Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/477

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FIELD
FIGUERA
451

expired term of John R. ^Thompson, who died in office. While a member of that body he delivered an able argument on the discharge of state prison- ers, in which he maintained that the right to sus- pend the writ of habeas corpus resided not in con- gress, but in the president. On 21 Jan., 1863, he was appointed by President Lincoln U. S. district judge for the district of New Jersey, which office he held until his death. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Philadelphia convention, and throughout his life he was an unflinching advocate of the Union cause. After his elevation to the bench he lived in comparative seclusion in his luxurious home at Princeton. Judge Field was a man of varied and profound learning, gentle, courteous, and dignified, and of a charitable disposition. He was closely identified with the interests of his alma mater, which in return conferred upon him, in 1859, the degree of LL. D. Judge Field, at the time of his decease, was president of the New Jer- sey historical society, and for many years a valu able contributor to its publications. " The Provin cial Courts of New Jersey," etc., forming the third volume of the " Collections " (1849), is probably his most valuable contribution to historical research. Among his best-known addresses, all of which have been printed, are those " On the Trial of the Rev. William Tennent for Perjury in 1742" (1851); "The Power of Habit" (1855); "The Constitution not a Compact between Sovereign States" (1861); " On the Life and Character of Chief -Just ice Horn- blower " (1865) ; and " x\n Oration on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln " (1866).


FIELD, Samuel, philanthropist, b. in Delaware county. Pa., 12 Aug., 1823. He is a Philadelphia merchant, a ruling elder of the Walnut street Presbyterian church, and remarkable for his ear- nestness in forwarding every form of Christian ac- tivity. He is exceedingly liberal, and scarcely ever fails to respond to any proper appeal to his sympa- thies. For many years he has belonged to the Presbyterian board of education, and has taken a leading part in the establishment of the hospital under the management of that denomination. The organization of the Presbyterian home for widows and single women and the Presbyterian orphanage are also largely due to his earnest and judicious efl'orts. Mr. Field has several times represented his presbytery in the general assembly.


FIELD, Thomas Warren, educator, b. at Onondaga Hill, N. Y., in 1820; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 25 Nov., 1881. He removed to Williamsburg. N. Y., in 1843. and engaged in teaching, surveying, and the cultivation of fruit and flowers. In 1873 he was appointed superintendent of public schools in Brooklyn, N. Y., which office he held at the time of his death. He was an ardent student and col- lector in American history and ethnology. He published a small volume of poems ; " Pear Cult- ure" (1858): "A History of the Battle of Long Island " (" Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society," vol. ii., 1869) ; " Historic and Antiqua- rian Scenes in Brooklyn and Vicinity " (1868) ; "An Essay toward an Indian Bibliography " (1873) ; and left a large manuscript A^olume of " Aj)hor- isms," selected and original.


FIELDING, William Stevens, Canadian journalist, b. in Halifax, 24 Nov., 1848. He was educated in his native city, and has been connected for many years with the Halifax " Morning Chronicle." At the convention of the Liberal party held in Halifax after the resignation of the Thomson government in 1882, he declined the portfolios of premier and provincial secretary. In December of the same year he became a member of the administration of W. T. Pipes, and on the latter's retirement in July, 1884, reorganized the administration, becoming premier and pi'ovincial secretary. He was first returned to the Nova Scotia house of assembly in 1882, and was re-elected in 1884.


FIELDS, James Thomas, publisher, b. in Portsmouth, N. H.. 31 Dec, 1817; d. in Boston, 24 April, 1881. At the age of four years he lost his father. The lad was educated in a high school in his native place, and in 1834 went to Boston to be- come clerk in a book-store. In his eighteenth year he read the anniversary poem before the Boston mer- cantile library association. Soon after he reached the age of twenty-one he became a partner in the publishing firm of Ticknor, Reed & Fields, and continued a member of it till 1870, when he retired. From 1862 until 1870 Mr. Fields was edit- or of the " Atlantic Monthly." Meanwhile he had lectured before the societies of Harvard and Dart- mouth, and in 1867 re- ceived from the latter the degree of LL. D. After the close of his publishing career Fields lectured suc- cessfully, chiefly on

literary subjects, throughout the large cities of the northern states. He had seen much of literary society, had been intimate with many eminent men, and possessed a special faculty of entertaining and instructing his audiences. He made four visits to Europe— in 1847, 1851, 1859, and 1869. His pub- lished volumes include " Poems " (Boston, 1849 ; 2d ed., Cambridge, 1854); "A few Verses for a few Friends " (Boston, 1858) ; " Yesterdays with Au- thors " (1872) ; " Hawthorne " (1876) ; and " In and out of Doors with Charles Dickens " (1876). In conjunction with Edwin P. Whipple he edited the " Family Library of English Poetry" (1877). — His wife, Annie Adams, has published " Under the Olive," poems (Boston, 1880), several pamphlets, and a "Memoir of James T. Fields" (1881).


FIGUEIRA, Luiz, Portuguese missionary, b. in Alniodovar, Portugal, 1585 ; d. in Brazil in July, 1643. He belonged to the Jesuit order, and was sent on the Brazilian mission. lie was the companion of the Jesuit Pinto, who, while preaching the gos- pel among the Tayupes, a tribe near Pernambuco, was killed by these cannibals. Figueira fortunate- ly escaped, and returned to Pernambuco. He was appointed superior of the college of that city, and afterward made head of all the Jesuit missions on the Amazon. He then went to Portugal with the object of finding missionaries to share his labors, and was returning with several companions when, just as his ship was entering the mouth of the Amazon, a storm arose, and he was wrecked on an island inhabited by the Aruans. These barbarians massacred Figueira with thirteen of his compan- ions, and devoured their bodies. Figueira wrote " Arte da Grannnatica da Lingua Brazilica " (Lis- bon, 1687). The library of the Jesuit college in Rome contains French translations of these other works of Figueira, the originals of which are lost : " Voyages de decouvertes a travers les pays des Tayupes " and " Etablissements fondes par le pere Figueira chez les sauvages au Maranham."