. Greensboro, 1976, 106 pages with an index.

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  • NC LIVE: prepared search for David Caldwell Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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