Caulfeild Family

Called "William the Good", he was a great Cromwellian and a favourite of The Protector. Educated at Henley School by Richard Facie, where in June 1642 the Crown made a special payment for his continued education following the murder of his elder brother and imprisonment of his mother in Ireland. captured at the Battle of Newbury in 1644. In 1645 a Captain in Sir Robert Pye’s Regiment. In 1645 and 1646 a Captain in the New Model Army in Col Richard Graves' regiment of horse, under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax. In 1649, the year of the trial and execution of King Charles 1st and the formation of the Protectorate, he was captured by the royalist Sir Charles Barry as he and all his troop were deserting from Inchiquin's army to join Cromwell at Cork. He was sent as a prisoner to Clonmel, where he was kept for three months before being exchanged for the Duke of Ormond’s brother and joining Cromwell. In 1650 he was in Sir Charles Coote's regiment at the assault on Fort Charlemont under Venables. He determined to avenge his elder brother Toby, 3rd Baron Charlemont, whom Sir Phelim O’Neill had brutally murdered in 1642. He pursued him and in 1653 eventually apprehended him and sent him for trial in Dublin where he was executed in March that year. Governor of Fort Charlemont from 1655. A member and signatory of the council of officers who defied Edmund Ludlow’s attempts to impose parliamentarianism upon Ireland in 1659. Elected MP for Lifford, co Donegal, in the 1660 Convention of Ireland, which sat in February, March and May 1660 and January 1661 before being disbanded by King Charles 2nd in that month. The Restoration of 1660 saw further tactful changes in allegiance, and between 1660 and 1665 he is recorded as having fulfilled several high and confidential stations to the monarch, and was called to the Privy Council. In 1661 he was nominated as one of the Lords to prepare a declaration requiring conformity to episcopacy. On 20 March 1661 he was declared Constable and Governor of Fort Charlemont for life, was captain of a troop of horse, and from then until his death was Custos Rotulorum for Counties Armagh and Tyrone. On 13 April 1664, for reasons that are unclear, he sold Fort Charlemont and its lands to the crown for £3500, and built for his occupation a 'jointure' house in Castlecaulfield village adjoining the church. The Fort was subsequently repaired by the new Governor, Sir Matthew Appleyard. On 8 October 1665 he was created Viscount Charlemont by the Kings patent in return for services to the monarch since the Restoration. He took his seat in the House of Lords on 16 November that year. In 1670 he invited the Catholic Primate Archbishop Oliver Plunkett to preach in the courtyard of Castle Caulfeild, and granted leave for the administration of Confirmation.

On a list of Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia for 1659-1660 there appears a Major William Cawfield. It is possible that this is he.