Greetings LISTERS:
I recently communicated with David Maurer, author of the article in
Colonial Homes magazine on Cawdor Castle. He stated,
"In putting together the article, I primarily used information from
pamphlets put together by Cawdor Castle. To supplement this information,
I used some internet sources. For Caddell family background, I referred
to an article, apparently written by you, at the site Chatelaine....
Lady Angelika Cawdor says her family name stems from a Pictish tribe,
not from a French name. Apparently it is just a coincidence that the de
Cadella name is alike to the Gaelic place name Calder. In any case, it
seems the family does consider de Cadella to be an early Thane of
Cawdor, although, as the article mentions, the first HISTORICAL Thane
was Donald in the late 13th century. Lady Cawdor also says it is in the
family lore that de Cadella was killed by Macbeth."
Interesting and confusing. I plan to compose corresdpondence to Lady
CAWDOR in the near future to see if I can clear up some of the
confusion. Since "Encyclopedia Britianica lists CALDER as a very ancient
Morayshire family," and "The Hall of Names International listed Caddell
as a ancient family in Banffshire, possibly even before the Norman
Invasion," I can see where the "Pictish tribe" connection probably came
from that is referred to by Lady CAWDOR. Back then the ancient areas of
Banff and Moray was not part of Scotland. Matter of fact it probably was
before Scotland was formed.
Prior to the 1500s, records of the Scottish Chronicles were written in
latin. I have been trying to find a set of the Chronicles for some time
with no success. I had a contact at the University of Oklahoma where I
found them in the early 1960s. However, my contact could not find them
in the Library. In any case, I previously did not take down the latin
version information. I hope to find them, copy the references to CADELL,
CALDER and have them translated.
Bill Caddell
Bill Caddell