David Dudley Field papers, circa 1820 -- 1869

Summary Information

Abstract

David Dudley Field was a Congregational minister and local historian. The collection includes four notebooks containing historical and ecclesiastical notes, minutes, journal entries, biographical and genealogical documents, and Church meeting summaries.

At a Glance

Arrangement

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in one alphabetical series.

• David Dudley Field papers, circa 1820 -- 1869

Description

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of four notebooks which contain personal and historical notes, meeting minutes, reflections, and summaries, including church meeting records from Haddam, Connecticut; notes regarding families in the town of Haddam and a treatise of Reverend Henry Whitfield; biographical and genealogical notes concerning families of Middletown and Durham, Connecticut, the Chauncy family, the Battle of Brimington, and old Church Records from Stockbridge; and historical and ecclesiastical notes regarding the Laws of the Colony of Connecticut in Religion; minutes of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and Associations of Connecticut, and personal entries related to a Tour of St. Louis in 1845 and the Great West of America.

• David Dudley Field papers, circa 1820 -- 1869

  This series consists of four notebooks which contain personal and historical notes, meeting minutes, reflections, and summaries, including church meeting records from Haddam, Connecticut; notes regarding families in the town of Haddam and a treatise of Reverend Henry Whitfield; biographical and genealogical notes concerning families of Middletown and Durham, Connecticut, the Chauncy family, the Battle of Brimington, and old Church Records from Stockbridge; and historical and ecclesiastical notes regarding the Laws of the Colony of Connecticut in Religion; minutes of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and Associations of Connecticut, and personal entries related to a Tour of St. Louis in 1845 and the Great West of America.

Burke Library record group:

Union Theological Seminary Archives: UTS 1, papers of faculty and students

Using the Collection

Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

The following boxes are located offsite: Box 1. Please note that requests for use of boxes held in offsite storage must be made three business days in advance.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.

Preferred Citation

Item description, UTS 1: David Dudley Field papers, circa 1820-1869, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Custodial History

These papers are part of the Union Theological Seminary Archives, which comprises institutional and administrative records of the Seminary, combined with the papers of many organizations, scholars, pastors, laypersons, and others connected with the school. The materials in this collection were part of a large group of unprocessed material that was organized in 2015.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The exact provenance of this collection is unknown.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary

Processing Information

Material was cataloged by Lynn A. Grove on 1988-07-11. The notebooks were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. The notebooks were also stabilized with binding ties and wrapped in protective paper. The finding aid was created by David Mucz in 2015 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2020.

Revision Description

2020-09-25 PDF converted to EAD and description updated by Leah Edelman.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

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Genre/Form

Subject

History / Biographical Note

Biographical / Historical

Reverend David Dudley Field was born May 20, 1781 in East Guilford, now Madison, Connecticut. His father was Captain Timothy Field, a former officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Field graduated from Yale in 1802 where he received theological training under Yale President Timothy Dwight, a political conservative and scholar. After college he continued his theological studies in Somers, Connecticut under the supervision of Reverend Dr. Charles Backus. Throughout his academic and professional career he exhibited a natural fondness for historical and geological research. In September 1803 he became licensed to preach. The following month he married Submit Dickinson on October 31. Together they had nine children: David Dudley Jr., Emelia, Timothy, Matthew, Jonathan, Stephen Johnson, Cyrus West, Henry Martyn and Mary. On April 4, 1804 Field became pastor in Haddam, Connecticut. In 1818 he resigned from this position and over the next five months undertook a missionary tour in Western New York under the direction of the Old Connecticut Missionary Society. Field next became the pastor of the Congregational Church in Stockbridge Massachusetts from 1819 to 1837. He resigned and retook his old position in Haddam on April 11, 1837, and in the same year he received a Doctorate of Divinity from Williams College. Field retired in 1851 and returned to Stockbridge, where he died on April 15, 1867.