Early Life
Robert Caldwell was born at Clady, Northern Ireland, on May 7, 1814 to Scottish parents. Initially self-taught and religious, young Caldwell graduated from the University of Glasgow and was fascinated by the comparative study of languages. At 24, Caldwell arrived in Madras on January 8, 1838 as a missionary of the London Missionary Society and later joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission (SPG). To further his missionary objectives, Caldwell realised that he had to be proficient in Tamil to proselytise the masses and he began a systematic study of the language. He was consecrated Bishop of Tirunelveli in 1877. In 1844, Caldwell married Eliza Mault (1822–99); the couple was to have seven children together. She was the elder daughter of the veteran Travancore missionary, Reverend Charles Mault (1791–1858) of the London Missionary Society. For more than forty years, Eliza worked in Travancore and Tirunelveli proselytising the vulnerable, especially Tamil-speaking women.
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