The Caldwells were originally a Scottish episcopalian family who settled in the Enniskillen area during the early seventeenth-century Ulster Plantation. Later in the century they bought a somewhat isolated estate centred on the western and northern shores of Lower Lough Erne, renaming the dwelling house Castle Caldwell. Their remarkably comprehensive family archives demonstrate the sometimes contradictory political and economic forces bearing down on such Anglo-Irish families during the second half of the eighteenth century. Sir James, the fourth baronet, was the most energetic and active member of the family. He was simultaneously a loyal upholder of the British connection, the Protestant constitution and the rights of the Irish parliament. He maintained a voluminous correspondence with leading