Catherine Field
Catherine Field
An Irish landlady whose tenants get themselves into trouble.
From the Card:
- At age 13 you marry John Field, a leather worker and businessman. As an Irish couple in Protestant Boston, your lives are difficult.
- You run a boarding house near the center of town where you live with your husband and five children.
- On the night of the Boston Massacre, one of your tenants tries to leave the house with a sword. Luckily you, and several others in the house, convince him to leave it behind.
- After the war, your husband dies and you support yourself by selling vegetables.
Catherine Field shows the way that the small Irish community of 18th century Boston was tightly knit. She married a fellow Irishman and her husband’s employee, who was also Irish, rented a room in their house. Catherine Field also shows us the way that many women in the 18th century worked extended their expected role as keepers of the home into the working as Landladies.
For more on Catherine Field, try:
- John Field: Breaches Maker from the blog Boston 1775- This article mentions what is known about Catherine Field's husband, John but also gives information on Catherine herself.
- The History of the Boston Massacre edited by Frederick Kidder: This book contains the transcript of the Boston Massacre trial in which Catherine Field testified as a defense witness.
Social Network
