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FREDERICK FIELD INFORMATION

Frederick Field, a 19th century Cambridge Scholar and Church of England Clergyman, did valuable work on the Hexapla of Origen and also on the Homilies of John Chrysostom on Matthew and The Epistles of St Paul, where Field produced a well presented edition of the Greek text which is still used today.

Below is further information about Field and his life.

This page is in the process of construction and will be updated over the next few weeks.

Autobiography of Frederick Field (1801 – 1885) from his edition of the Hexapla of Origen (Oxford, 1875) where it appears in Latin. Translated by the Revd Andrew Maguire. Also there is an extract in memory of Field from the Cambridge Review of 6^th May, 1885.

It is the custom with educated Germans, to give an account of their life and studies and how they have sought to strive for the highest rewards that philosophy can bring. It has always seemed to me that it is far more appropriate to do this in mature years, rather than in youth; when one's life is reaching its conclusion rather than when one has hardly set out on life's course. Since, then, if God is good to me, I will have reached the end of my final literary labour following, as it were, a lengthy voyage to the harbour, I seek your indulgence, learned friends. I will briefly set out what has been achieved in my life beyond the common limit and who have been the promoters and supporters of my studies and endeavours.

I was born in London on the 20th July 1801 in an area whose name came from "New Gate". It was here that my father, Henry Field, and before him his father, and after him my eldest brother, practised the art of medicine for a long succession of years. My grandfather John Field married Anne, daughter of Thomas Cromwell, who was a London tradesman and a man of humble circumstances but of illustrious stock.  Indeed his father was Henry Cromwell, a Major, as he was called, in the army of Queen Anne. His grandfather, however, was Henry Cromwell who was Lord Deputy of Ireland and who was the younger son of Oliver Cromwell, Protector of the Republic of England, Scotland and Ireland. But enough of my ancestors! I return to my father, a man of great strength, integrity and piety, whose memory I will never be able to honour with the love and respect it deserves. He, while I was in my sixth year, was appointed doctor at Christ's Hospital school, founded by Edward VI. This enabled me to have free entry to the Grammar School of the said Christ's Hospital, first under the discipline of the excellent and loveable man Lancelot Pepys Stephens, A.M., master of the lower school. When I had advanced a little in age I transferred to the upper school which was then under the headship of Arthur William Trollope, S.T.P.. With him as a teacher, second to none of his contemporaries, I was eagerly instructed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew studies. When I left school in 1819 I was accepted by Trinity College, Cambridge, where, after six months, I became a scholar. My tutors in mathematical disciplines were John Brown, A.M., and William Whewell, A.M.. In classical learning, as it is called, my tutor was James Henry Monk, S.T.B., Regius Professor of Greek Literature. Through giving careful attention to his lectures I was easily able to manage without a personal tutor. After three years (whose daily instruction I recall with great pleasure) I was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the month of January 1823. At the same time I obtained the tenth place of first class in what they call the mathematical tripos. In March of the same year I was awarded the gold medal presented each year by the Chancellor of the University for progress in classical studies. Barely two months had passed when I entered into competition for a third time and I was considered worthy of the exhibition award instituted by Robert Tyrwhitt, A.M. for the advancement of Hebrew learning. In the next year, on the first of October, my most heartfelt prayer was answered when I was admitted, following examination, to the rank of Fellow of that most distinguished college. I had three colleagues of honour: Thomas Babington Macaulay, Poet, Orator and Historian; Henry Malden, Professor of Greek Literature at University College, London; and George Biddell Airy, Astronomer Royal. In the year 1828 I was ordained into holy orders by John Kay, S.T.P., Bishop of Lincoln. From that time I devoted myself to the study of Holy Scripture and the Church of the Fathers, though there was no public fruit of this until in the year 1839, with not inconsiderable toil and cost, I published the Homilies of Saint John Chrysostom on Matthew amended to be faithful to the manuscripts of the codices and the versions, and elucidated with notes. Not long afterwards I said farewell to my "Alma Mater" and took on for three years the pastoral care of Great Saxham in the Suffolk countryside. In 1842 the ecclesiastical benefice of Reepham with Kerdiston, whose patron is Trinity College, came to me by right of succession. In this most charming hamlet I spent twenty-one productive years, partly in the cure of souls (though there were not so many of them entrusted to me), and partly in pursuing those studies which could demonstrate God's glory and assist His Church. Lest I become long-winded, during this time, I edited a new edition in seven volumes of Chrysostom's homilies on the letters of St Paul (my delight). I did this as a favour for the "Bibliotheca Patrum Ecclesiae" (Library of the Fathers of the Church) which had been initiated by some Oxford clerics. In addition, at the request of the venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge I reviewed afresh the Grabian edition of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. Such merits as this work had, though shaped to the measure and direction of others, were openly recognised by Tischendorf in Prolegomenis ad V. T. juxta LXX interpretes (Preface to the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament), Lipsia, 1869, fourth edition. I had only just completed this task when there came to my mind the thought of a work which would bring close to full measure those which had gone before: a new edition of Origen's Hexapla which would satisfy the desires of our generation. If I was to bring this work to a fruitful conclusion then I sensed that whatever little remained to me of life and strength must be devoted to this one work. Therefore I resigned from my benefice, from whose revenues I was already amply supplied with all good things, and in 1863 I took myself to Norwich. From there in the following year, by way of a preliminary exercise, I sent out my Otium Norvicense (The Fruit of my Leisure in Norwich) or Tentamen de Reliquiis Aquilae, Symmachi et Theodotionis e lingua Syriaca in Graecam convertendis (An essay on translating the remaining fragments of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion from Syriac into Greek). I had in mind to publish what they call a “book by way of subscriptions”.  Such, however, is the contempt for good literature that this turned out so badly for me that I would have given up all hope of producing the work unless the Delegates of Oxford University Press, at the intervention of Robert Scott, S.T.P., Master of Baliol College, undertook to cover all the expenses of the new publication. For this, his kindness to me, a student of another Academy, I am supremely grateful.

