Born at Liverpool on 20 September 1823, he was son of William Stanley Roscoe and grandson of William Roscoe; his mother Hannah Eliza Caldwell, was daughter of James Caldwell of Linley Wood in Staffordshire, and a sister of Anne Marsh-Caldwell.
[1][2] Roscoe was called to the bar in 1850, but after two years relinquished practice, partly for health reasons, but also from doubts of his qualifications for his profession.
He married, and then lived mostly in Wales, where he was interested in slate quarries and spent time writing.
These compositions were collected and published in 1860 by Hutton, with a memoir; the poems and dramas were republished in 1891 by his daughter, Elizabeth Mary Roscoe.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. William Caldwell Roscoe page on the JJ Heath-Caldwell family history website