Born on November 1, 1774, in the Province of New Jersey, British America,[1] Caldwell read law in 1816.
[1] Caldwell received a recess appointment from President John Quincy Adams on October 28, 1825, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia vacated by Judge Phillip C.
[1] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 3, 1826, and received his commission the same day.
Irish gentry whose name reflected Castle Caldwell established in Ulster Plantation a century earlier, they had emigrated with nine children to Maryland in 1769 and then moved to what became Wheeling in what was then Virginia in 1772.
James Caldwell the elder became a Virginia justice of the peace and militia leader in the developing rural area, and his son/Alexander's brother John Caldwell helped erect Fort Henry to defend the new settlement against Native American raiders.