Darby Field - is there any proof that he is the son of John Field of Boston, Lincs?

Question

I have been looking at Darby Field the emigrant to New Hampshire from the perspective of his supposed grandfather, the Reverend John Field of Cripplegate, London. I have found Pierce's genealogy for this branch of the family to be full of inaccuracies. (F.C Pierce "Field Genealogy" volume 2 page 949 onwards, see profile of [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Field-1908 John Field of Cripplegate] for more information.) 

There is no evidence that the Reverend Field's son John left London to live in Boston, Lincs. There was already a Field family in Boston, Lincs from at least the late 1500s. A John Field married Ellen Hochinson on 18 August 1607 (not 13 August 1609 as Pierce claims) at St Botolph's church, Boston, Lincs (the only church in Boston at the time). 

There are no children baptised at this church to a John Field. John Field died in 1624 and the widow Ellen Field in 1639 and both are buried at St Botolph. 

Pierce states that John Field signed the Exeter Combination in England which is obviously incorrect as it was signed in Exeter,  New Hampshire in 1639, and also 15 years after John had died. (Darby Field made his mark on the Exeter Combination.) There was no Darby Field baptised in Boston (or anywhere in England that I have found). He may well have been Irish as Winthrop described him. 

Is there any evidence which is not Pierce's unsourced work or a copy thereof? Otherwise I would suggest disconnecting him from his current supposed parents and making his birth place and date unknown. 

 Jo, England Project Managed Profiles team.

Comments

Jo, you might want to ask Beryl Meehan - she's the one who marked the parentage as confident in 2016 and did some other editing of the profile

---

Thank you for wanting to make this profile as accurate as possible, Jo.  I sent a message to Beryl so I think a response will be forthcoming.

Cheryl, PGM Leader

---

Marriage 18 August 1609 as per NEHGR Vol 23 (1869) page 185.  Within notes on Early Signers of the Exeter Combination

Ancestry.com - The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1847-2011

Please give your citations for the death dates:  "John Field died in 1624 and the widow Ellen Field in 1639 and both are buried at St Botolph."

 

---

"Lincolnshire Burials,"(https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FLINCS%2FBUR%2F00159559). Burial, John Feild, Male, 05 October 1624, Boston, St Botolph, Lincolnshire, England (accessed 25 January 2021); citing Lincolnshire Archives, GBPRS/LINCS/BUR/00159559

"Lincolnshire Burials,"(https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FLINCS%2FBUR%2F00161856). Burial, Ellen Field, Female, 05 August 1639, Boston, St Botolph, Lincolnshire, England (accessed 25 January 2021); citing Lincolnshire Archives, GBPRS/LINCS/BUR/00161856

Both have digital image of register

---

Thank You!!!

---

I also removed that "confident" in March 2019.

Change Details for Field-445 (wikitree.com)

---

I removed the Confident in March 2019.

Change Details for Field-445 (wikitree.com)

---

sincere thanks, Beryl!

---

Beryl - answered below about the marriage date so it didn't get missed in the comments. Jo

---

Jo, just a comment vs an "answer", there was an Anne Field, daughter of John buried at St. Botolph 5 Sep 1607 which would be just 3 weeks after the noted marriage so could be a different couple but interesting anyway (on findmypast.co.uk).  Haven't found a baptism record for her anywhere yet, as the dtr of John Field or illegitimate dtr of Ellen Hutchinson.

---

Thank you for looking for this @Brad. Interestingly it gives that relationship on the Bishops Transcript, but not in the parish register. There are also burials for an Elizabeth Feild (8 April 1607) and a Margaret Feild (18 April 1607) but unfortunately with no relationships given in either the BT or the Parish register. The BT's have very patchy coverage for Boston. 

Answer 1

Anderson's Great Migration Directory (New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015) has an entry for Darby Field:

[Origin:] Ireland; [Arrived:] 1636; [Resided:] Piscataqua

The first paragraph of the current Wikitree profile (which states he came from Boston, England), cites the 1979 Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. I have checked this reference and it does not support this claim. The only reference to his origins occurs in the first two sentences of his entry in the Dictionary as follows:

[FIELD,] DARBY, celebrated in his own day as the first white man (and an Irishman) to climb Mount Washington. In Boston in 1636, Marblehead 1637, he was an Indian interpr. by 1638; early hist. unknown.

The first name "Darby" is a common Anglicisation of the Irish name Diarmaid

Unless there is very recent research/documentation to supersede Anderson's 2015 assessment of his Irish origins (which is presumably based on Winthrop's description), I support your proposal, although perhaps there is sufficient evidence to enter his birthplace as "Ireland" with a status of "Uncertain".

Comments

I've moved Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire  to bottom profile as "other sources.

