Caldwell, William Shakespeare (1821–1874)

William Shakespeare Caldwell—known in the family as “Shakes”—was born in 1821, the legitimate son of the actor and impresario James Henry Caldwell and his wife Maria Carter Hall of the Virginia gentry. His given names reflected his father’s theatrical background and admiration for Shakespearean drama. Educated as a youth in the South, he later attended the University of Virginia, where he studied the liberal arts before returning to New Orleans to join his father in theatrical ventures.

Career

Although he initially attempted a career in acting and theater management, continuing the family tradition, he soon turned to real estate and business. After inheriting a portion of his father’s considerable fortune, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he developed a number of properties and engaged in civic philanthropy. His most enduring charitable legacy was the founding of Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital in Louisville, established in memory of his wife. He also played a key role in bringing the Little Sisters of the Poor to Richmond, Virginia, supporting their work before his own conversion to Catholicism.

Marriage and Family

In 1859 William married Mary Elizabeth Grayson Breckenridge, a member of the distinguished Breckenridge family of Kentucky, whose most prominent member, John Cabell Breckenridge, served as Vice President of the United States under James Buchanan and later as Confederate Secretary of War. Mary Eliza had been educated by the Sisters of Nazareth in Kentucky and maintained strong sympathies with Catholic religious life.

The couple longed for children and prayed to the Virgin Mary for this blessing. In gratitude when their prayers were answered, both of their daughters were christened with the name Mary: Mary Gwendolin (born 1863) and Mary Elizabeth (“Lina”) (born 1865).

Religion and Death

Though raised Protestant, William Caldwell was not hostile to Catholicism. His wife’s example and their shared piety drew him gradually toward the Church. After her early death in 1867, he continued to support Catholic charitable institutions. He delayed formal conversion until just before his own death in 1874, when he was baptized into the Catholic Church.

Before his death, Caldwell entrusted the care and education of his two young daughters to Irish Catholic acquaintances he had met in New York. These guardians, in turn, placed the girls under the spiritual direction of the thirty-two-year-old Father John Lancaster Spalding, nephew of Archbishop Martin Spalding of Baltimore. At the time, Mary Gwendolin was eleven and Mary Elizabeth nine—a decision that would later have momentous and tragic consequences for the Caldwell family.

Legacy

William Shakespeare Caldwell’s wealth and pious intentions laid the foundation for one of the most striking episodes in American Catholic history: the philanthropic rise—and later disillusionment—of his two daughters, whose fortunes endowed the Catholic University of America. His name endures in the hospital he founded in Louisville and in the enduring if troubled legacy of the Caldwell sisters’ benefactions to the Church.