FIELD, DAVID D. 



301 



:ii:Iisli Government will soon ho led to 

 Hi toward Ireland, and to 

 , a iv:'orin:itiou of i-\istin^ a:> 



. i-very where irain the approhation of the 



.n n icnt. 



FIi:i.I>, lKvii> DCDLEY, D. D., an Ameri- 

 can i .nial clergyman and author, 

 horn in Ka-t (inilford (now Madison), Conn., 



JO, 1781 ; died in Stookbridge, V 

 April 1-"), 1867. He was a son of Captain 

 Tinioihy Field, an officer of the War of the 



ition. Ho was fitted for college under 



-truetion of Rov. Dr. John Elliott, pastor 

 i if the Congregational Church in. Guilford, 

 and one of the most remarkable men of the 



:itury in New England, and entered Yale 

 College at the ago of seventeen, graduating in 

 the class of 1802. He prosecuted his theological 

 studie> under Dr. Backus, of Somers, one of 

 the most eminent New England divines of his . 

 day, and was licensed to preach by the Now 



i East Association, in September, 1803. 

 He was soon invited to preach as a candidate 

 at Iladdam, Conn., the result of which was 

 that, after a few months, he received a call, 

 and was ordained and installed there on the 

 llth of April, 1804. Here he remained- till 

 1818 just fourteen years and then resigned 

 his charge, and spent the next five months on a 

 missionary tour in Western New York. On his 

 return to New England, he accepted a call 

 from the Congregational Church in Stockbridge, 

 Mass., then lately rendered vacant by the death 

 of the venerable Dr. Stephen West, and was 

 installed as its pastor on the 25th of August, 

 1819. With this church his connection contin- 

 ued nearly eighteen years, when, owing to a 

 singular concurrence of circumstances, he re- 

 ceived and accepted an invitation to return to 

 his former parish in lladdam, and was actually 

 installed there the second time on the llth of 

 April, 1837, just thirty-three years from the 

 date of his first settlement. That year the de- 

 gree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon 

 him by Williams College. In 1844 the parish 

 which he had served, being very large, was 

 divided, and he took charge of the new society 

 formed at Iligganum, two miles north of the 

 old church, where he continued to preach some 

 years longer. During his residence here, in 

 1848, he crossed the ocean with one of his sons, 

 and spent several months, much to his satisfac- 

 tion, in Great Britain and France. In the 

 spring of 1851, having reached the ago of 

 seventy, he yielded to the wishes of his chil- 

 dren that he should retire from public labor and 

 return to Stockbridge, which they regarded as 

 the family home. Hero he lived in digni- 

 fied retirement for sixteen years. During 

 the greater part of this time, his facul- 

 ties mental as well as bodily, continued in 

 a good degree of vigor; but for some time 

 pivvious to his death there had been a gradual 

 waning of the powers of his mind, and his 

 memory particularly had become well-nigh a 

 blank. On the day on which he died (the 



15th of April), he rode out and failed upon 



, of lii- old parishioners, and to o;n: of 

 them who said, "Dr. Field, I am glad to see 

 you 80 well," he replied, "I mu n-vor better 

 in my life." Ho had a -little grout-grand- 

 daughter on the seat with him, and had II'H 

 arm around her, as he drove through the vil- 

 lage, to his home. On entering his room, he 



it' the scarf from his neck, and, on sitting 

 down, his head fell hack, his body and limbs 

 became rigid, and tho next moment he was 

 dead. Dr. Field had a natural fondness for his- 

 torical research, and, notwithstanding his mani- 

 fold professional engagements, ho found consid- 

 erable time to devote to it. He published a "Hi- 

 tory of Middlesex County ;" a " History of Berk- 

 shire County," in a volume of nearly 500 j> 

 an " Historical Address " at Middletown, form- 

 ing, with its appendix, a book of 300 p. 

 and a "Genealogy of the Brainerd Family," 

 of about the same size with tho last- mentioned 

 volume. A considerable number of his occa- 

 sional sermons have also been published. Dr. 

 Field was married in October, 1803, to Miss 

 Submit Dickinson, of Somers a lady of highly 

 respectable parentage, and every way worthy 

 of the place she was designed to occupy. The 

 relation thus formed continued fifty-seven years. 

 They had ten children, of whom seven were 

 born in Haddam, and three in Stockbridge. 

 Two sons and two daughters have died. Six 

 sons are now living. David Dudley, the oldest 

 son, is one of the leading members of the New 

 York bar, and author of the " Revised Codes 

 of Law of the State of New York," a work on 

 which he was engaged for nearly twenty years. 

 Matthew D. is an engineer, and has been 'a 

 member of the Senate of Massachusetts for 

 Hampden County ; Jonathan E. has been re- 

 peatedly a member of the same Senate, and 

 was three times chosen its president ; Stephen 

 J. is one of the Judges of the Supreme Court 

 of tho United States ; Cyrus W. has a world- 

 wide fame as tho originator of the Atlantic 

 Telegraph ; and Henry M., the youngest sou, 

 is the editor of the New York Evangelist, and 

 the author of several books. One of his 

 daughters married Rev. Josiah Brewer, a mis- 

 sionary in the East ; and the other, Mr. Joseph 

 F. Stone, a partner of her brother Cyrus. Dr. ^ 

 Field occupied a prominent place among tho 

 excellent ministers of the last generation. With 

 a mind naturally vigorous, clear, and exact, and 

 withal trained to diligent and patient research, 

 and with the most scrupulous regard to order 

 and principle, he united a kindly and generous 

 spirit, and with it a tone of vigorous and ele- 

 vated piety. In all his relations he was a model 

 of firmness, conscientiousness, discretion, and 

 punctuality. As a preacher, he was eminently 

 judicious and instructive; and his manner, 

 though calm and deliberate, was evidently 

 marked by great sincerity. Ho had uncom- 

 mon executive power and was always ready to 

 exert it in helping to carry out every benevo- 

 lent project that came in his way. Wherever 



