Additional information on the Field family.

Joseph Field was the son of William and Jane Field. He received seventeen pounds in 1748 from his father's will in Tyrone Township, Lancaster (now Adams) County, Pennsylvania. Along with his mother, brothers, and sisters, he moved to what are present day Guilford and Randolph Counties, North Carolina. The first record of Joseph in North Carolina was on 15 April 1761 when Robert Field and his wife Anne sold him 186.5 acres on a line dividing Orange and Rowan Counties for 10 pounds Virginia money.¹ It was probably about this time that he was married to Lydia Julian, the daughter of Peter Julian and Mary Beals. Joseph appeared in a 1768 Rowan tax list.² On 12 May 1772 Joseph witnessed a deed from Jeremiah and Susanna Reynolds to William Fields on the North Fork of Polecat Creek in Guilford County.³

The Field family were Loyalists during the American Revolution. William, Robert, Joseph, and Jeremiah Field surrendered themselves about 10 February 1776, shortly before the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge.

William Field in a petition to the North Carolina General Assembly in 1785 stated that he had been one the persons called Regulators, and had been compelled to take an Oath of Allegiance to the then King. ".....he thought it Incumbent (u)p(o)n him at the time the British & American Contest began to Interfere in behalf of sd King under the Restriction aforesd and in Complyance with Orders dericted from the late Govr Josiah Martin.....he did Imbodie some Royalists and attempted to march to Wilmington but Broke up at one Ditto's in Chatham County where they had marched...my wife receiving som Information from persons in the County, If your petitioner would Surrender himself and arms at Guilford Courthouse he would receive no Injury which he comply'd with; the committee then setting propsd to him the Signing, an association paper which he declined for the reasons before mentioned, he was then order'd to Guilford Goals.....from thence to Halifax, & from thence to Fredericktown in Maryland at which place he was detained a prisoner some time before the Independence of the United States was declared. there your petitioner Sufferd a Years Imprisonment and was afterward Sent to the British Army, where he was offerd a Commission, which he was Glad to receive for subsistance....."⁴

A list of prisoners in the Halifax goal (jail) on 5 April 1776 showed Col. William Field, Leut. Col. Robert Fields, and Captains of the Foots Jeremiah and Joseph Fields.⁵ By 19 May 1776 they had been moved to Frederick County, Maryland where they were ordered to be held prisoner in the Poor House of Abraham Faw. They were each to receive one pound of flour or bread, three pints of peas or other vegetables equivalent, and one quart of Indian meal per week, and a gill of vinegar and a gill of molasses per day.⁶

On 12 October 1776 Mary Field, Lyde Field, Ann Field and Lyde Field, along with wives of other Guilford County men, petitioned the Council of Safety at Halifax of the release of their husbands who had been taken prisoner about the 10th of February last.⁷

On 24 February 1777 William, Robert, Jeremiah and Joseph Field, along with others, petitioned from Frederick Town, Maryland to Gov. Caswell and the then convention of North Carolina. They stated they had been confined as supposed enemies to their country since 12 February 1776; they pray for leave to return to their families on parole, giving security for their good behavior.⁸ Robert Field, Jeremiah Field and Joseph Field, among others, escaped from their confinement, for on 25 April 1777 in Guilford County, North Carolina they petitioned the Governor, Council, and Representatives showing that they were confined fourteen months without benefit of parole; a desire to see their families led them to break custody from Frederick Town, Maryland; on arriving home they gave bail for their appearance before any court in the province; they pray that they may not again be removed from their families.⁹

William Field was still held prisoner, for on 19 April 1777 eighteen petitioners to the Governor, Council, and Assembly signed asking for the parole on security of William Fields, confined in the jail at Frederick Town, Maryland.¹⁰

William Field's 1785 petition stated he was sent to the British Army. This may have been a prisoner exchange. After arriving in Guilford County and seeing his family, Joseph Field perhaps returned to Maryland to secure William's release at about the same time he was sent to the British Army. Joseph may have been captured or joined the British Army with William, for both appear on a list of North Carolina Loyalists paid at New York. Joseph Field was number 38, being paid from 5 February 1776 to 27 October 1778 for 995 days.¹¹

It is uncertain what happened to Joseph Field after this time. On 23 February 1780 Col. John Paisley, Col. John Gillaspy, and James Miller, Commissioners for Guilford County sold 33 sheep, 11 cows, 1 calf, 13 steers, 4 yearlings, 1 heifer, and 7 young cattle. They were the property of William and Joseph Fields. Col. James Martin bought for 250 pounds, 198 acres formerly Joseph Fields property. Also sold were two slaves, formerly the property of William Fields.¹²

In the summer of 1780, another band of Loyalists was recruited in North Carolina. This entire force of Loyalists was either killed or captured on 7 October 1780 at the Battle of King's Mountain, South Carolina.

Joseph Field's widow Lydia secondly married to William Armfield and settled on South Buffalo Creek in Guilford County. Her son Joseph B. Armfield by this second marriage stated that his mother's first husband was killed at the Battle of King's Mountain.¹³ Lydia's second husband, William Armfield wrote his will in Guilford County on 28 March 1804 and it was probated in May 1812.¹⁴ Among those named were his wife Lydia and son Joseph who was to get all his estate at the decease or remarriage of his wife Lydia. Lydia died in 1819.

1 Rowan Co., North Carolina Deeds 4: 401-402, FHL microfilm 0,313,544.
2 North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal, 9: 214.
3 Guilford County, North Carolina Deeds 1: 129-130, accessed on-line from Guilford County Register of Deeds.
4 North Carolina Legislative Papers, Box #61, year of 1785, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.
5 Military Collection, Troop Returns, Militia and Cont. Returns (Box): 1770-78. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.
6 "Journal of the Committee of Observation of the Middle District of Frederick Co., Maryland," Maryland Historical Magazine 11:309-313.
7 The Colonial Records of North Carolina, (Raleigh: P. M. Hale), 10: 841.
8 D. L. Corbitt, Calendars of Manuscript Collections, (Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Company, 1926) 1: 106.
9 Corbitt, Calendars of Manuscript Collections, 1:107
10 Corbitt, Calendars of Manuscript Collections, 1: 107.
11 Murtie June Clark, Loyalists in the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1981), 346.
12 Dr. A. B. Pruitt, Abstracts of Sales of Confiscated Loyalists Land and Property in North Carolina, (no location: Pruitt, 1989), 45-46.
13 Sallie W. Stockard, The History of Guilford County, North Carolina, (Knoxville, Tenn.: Gaul Ogden Co., 1902), 151.
14 William Armfield, Senr. will, Guilford Co. original wills, NC State Archives, FHL microfilm 1,571,680.

1. Peter FIELD b: in Rowan (now Guilford Co.), NC
2. Patience FIELD b: ABT 1768 in Rowan (now Guilford Co.), NC
3. Mary FIELD b: 8/25 Sep 1770 in Guilford Co., NC
4. Ann FIELD b: in Guilford Co., NC
5. * Lydia FIELD b: ABT 1776 in Guilford Co., NC