Answer 2

Beryl, you wrote:

Marriage 18 August 1609 as per NEHGR Vol 23 (1869) page 185.  Within notes on Early Signers of the Exeter Combination

Ancestry.com - The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1847-2011

Please give your citations for the death dates:  "John Field died in 1624 and the widow Ellen Field in 1639 and both are buried at St Botolph."

The parish register for St Boltolph, Boston at that time was a combined baptisms, marriages and burials register. For each year (Old Style) baptisms were listed in date order from April to March, then marriages, then burials. The entries for 1607 Baptisms start on image 18 on FindMyPast and the marriages on the following double page on image 19 The date is definitely 18 August 1607 for the marriage of John ffeild and Ellen Hochinson.

The parish register for Ellen's burial reads "Ellen ffield, widow" (Widow not included in the FMP transcription)

Answer 3

I've taken a look at the NEHGR 23:85 article.  I don't think that is intended to be an identification of parents, but really more of a clue to possible parents.  I think there's a presumption that Lincolnshire is the first place to look for origins of the early settlers in Exeter because of the possibility that they were followers of Wheelwright.  (That's my understanding, but I don't really know much about Exeter origins).  But with any of the early settlers who settle a new town as part of a group, the question would be, were they original followers or did they join up in New England.  

I've seen similar article about other Exeter Combination signers, and Anderson in the Great Migration Directory where he classified the source as a "clue."  I would say its notable that he didn't even include the NEHGR 23 article in the sources, but then again he also didn't include the removal to Exeter. Also, it is a little odd that he gives Darby's origin as Ireland, when origin is supposed to be where they migrated from and not where he was born.

Unless there is more conclusive evidence, I'd suggest detaching the parents and include links in a Disputed Parents Section (or maybe Possible parents) along with the Irish origins. I think that would be more consistent with the Great Migration information which is typically what we follow for PGM profiles.

Answer 4

There have been no further contributions to this thread since M Cole suggested (on 29th January) detaching Darby Field from John Field-1516 and Ellen Hochinson of Boston as parents.

I would support this, and would also add the "Frederick Clifton Pierce Fraud" category to Darby's profile and that of his "parents".

Can I also suggest that Darby's "brothers" (Henry and Robert) are disconnected from John Field-1516 as there is no evidence that John Field-1516 had any children in Boston.

There are also problems with FC Pierce's lineage further back  - I suggest unlinking the John Field-1516 of Boston, (but said to be born in Cripplegate, London in 1579) from his father John Field of Bradford, Yorkshire born 1418.

As the PMs for these other profiles are likely not to have been aware of this thread, I will leave comments on the profiles so they can join the discussion.

Comments

Darby Field is described by Winthrop as an Irishman, though some slight evidence has been discovered to connect his patronomic with the Hutchinson family.  Page 25 History of the Town of Exeter. https://books.google.ca/books?id=ngo1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=though+some+slight+evidence+has+been+discovered+to+connect+his+patronomic+with+the+Hutchinson+family.&source=bl&ots=DVLTMwcPNF&sig=ACfU3U0VvhbxAJ9GQeErjcgcE29agDigLg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjK-O2ey93uAhWXqp4KHXHwBIgQ6AEwBXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=though%20some%20slight%20evidence%20has%20been%20discovered%20to%20connect%20his%20patronomic%20with%20the%20Hutchinson%20family.&f=false

---

A familysearch record states: 

There is an article on him in DAR's American Spirit magazine May/June 2020 pg 41-43

Please, does anyone have this issue???

---

The NEHGR vol 23 only says that John Field and Ellen Hutchinson "had been married early enough to have had a son Darby...etc" but clearly does not make any attempt to say they actually WERE his parents (leaving aside that it had the wrong year on their marriage but to be fair, a '7' and a '9' can look alike and I don't think that alone makes a material difference since the article was off in a direction that supports rather than refutes the original statement).

There is a disputed parents section on Darby's profile, I'm going to add this bit of explanatory text there.  I agree with the recommendation to unlink the parents and note them unless new information arises.

---

One of the objections to Darby Field's Irish origins seems to be that "Field" is an English surname; therefore Winthrop must have been in error when describing him as Irish. See for example this 1908 article in The Journal of the Appalachian Mountain Club (vol. 11 p. 363). 

But Field is also an anglicization of the Irish surname, Ó Fithcheallaigh. There is contemporary evidence of Irish people recorded with the surname Field. For example, in the 1659 Census of Ireland, available from the Irish Manuscripts Commission, there are four Irish inhabitants with the surname "Field" in the Barony of Youghal (County Cork) (see page 200).

---

Thanks Nic, of course "Darby" is apparently the Anglicized version of the Irish name "Diarmaid" as described above so I'm personally not really giving weight to the "Irishman" origin, that could have been tossed out casually based on a name given for an ancestor several generations back who WAS Irish, or just based on not much at all.