James Caldwell was a Montreal-based merchant. He was also known for his military involvement in Lower Canada as he was appointed militia captain in 1797, major in 1811, and lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Battalion in 1813. Caldwell died on 18 April 1815 after a long and painful illness which left him frail and weak.

William Caldwell was born in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh University, where he won the Shaw Fellowship. After post-graduate work in Germany, France and Cambridge, he came to the United States in 1891, and taught philosophy at Cornell, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. In 1903 he became Macdonald Professor of Moral Philosophy at McGill, a position he held until his retirement in 1929. Caldwell's travels and lectures in Europe took a new turn after the First World War when he developed a special interest in the new nations of Eastern Europe, particularly Poland under its philosopher-president, Masaryk. He was decorated by the governments of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia for his promotion of their interests in the English-speaking world. Caldwell also wrote two major philosophical studies on Schopenhauer and on Pragmatism and Idealism. He passed away in 1942.