Caulfeild Family

Born, it is supposed, in Shropshire before the family moved to London than Great Milton. First recorded as being at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1561, possibly arranged through his uncle James there, who was his tutor. A law student there in 1564, he obtained BA on 25 June 1567. Lecturer in dialectic 1567 to 1580. Called to Gray's Inn in 1568; a Barrister there in 1581, appointed Autumn Reader in 1597 and a Bencher on 15 November 1598. MP for Chipping Wycombe 1584-5. One of two MPs for Oxford in five succesive Parliaments of Elizabeth 1st; 1586-7 (with Francis Knolles), 1588-9 (with the now Sir Francis Knolles), 1593 (with Sir Edmund Carye), 1597-8 (with Anthony Bacon), and 1601 (with Francis Leigh). In September 1586 he was elected a second Burgess for Oxford. From that date he "gained no little sum" by acting as the representative of the City when Oxford had business at the Law Courts in London. A member of Oxford Mayor's Council 1591-1603 and Recorder there 1596-9, he was a Freeman of Oxford and also Justice of the Peace there. He was also a Judge of Assize for Wales. We have no date for his marriage to Martha Taverner, of the village of Woodeaton north of Oxford, but we do know that her sister Penelope Petty "died of grief" during imprisonment at Charlemont Fort in 1641/42, during the time of the O'Neill's recapture of the Fort. From about 1578 his residence appears to have been Perilous Hall in Horsmonger Street, now Broad Street, Oxford. The derivation of this name being the fact that it had been built by Richard D'Angerfield. This was demolished in 1615 and replaced by Kettell Hall, now part of Trinity College. He died intestate, administration of his estate being granted to his son and heir Alexander on 5 May 1604.

The definition of a Recorder, copied from the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary: "Formerly, a certain magistrate or judge having criminal and civil jurisdiction in a city or borough. Now, in England and Wales, a barrister or solicitor appointed as a part-time judge presiding esp. over certain Crown Courts (see quot. 1971). The Recorder was originally a person with legal knowledge appointed by the mayor and aldermen to 'record' or keep in mind the proceedings of their courts and the customs of the city, his oral statement of these being taken as the highest evidence of fact. (See Riley Munimenta Gildhallae I. 42-3.) The Recorder of London, to whom most of the early evidence refers, is still appointed by the court of aldermen; elsewhere the appointment is made by the crown, the duties of the office being regulated by the Municipal Corporations Act of 5 and 6 William IV and subsequent enactments."

From the Victoria County History of Oxford, Vol 4: "It seems that from the 1580s onwards the city relied increasingly on another barrister, George Calfield, who was the town's M.P. from 1586 and was made a member of the inner council. From Calfield's time it became the custom for the recordership to be linked to the city's representation in parliament."