Tan leather spine with cream mottled boards. Gilt lettering and emblems on the spine.

Warwick is a market town and county town in Warwickshire, England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is 11 miles (18 km) south of Coventry and adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whitnash. It has ancient origins and an array of historic buildings, notably from the Medieval, Stuart and Georgian eras. It was a major fortified settlement from the early Middle Ages, the most notable relic of this period being Warwick Castle, a major tourist attraction. Much was destroyed in the Great Fire of Warwick in 1694 and then rebuilt with fine 18th-century buildings, such as the Collegiate Church of St Mary and the Shire Hall. It is one of England’s smaller county towns – the population was estimated at 35,068 in 2020. This is historically because it was hardly touched by the industrial revolution, although its population has more than doubled since the 1960s.

Field was born at Stoke Newington on 6 January 1768. John Field, his father, a London medical practitioner, and founder of the London Annuity Society, was a man of property, who married Anne, daughter of Thomas Cromwell, a grocer, and sister of Oliver Cromwell. Field got a good classical training, while at school he corresponded with his father in Latin. He studied for the ministry first at Homerton but left that institution for doctrinal reasons soon after the appointment of John Fell. In 1788 he entered Daventry Academy under Thomas Belsham and left when Belsham resigned (June 1789).

Field kept a boarding-school for many years at Leam, near Warwick. This led to his publishing some educational manuals, of which the most valuable was his Questions on the Gospel History, recommended in the Critical Review (June 1794) to theological students in the two universities. His history of Warwick and his life of Parr are important works.

Field published a multitude of pamphlets and sermons,

• “Letter to the Inhabitants of Warwick,” &c., 1791, 8vo,
• “Letter to the Inhabitants … of Kenilworth,” &c., 1848, 12mo.

In addition to these his chief publications were:

• A Series of Questions … as a Guide to the Critical Study of the Four Gospels, &c., 1794, 12mo; second edition, printed 1805;

Copies were issued from time to time for private use (with various title pages), but it was not published till 1846, 12mo, with large introduction

• An Historical and Descriptive Account of … Warwick and … Leamington, &c., Warwick, 1815, 8vo (anon., “advertisement” signed W. F.; plates).
• Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel Parr, LL.D., 1828, 2 vols. 8vo.

Field was a frequent contributor of critical and other articles to the Monthly Repository and Christian Reformer.