What remains I will complete as swiftly as I am able. I hold steadfastly to the catholic faith as expounded by the Reformed Anglican Church.  Through the prevenient grace of God I have fortunately avoided errors and novelties, which have followed one after another with the passing of so many years, whether they be of the (so called) Evangelicals, or Rationalists, or (the latest sore) the Ritualists and Papists.  I have earnestly loved what is just and right both in private and public affairs; unjust outrages and assaults, whether of delirious monarchs or the mob aiming at tyranny, I have treated with unmitigated hatred and detestation. I have pursued a life in the shade and at leisure, not so that I can indulge in idleness, but so that I can have time for those matters in which I have sensed I may have some proficiency. For well-nigh forty years I have exerted myself in advancing good learning, particularly that which helps to shed light on the Divine Word, and this without patronage, material reward or preferment. Now that my life is nearing completion in old age, though still with a feeling of untested youth, I consider nothing more important than helping with advice, encouragement and opportunity those younger and more competent who are passing through the same field. I will do this as long as I have life and strength.

Written in Norwich on 16th September 1874.

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 The following is found in Field’s “Notes on the Translation of the New Testament, Being the Otium Norvicense (Pars Tertia)”, Cambridge, 1899.

To this autobiography (reprinted in “Notes on the New Testament….”) a few extracts may be added from a notice of Dr Field which was written (in English) by an intimate friend for the Cambridge Review of May 6, 1885¹.

“In 1870 he was invited to become a member of the Old Testament Revision Company, and although his deafness precluded him from taking part in the discussions, and he was never present at any of the meetings of the Company, he regularly contributed the most valuable suggestions, which like everything that he did were marked by a ripe and sober judgment. It was one of the few regrets which could have shadowed a life of such blameless simplicity that he did not see the completion of a work in which he was so profoundly interested. In a letter written on the 2nd of April (1885), in serene expectation of his approaching end, he said, ‘Although I should have been glad to see this part offspring of my brain completed and given to the public (as I have most providentially been spared to see other important “opera” of mine brought to their desired consummation), yet I am aware that this is a matter mostly beyond all human calculation, and that I have no right to expect that uniform success should be dealt out to me by a higher power.’

“In 1881, after the appearance of the Revised Version of the New Testament, and to some extent in consequence of it, he printed and circulated privately a third part of the Otium Norvicense, containing ‘Notes on Select Passages of the Greek Testament, chiefly with reference to recent English Versions.’... This was written when he had already entered upon his eighty-first year.

“The reading which he had undertaken in view of this work is one proof among many that the vita umbratilis et otiosa (a life in the shade and at leisure) which he desired was not idly spent.

“Although he sought no honours for himself, his great merits were recognised by the University, and in 1875 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him. In the same year he was elected to an honorary fellowship in his own College.

“At the ripe age of 83 he died on the 19th of April [1885], at his residence, 2, Carlton Terrace, Norwich.

“It is fitting that these short and simple annals of the life of a scholar of the antique type should be placed on record, that others may be encouraged by the example it affords of single-minded devotion to a lofty object.”

 ¹ For permission to use this notice my thanks are due to the Editor of the Cambridge Review.

 

SOME PHOTOS

Plaques in memory of Frederick Field at Trinity College (first), Cambridge and Reepham Church, (second) Norfolk.