David Dudley Field II - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

He was born in Haddam, Connecticut. He was the oldest of the eight sons and two daughters of the Rev. David Dudley Field I, a Congregational minister and local historian, and Submit Dickenson Field. He graduated from Williams College in 1825 and settled in New York City, where he studied law. After his admission to the bar in 1828, he rapidly won a high position in his profession.

In 1829, Field married Jane Lucinda Hopkins, with whom he had three children: Dudley, Jeanie, and Isabella. After his wife's death in 1836, Field remarried twice, first to Harriet Davidson (d. 1864) and second to Mary E. Carr (d. 1874). The eldest child, Dudley Field, followed in his father's footsteps and studied law. He was made a partner in his father's practice in 1854.

Over the next few years, Field became convinced that the common law in America, and particularly in New York state, needed radical changes in the unification and simplification of its procedure. In 1836, he went to Europe for a thorough investigation of the courts, procedure, and codes of England, France and other countries. He then returned to the US and labored to bring about a codification of its common law procedure.

Several of his siblings also accomplished great things. Among his brothers were Stephen Johnson Field, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Cyrus Field, the millionaire investor and creator of the Atlantic Cable, and Rev. Henry Martyn Field, a prominent clergyman and travel writer.