BENTLEY and RELATED FAMILIES
Chapter 10: William FIELD (c1770s->1798)
The name surname Field derives from the Old English feld, which means open space or field.
Our Field family lived in the same part of North Worcestershire/South Staffordshire as the Coopers. The earliest known Field is William. He was probably born around 1720 and had at least four children, three daughters and a son, by his wife, Mary. The family lived in Halesowen parish. The son, William, married Hannah Hadley in Halesowen parish church on 31 August 1778. William and Hannah had at least eight children. The children were all baptised in Halesowen parish church in the period 1779 to 1798. Something is known of the lives of only three of the children, William, Joseph and Benjamin. William was a carpenter who lived on Park Lane in Langley. His son John was also a carpenter, and his daughter Sarah a dressmaker. Joseph, a sawyer living in Langley Green, fathered eight children.
Like Joseph, Benjamin first became a sawyer. He would have helped saw round logs in to usable beams and planks. He lived in Langley/Langley Green all his life. By 1825 he had progressed to the trade of carpenter, which he followed until his death in September 1838. There were a number of other Fields in the sawyer and carpentry occupations in Langley area the first half of the nineteenth century, it is probable that they were related and that wood working was a family tradition.
Benjamin fathered nine children by his wife Phoebe. After her husband died Phoebe maintained herself by dressmaking, which she will have done from home. Three of her children worked with wood; William was a sawyer, Thomas became a foreman at a box maker’s and Benjamin too became a sawyer after working as a puddler in an iron foundry. Thomas lived at 13 Bridge Street, Harbourne, with his wife and Charlotte. The couple had seven of their children at home on the night of 3/4 April 1881, when the census was taken. One of their daughters was a dressmaker and two worked as teachers. One son was a fitter, another an errand boy. On the same night Benjamin was at home on Vicarage Road, Langley Green, with his wife, Rachel, and five children. The oldest son was a coach builder at the time.
John became a glassmaker and blower; a highly skilled profession, for which he probably served a long apprenticeship. He lived all his life in Langley/Langley Green, but moved several times within a few streets. On 15 May 1848 he married Rebecca Gething at Christ Church, Quinton. The couple first lived with Rebecca’s parents at 70 Halesowen Street in the mid 1850’s, they moved first to Bridge Street, then 71 Hobicus Lane in about 1860. At this latter address they were only four doors away from the Bradley family, with whom the Coopers would later be closely associated. In 1881 John and Rebecca lived 2 Whyley Street, when five of the eleven children were still at home. Their first child possibly died as an infant. Catherine married James Cooper (chapter 9), and looked after her younger sister, Emma, for a time. Joseph followed his father’s profession. Nothing is known of the fate of the other children of John and Rebecca.
It is not known when John and Rebecca died.
William FIELD m.Mary -….Hannah FIELD b.1748
….Nancy FIELD b.1751
….William FIELD b.c1753 m.Hannah HADLEY
……..John FIELD b.1779
……..Richard FIELD b.1781
……..Mary FIELD b.1783
……..William FIELD b.1785 d.>1841 m.Sarah -
…………Hannah FIELD b.c1816 d.>1841
…………John FIELD b.1820 d.>1841
…………Sarah FIELD b.c1821 d.>1841
…………Joseph FIELD b.1823
…………Miriam FIELD b.c1831 d.>1841
…………Sarah FIELD b.c1839 d.>1841
……..Sarah FIELD b.1787
……..Joseph FIELD b.1793 m.<1818 Hannah -
…………Martha FIELD b.1818
…………Ann FIELD b.1818
…………Thomas FIELD b.1818 d.>1841
…………Edward FIELD b.1821
…………William FIELD b.1823 d.<1829
…………Emma FIELD b.c1828 d.>1841
…………William FIELD b.c1829 d.>1841
…………Joseph FIELD b.c1832 d.>1841
….Deborah FIELD b.1795
….Benjamin FIELD b.1798 d.1838 m.Phoebe -
……..William FIELD b.1818
……..Harriet FIELD b.1820
……..Caroline FIELD b.1822
……..Thomas FIELD b.1825 m.Charlotte -
…………Julia A. FIELD b.c1850
…………Thomas H. FIELD b.c1859 d.>1881
…………Pheobe FIELD b.c1861 d.>1881
…………Clara FIELD b.c1863 d.>1881
…………Lucy Jane FIELD b.c1865 d.>1881
…………William FIELD b.c1867 d.>1881
…………Robert FIELD b.c1870 d.>1881
……..Edward FIELD b.1827 d.>1881 m.Mary COMPTON
…………Edward FIELD b.1850 d.>1881 m.Elizabeth FIELD
…………….Annie E. FIELD b.c1876 d.>1881
…………….Clara FIELD b.c1878 d.>1881
…………….Edward FIELD b.c1880 d.>1881
…………James FIELD b.c1852 d.>1871
……..John FIELD b.1829 d.>1881m.Rebecca GETHING (chapter 11)
…………George FIELD b.c1850 d. BEF 1861
…………Catherine FIELD b.c1851 d.1934 m.James COOPER (chapter 9)
…………Mary FIELD b.c1855 d.>1871
…………Sarah FIELD b.1858 d.>1871
…………Emma FIELD b.1860 d.>1881
…………Ann FIELD b.c1861 d.>1871
…………Joseph FIELD b.c1865 d.>1881
…………Alice FIELD b.c1867 d.>1881
…………Hannah/Harriet FIELD b.c1870 d.>1881
…………John FIELD b.c1872 d.>1881
…………Phoebe FIELD b.c1875 d.>1881
……..Benjamin FIELD b.1833 d.>1881 m.Rachel -
…………Sarah Ann FIELD b.c1860 d.>1881
…………Phoebe Jane FIELD b.c1865 d.>1881
…………Benjamin FIELD b.c1866 d.>1881
…………David Taylor FIELD b.c1870 d.>1881
…………Harry FIELD b.c1875 d.>1881
……..Ann FIELD b.c1836 d.>1841
……..Phebe FIELD b.c1839 d.>1851
….Alice FIELD b.1756
