1778 Apr 7        Born to parents Thomas Field and Mary Barber of Syke House, West Ardsley, Woodkirk
1778 Apr 19      It was Easter Sunday when he was baptised at St.Mary the Virgin, West Ardsley, Woodkirk.

John's birthplace still has annual Horse Fairs (Lee Fair and Lee Gap Fair) with Royal Charter awarded by King Stephen in the 1100s. From then it was a place where horse-tack of the highest quality would be bought and sold. Legend has it that patrons travelled across Europe to visit the Fairs.

1803 Sep 25      He married Sophia Crockford at St. Peter & St Paul, Borden, nr Sittingbourne, Kent.  
John's parish is recorded as St.Andrew's, Canterbury.
 
1806 Jan 5        Their daughter Sophia was baptised at St.Andrew's, Canterbury.
1807 Nov 22     Their son George Crockford was baptised at St.Andrew's.
1809 Nov 28     Their daughter Louisa Field was baptised at St.Andrew's, but believed to have died in infancy.

The family moved to London, close to Westminster Abbey.

1812 mm dd     Their daughter Louisa Favell Field was born in Westminster. (According to many Census returns)

1815 Oct 31 & Nov 01 victim of crimes.   In an archive of proceedings of the Old Bailey, London, J-B-F is shown as a 'hog butcher' who was plaintiff in a case of shop-lifting.
In another case, together with his young son George, he is shown again on the record as an injured party when George was victim of a street robbery. It is clear that the above events happened close to The Tower of London.  See my Old Bailey transcriptions here  = link

1816 Oct 12   Birth of their baby Thomas Crockford Field in London.
1816 Dec 24   (Christmas Eve) Thomas was baptised at St.George the Martyr on Borough High Street, Southwark, London. The church is famous in literature as the church where Charles Dickens' fictional character "Little Dorritt" was baptised. The family abode according to the register was Duke Street, St George's Field which is on the north side of the River Thames about 2 miles to the north-west; and his father's trade shown as "Victualler" (Inn-keeper ?).
1818 April   Sadly, toddler Thomas 18 months old died at the Spur Inn on the Borough High Street about 300 yards north  of the church where he was baptised. He was buried on Apr 19th in St. Saviour's churchyard Southwark.
As 'author' I wonder whether J-B-F and family moved from the Duke Street premises to manage the Spur Inn, as socially the two districts were, and still are, worlds apart.

By 1848 due to changing times and in particular the incoming railway-era the Spur Inn and its coaching services dwindled.

The  SPUR  INN  1827     (See URL)  

  

Drawn by J.C.Buckler

In the above image the terrace on the right is The Spur Inn and coffee room. On the left is the stable block.
On the wall of the inn, the Brewer's sign reads "Combe Delafield" which in the 20thC transformed into Watneys Ales.
The drawing is from a book by  William Rendle F.R.C.S. et al.   
For more detail click on the sketch, or follow this link :- "The Inns of Old Southwark and their Associations"
One of the nuggets of information to be seen is that in 1667 diarist Samual Pepys wrote about a serious fire at the Spur.  In that year folk would be rather twitchy about 'fires' given that the Great Fire of London happened in the previous year, albeit on the opposite bank of the River Thames.



Above, in more recent times Mr Prockter reveals
some of the Spur's ancient timbers.
 
1819 Apr 28     Baptism of their son Thomas II Ellis Field
1822 Aug 16     Baptism of their son John Lewis Field
1822 Sep 22     The above John and Thomas II were baptised at [1] Westminster, St.Margaret's (image)
The 'Westminster' baptism register quotes the family-abode as Webber Street (Lambeth) on the south bank of the River Thames, assumed to be J-B-F's butchers shop. (see 1815 Old Bailey transcripts above)

1830 Aug 08   At St. Mary's Lambeth, John's daughter (apparently a minor) Louisa Favell Field was married to Edward Stoner, carpenter and undertaker of Hercules Road, Lambeth.
Mr Stoner was a near neighbour of poet/painter/engraver William Blake (his words are in the libretto of the anthem 'Jerusalem'. Across the River Thames in Westminster Abbey a plaque commemorates the talents of William Blake.

1851 June 25   John Barber Field died aged 73. (Winterschladen family Bible)
Now for evidence of place?  When he died it was a Wednesday and only three working days before the commencement of registration Quarter 3. However, data at Ancestry.co.uk is incomplete - - a hand-written facsimile page is missing and we must rely on a summary page which leads us to 1851 Quarter 3 (burials?); & [2] Westminster, St.Margaret's (data); & Vol.1 p338 I favour this church record as in 1822 J-B-F's sons John and Thomas (II) were baptised there!
So, our saddler/hog butcher/Victualler seems to have been a parishioner at Westminster, St.Margaret from 1812 until 1851.

I believe there is a bloodline to this John Barber Field from Tudor mathmatician John Field the English proto-Copernican here who was also Astrologer of Princess Elizabeth Tudor b.1533 daughter of the ill-fated Anne Boleyn.
   
Three centuries before our John Barber Field the above proto-Copernican would have trodden the same London streets.
And they each knew their way around the parish of St.Mary's, West Ardsley, Woodkirk, West Yorkshire.

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