The Field Family

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The Field family probably migrated to Tanworth from King's Norton, where the name was common in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. William Afyllde of Tanworth was a member of the Guild of Knowle in 1520, and in 1571 John Field was one of the tenants of the manor at Sir Robert Throckmorton's Survey. The Latter dated in 1575, leaving land at Wood End to his son Thomas, who was baptised at Tanworth in 1559.

Thomas Field, who owned land at Dansy Green, had a very big family, and among his numerous grandchildren was one Poole Field, the first of many Fields of that Christian name, which was probably the maiden name of his mother. In his will, dated 3rd April 1674 and also in the Tanworth Registers he is described as "Gentleman." Poole Field appears to be the first member of the family to own Jerring's Hall, situated between Shirley and Salter Street, and the Fields remained there almost to the present day, a matter of about two centuries and a half. The estate is very old, as are portions of the house, a Roger Gerin, of Thaneworth, being seated there in 1282; while the Bentfords owned it for many generations before it came into possession of Poole Field.

Among other children Poole Field left an eldest son, John, who also was succeeded by a son - John. The latter, John Field of Jerring's Hall married Anne Woollaston and died in 1752, devising Jerring's Hall to his eldest son, Poole. Among his other children was a daughter, Hester, who married Richard Insull, of Light Hall, a near neighbour. Poole Field died in 1756, leaving Jerring's Hall to his eldest son, also Poole, who died unmarried in 1782, leaving it to his younger brother, Richard, who, at the death of Richard Insull the Following year, also became possessed of Bragg's Farm. This farm was probably the home of the Bragg family in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, when the name disappears from the Tanworth Registers, after having been fairly frequently met with.

"The Fields of Jerring's Hall were sometimes referred to as "of Blackford." Blackford House, Shirley Heath, for generations the name of the Beach family is nearby, and the immediate neighbourhood was often called Blackford. The Beaches were early makers of scales at Blackford, the business being later transferred to Digbeth, Birmingham, where it was a forerunner of the great firm of Avery. The Beaches being inter married with that family."

In 1638 Bragg's Farm was in possession of a John Field, of Rowington, and a few years later came into the Willes family, being settled on Henry Willes and Mary Field at their marriage in 1676. It later passed from the Willes family to Richard Clarke, from whom Richard Insull purchased it, leaving it in 1783 to Richard Field. Whether the John Field who owned it in 1638 was of the same family as the Tanworth Fields, I know not. The place is still owned by a descendant of the Fields, Mrs Dennison, a daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Kemp, of Warwick, whose writings on Warwickshire history are well known.

Richard Field died in 1791. His wife was Isabel Lea, and by her he had twelve children. The eldest son, Richard, married to Elizabeth Horton, of Elliott's Hall, received Jerring's Hall, Bragg's Farm going to the second son, William, married to Hannah Field, of another branch of the family. The eldest daughter married the first John Burman of Light Hall, and another married Henry Tarleton, of the Botley family.

The family having now split into two branches, we will follow the senior branch of Jerring's Hall to its extinction. Richard Field died in 1865, at the age of 56, leaving one son and two daughters, married to Richard Burman, of Houndsfield, and William Steen. Poole Field, the son, married Sarah Avery; leaving a son, also Poole. He married Emma Cole, and died in 1865, leaving among other issue, a son, Harry, with whom the Field connection with Jerring's Hall ceases. Reverting to Bragg's Farm, we have seen that William Field inherited the farm from his father in 1791. He died in 1823, leaving six children. The eldest, Mary, married Thomas Burman, of Lady Lane; the second child, William, married Catherine Kemp, and leaving no issue, bequeathed Bragg's Farm to his younger brother, Richard; and the youngest child, Esther, married Thomas Kemp.

Richard Field remained a bachelor, living to the great age of 88, and leaving at his death in 1884, Bragg's Farm to his nephew, Thomas Kemp, the son of his sister. With his death the Bragg's Farm Fields come to an end.

The Field family always took an interest in local and church affairs, John Field, of Jerring's Hall, being churchwarden in 1715 and 17I6, one Poole Field in 1755, another in 1776, another in 1820, yet another in 1841, and William Field, of Bragg's Farm, in 1842-4.

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