The Fields had been in Fairlight for at least 3 generations and worked on the land either as agricultural labourers or farmers.
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Their births were registered at St Andrews Fairlight
Richard Field 1691-1742 and Mary
Richard Field 1712 and Elizabeth Foster
James Field 1759 – 1824 and Hannah Pope
Samuel Field 1786 and Sarah Standen. 1785 -1848
Thomas Standen Field was the eldest child of Samuel and Sarah .Thomas was born in Fairlight Hastings Sussex. He was born in 1809. (1) (9)
The name Standen is found as a middle name in a number of the Field descendents.
His mother Sarah Standen was born in nearby Pett but her grandfather was a yeomen from Fairlight.
Thomas married Jane Woodgate on 31st May 1834 in St George’s parish church Benenden near Cranbrook Kent (2) .
St George’s parish church Benenden
How he got to be in Kent is at the moment unknown
Jane was born on 31 May in 1813 Hawkhurst Kent. She had a twin sister Mary. Her parents were
George Woodgate and Ann Gurr.
They were baptised at The Church of St Lawrence Hawkhurst
Jane later lived with her sister’s eldest child George Woodgate Jackson
In 1841 Thomas was working as a miller and the family were living in the parish of Sandhurst in the hundred of Selbrittenden (part of the Cranbrook area)
Thomas Field and Jane Woodgate had 3 children
Samuel Woodgate Field, born in 1836 Tenterden/Benenden
| Tenterden in the 1830s |
George Albert Field in 1844.
Samuel the eldest became a grocer in Hastings
Thomas possibly remained single , lived in Woodchurch and worked as a letter carrier
George was as an agricultural labourer and later a domestic gardener working for The Workhouse in Sandhurst Kent.
In 1846 Thomas Standen Field died. Jane had to bring up her 3 children without a husband. She never remarried and began to work. In the 1851 census she is working as a pauper school teacher/matron in Sandford, Kent
There is no record of Jane in the 1861 census but by 1871 she was living with Richard Thomas Vidler and his wife Caroline nee Field in St Leonards. Caroline was Thomas’s sister although in the census Jane is described as an Aunt. Jane’s son Samuel gave his eldest daughter Bertha the middle name Vidler – possibly to repay a kindness in taking Jane into their home.
Richard Vidler was a confectioner and baker. They lived in 12 Silver hill Clarence Terrace Hastings (Jane’s son Samuel was also living in Hastings) Jane is recorded as working as a nurse; possibly within The Workhouse.
The Hastings Gazette carries a report of a gas explosion Gas Blast
From the Hastings News of 24/06/1870
Someone looking for a gas leak with a candle at 12 Clarence Terrace, Silverhill, set off an explosion which burned their arms and face, blew out windows and lifted the roof.
By 1881 Jane was living with her sister’s son George Woodgate Jackson and family in Pale House Common Framfield, Uckfield Sussex .George is working as a stockman, Jane continues to work as a nurse.
Finally Jane’s death is recorded in Cranbrook in 1899 in the parish of Cranbrook at the age of 89.
Jane did not live with any of her own children.
Samuel her eldest child seems to have been the one who achieved the most with his career, becoming a self employed grocer, Samuel had left school by the age of 14 and was working as an errand boy .Ten years later in 1861 (3) at Age 25 Samuel was working as an assistant in a high class wine merchant in The Strand(number 20) Westminster London.
(this is number 23)
Samuel returned to Sussex and married in Hastings in 1865. He married Matilda Veness 1840 – 1920.
By 1867 Samuel had started his own grocery business- (4) at 21 Norman’s rd Hastings. They also began their family:
They had 7 children
Arthur William Field 1867 – 1912
Bertha Vidler Field 1868 –
Frank Samuel Field 1871 – 1939
Percy George Field 1872 –
Jenny Emma Field 1874 –
Florence'Nina' May Field 1876
Stanley Edgar Field 1877 – 
Left to right? Tots(jenny?) , Frank, Fanny(Florence/Nina), Stanley(chips)Samuel, Percy, Matilda, Arthur and Bertha
While his children were young Samuel employed two staff (5).His business continued and in 1881 his profession is listed as Master Grocer this time at 77 Norman’s rd (6) .
