In April 1871, Frances Peers Field, aged 26, was a governess at Hardington Rectory. Her employers, the Rev William Vassall and his wife, had eight children at home.

Her half-sister, Edith, was a teacher boarding at the Rectory in 1881.

Introduction

Frances’s father was an influential prison reformer, and she and several of her siblings achieved notable careers dedicated to religious practice and social welfare.

Early Life in Reading

Frances was born at Reading on 14 March 1845. Her father, John Field, was the chaplain of Berkshire County Goal from 1840 to 1858.[1] He was born to Baptist parents, who joined the established church and paid for their son to attend Magdalen Hall, Oxford. After graduating in 1835, he became an Anglican priest.[2]

Frances’s mother, Frances, was the daughter of the Rev. John Peers, the Perpetual Curate of Lane End, Buckinghamshire.

Frances’s mother died at Reading on 9 December 1855.[3] She left six young children: Frances, John, Charles, Emily, and two stepdaughters from her husband’s first marriage.

On 17 February 1857, John Field married for a third time. His new wife was Elizabeth Welch, the only daughter of the late William Welch, Esquire, of Southall, Middlesex.[4] John had another nine children with her, bringing his total children to fifteen.

Move to Yorkshire

In April 1858, the Archbishop of York instituted her father to the Rectory of West Rounton, North Yorkshire, on the presentation of the Queen.[5] He remained rector there until April 1884, when he resigned for health reasons. He died in York three months later, leaving an estate worth £2,900, which he bequeathed entirely to his wife.[6]

Most of the children, including Frances, received a boarding school education. In 1861, she was a pupil at St Mary’s Hall, Brighton.

On 24 June 1863, Frances’s brother, John Peers Field, drowned while swimming with three of his cousins in the River Thames near Benson (or Bensington, as it was called then). He was only sixteen years of age.

Life at Hardington

By September 1870, Frances was working at Hardington Rectory, although the following advertisement shows she had plans to find a new position:

CLERGYMAN’S DAUGHTER, well educated abroad, requires a RE-ENGAGEMENT. Good drawing and painting, but no music. Address Miss Field, Hardington Rectory, Yeovil.[7]

She was, however, still at the Rectory on census day six months later.

Life in Anglican Sisterhoods

At some point in the next ten years, she decided to adopt a celibate and religious life within an Anglican community, where she cared for the sick, the poor and morally stigmatised. By April 1881, she was a Sister of Charity at Holy Cross Home, Newington Terrace, Newington. By April 1891, she was the head Sister of Mercy at a Home for Nurses at 37 Monkgate in York.

In adopting the religious life, Frances continued the family tradition of active involvement in Anglican institutions. Her brother, Charles Neale Field, was a prominent figure in this regard, enjoying a distinguished career as a priest in Philadelphia.[8]

Frances also had female exemplars. By 1871, her half-sister, Mary, had joined the North London Diocesan Deaconess Institution, which enrolled Christian Gentlewomen to perform parochial work, teaching in schools and visiting and nursing the sick. She remained a member of the group until she died in 1878.

Two other examples were Frances’ sister Emily, who, by 1881, had become a Sister of Mercy at a refuge for fallen women at St Winnow, Cornwall, and a cousin who was a Sister of Mercy at the same place.

Frances died on 27 March 1901, aged 56, at the Holy Cross Home, Haywards Heath, where her sister, Emily, and her half-sister, Marianne, were both nuns.

References

[1] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1868, p.228.

[2]  Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886, p.460.

[3] Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 15 December 1855, p.3.

[4] Morning Chronicle, 20 February 1857, p.8.

[5] Yorkshire Gazette, 24 April 1858, p.7.

[6] The will of John Field, dated 13 May 1871, proved at the Principal Registry on 18 September 1884.

[7] John Bull, 24 September 1870, p.14.

[8] Steven Haws CR, The Cowley Fathers in Philadelphia (2019).