Elias B. Caldwell

Elias Boudinot Caldwell (April 3, 1776 – May 30, 1825) was a Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, Caldwell was two-years-old when his mother, Hannah, was killed by British troops passing through their farm. A short time later in 1781 Reverend James Caldwell, his father, was murdered and Caldwell was adopted by Elias Boudinot, for whom he was named. Caldwell graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and studied law with the said Elias Boudinot until his move to the District of Columbia.^[1]

Caldwell worked as a lawyer in Washington, D.C alongside Francis Scott Key for a number of years. Both men were organizing members of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color in the United States^[2] an organization that wanted to prompt the gradual end of slavery and create a colony where free slaves could live in peace. Caldwell was the organizations secretary and Key was on the board of managers. At the age of twenty-four, in 1800, Caldwell was appointed clerk of the Supreme Court at Washington and held this post until his death in 1825.

Sources

• "Sketch of Elias Boudinot Caldwell". American Monthly Magazine 24: 204–213. 1893. JSTOR 40067168. 

• "O Say Can You See: Early Washington, DC Law & Family Project". Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. 

References