Introduction
In April 1881, eighteen-year-old Edith Harris Earle Field worked as a teacher at Hardington Rectory. At that time, her employers, the Reverend William Vassall and his wife, had seven children under the age of fifteen at home. Edith’s half-sister, Frances Peers Field, was a governess at the Rectory in April 1871.
Edith’s father, John Field, was a prominent prison reformer, and several of her siblings and half-siblings achieved notable careers dedicated to religious practice and social welfare.
Childhood
Edith was born on 18 April 1862 at West Rounton, Yorkshire, the fourth of nine children born to John and Elizabeth Field. Her father, John, was the rector of West Rounton and the author of several books on crime and the prison system. Her mother, Elizabeth, was the only daughter of the late William Welch, Esquire, of Southall, Middlesex.[1]
John Field had been married twice before and had two children from his first marriage and four from his second.
While most of the children received a boarding school education, it remains unknown which school Edith attended.
Two of Edith’s half-siblings died young. John Peers Field drowned at the age of sixteen on 24 June 1863, while swimming with three cousins in the River Thames near Benson (or Bensington, as it was then called).[2] Mary Elizabeth Overton Field passed away at the age of 37 on 30 January 1878, at the London Diocesan Deaconess Institution.[3]
Hardington Rectory
In April 1881, eighteen-year-old Edith was a teacher boarding at Hardington Rectory, where her half-sister Frances Peers Field had worked as a governess in April 1871.
Father’s death
In April 1884, Edith’s father resigned from his living for health reasons and retired to York, where he died three months later.[4] He left an estate valued at £2,899 17s 2d, which he bequeathed entirely to his wife.[5]
Emigration
Edith emigrated to Australia in December 1884. Four years later, in 1888, she married Percy Croysdill in Sydney. Percy was the son of Henry Croysdill, a public accountant, who died in Islington, London, in 1876, leaving an estate valued at “under £4,000.”
Death
Percy died in 1916 at about 51 years of age, and Edith died on 1 December 1937 at the age of 75.
References
[1] Morning Chronicle, 20 February 1857, p.8.
[2] Oxford University and City Herald,4 July 1863, p.11; Brighton Guardian, 15 July 1863, p.5.
[3] Probate Calendar.
[4] North Star (Darlington), 2 August 1884, p.3.
[5] The will of John Field, dated 13 May 1871, proved at the Principal Registry on 18 September 1884.