His eldest son Arthur at 14 is listed as a scholar. There are no live in staff (7). In the 1891 census Samuel is still working as a grocer. His son Arthur had married but was working with him as a grocer’s assistant. Frank was working as a grocer’s assistant in the Old Kent Rd London.
Percy had joined the army,The Royal Lancaster Regiment .Florence is a pupil teacher at 15 and Stanley , 14 is a scholar. Bertha and Jenny have no profession listed.
By 1901 Samuel and his wife Matilda had retired from their grocery business and were living with their daughter Bertha and her husband Charles Knowsley in The Viaduct 45 Mile End Rd London a public house they ran.
Their son Percy was also living with Bertha and Charles, possibly on leave as he was a soldier.
Samuel Woodgate Field died in 1909 at 12 Silverlands rd Hastings, his son Arthur’s home .
In the next census 1911 Matilda is living in Eastbourne with her daughter Bertha and husband Charles Knowsley (now retired victualler age 54) They are living at 42 Carlton Rd Eastbourne a house with 7 rooms which the family ran as a business (listed in the Kelly’s directory as apartments)
Matilda died at the age of 80 in 1920.
Bertha married at the age of 25 years. She married Charles Knowsley .Charles was originally from Exeter but at the age of 35 he was unmarried and living with his mother at 12 London rd Hastings working as a publican manager. (where the modern post office building is now) Five years later in 1894 he married Bertha They did not have any children.
Arthur Field
Arthur worked for his father as a grocer’s assistant but it was difficult to make a good living and he became a relieving officer for District 4 in Hastings, a job which he kept until his death in 1912. He died young at the age of 46 of ‘Diabetes Exhaustion and Cardiac failure’ (8). His son Charles was only 7 years old.
Arthur living at 12 Silverlands rd Hastings 1901 with his wife and eldest child Dorothy. He married his wife Elizabeth Martin in 1888 .They had 4 children.
Dorothy Field 1889 – 1976
Lionel Woodgate Field 1894 – 1898
Lillian Field 1898 – 1898
Charles Knowsley Field 1905 – 1984
Charles has written a detailed account of his life.
Florence Field ‘Nina’ married Quintilian Hoskin J Kimber in Hastings. She was 22 years old. They lived in Tottenham London. Stanley lived with them in 1901,he was working as a teacher It was considered that Nina married well. Quin’s uncle was the first MP for Wandsworth and later a Baronet, the title remains with the Kimber family to this day.
Quintillian was an engineer by trade .The 1901census says he is a bucket manufacturer and merchant.
Sometime after 1911 they returned to Sussex and settled in Eastbourne. They did not have any children.
Percy joined The King’s own Regiment (Royal Lancaster) at the age of 21 in 1893.At the time he was working as a Draper’s assistant in Hastings. After his army service he probably worked in London as 2 of his children were born here and then the family moved back to Sussex where he worked as a labourer on a chicken farm Hailsham He later went on to work in Hellingly as an attendant at the hospital. He married and had 3 children Ethel,Doris and Percy
Stanley worked as a teacher in a Council school in London. His first wife died.He married again. He had a son Eric from his 2nd marriage.
George was as an agricultural labourer and later a domestic gardener working for The Workhouse in Sandhurst Kent. George stayed close to where he was born in Kent.
George married Frances Verrall .They had 2 children Jane b 1867 – , Thomas Standen Field 1869.Frances died and Thomas married Elizabeth Stapley. They had a son
Lewis George Field 1886. Lewis moved to Fulham London married lillian Maud Turner
1887 – 1979 and worked as a water repairer.They had a son Edmund born in Clapham in 1911
Bibliography
1. census. 1841. 1841.
2. cranbrook marriages. mid kent marriage index. [Online]
3. Narchive. 1861. [Online]
4. 1867, sussex and Kent directory. ancestry. [Online]
5. archive, national. 1871 census. [Online]
6. directory, kellys. 1882 Kellys directory. [Online]
7. archive, national. 1881 census. [Online]
8. —. death certificate.
9.Sussex parish Registers(online)
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