James Caldwell (clergyman)

Reverend James Caldwell (April 1734-24 November 1781) was a clergyman who played a prominent part in the American Revolution.

He was born in Cub Creek in Charlotte County, Virginia, the seventh son of John and Margaret Caldwell, who were Scots-Irish settlers. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (which later became Princeton) in 1759 and became pastor of the church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey (now known as just "Elizabeth"). He was an active partisan on the side of the revolutionaries, and was known as the "soldier parson". His church and his house were burned by Tories in 1780. While Caldwell was stationed with the army in Morristown, his wife Hannah was killed by a random bullet at Union, New Jersey. Caldwell, who fought in the defense of Springfield, New Jersey, was eventually killed by an American sentry when he refused to have a package inspected. The sentry, James Morgan, was hanged for murder on 29 January 1782, amid rumors that he had been bribed to kill the chaplain.

Caldwell died in Elizabethtown, New Jersey

Caldwell, New Jersey (and North Caldwell, New Jersey, West Caldwell, New Jersey, and James Caldwell High School) are named for James Caldwell. The reason for this is because, after the war, he settled in what is now Caldwell (then known as "Horseneck", which also comprised modern-day West Caldwell, North Caldwell, Roseland, Fairfield, Verona, Essex Fells, and nearly all other West Essex towns, sharing its eastern border with the city of Newark) and established the Presbyterian church there on Bloomfield Avenue, which still exists to this day. Caldwell became the church's first minister (a duty which would later fall to President Grover Cleveland's father), and, eventually, "Horseneck" was renamed "Caldwell" in his honor. West Caldwell and North Caldwell, like the other current West Essex towns, later broke away from the town of Caldwell, but also retained Caldwell's name.