Hickson Woolman Field (1788-1873)

He was born at Flushing, Long Island, and went to New York City when he was eighteen to work in the counting house of his elder brother, Moses, at Bradhurst & Field. After acquiring some commercial experience in 1808 he took a ship to Guadaloupe but on the return voyage was captured by the British and held for 50-days in Antigua. Having had another cargo of coffee and sugar impounded by the Dutch, he travelled between London, Cadiz, Palermo and New York before establishing himself as a commission merchant in London. Not long afterwards the Non-Importation Act was passed and he left for Holland with George Astor, nephew of the famous John Jacob Astor.

In defiance of French prohibition they landed a smuggling boat at the mouth of the Elbe and after several narrow escapes reached Oldenburg. From there they went to Bremen where they were interrogated and granted bail by Meyer of Meyer & Co. After a visit to Copenhagen, he returned to America just before the start of the War of 1812. In New York, he joined a militia company known as the "Iron Greys" and served throughout the war. After peace was declared, he established a successful commercial house in New York which eventually allowed him to take an apartment at the Palazzo Colonna, Rome, where several other members of his family lived with him, eg., his nephew Osgood Field. In 1818, he married Eleanor Kingsland, daughter of William DeForest. They were survived by two of their three children. After she died he married Catherine, daughter of his brother's business partner, Dr. Samuel Bradhurst. She died at Nice in France without issue.