Field, DAVID DUDLEY, an American jurist, the eldest son of a Congregational minister (1781-1867), was born in Haddam, Connecticut, in 1805, and was admitted in 1828 to the New York bar, at which he practised until 1885, distinguishing himself especially by his labours in the direction of a reform of the judiciary system. In 1857 he was appointed by the state to prepare a political, civil, and penal code, of which the last has been adopted by New York, and all have been accepted by some other states. In 1866, by a proposal brought before the British Social Science Congress, he procured the appointment of a committee of jurists from the principal nations to prepare the outlines of an international code, which were presented in a report to the same congress in 1873. This movement resulted in the formation of an association for the reform of the law of nations, and for the substitution of arbitration for war, of which Mr Field was the first president (see INTERNATIONAL LAW, CODE). An LL.D. of Edinburgh, he presided over the London Peace Congress in 1890. He died 13th April 1894. His Speeches and Papers fill 3 vols. (1884-91).
His brother, STEPHEN JOHNSON FIELD, born in Haddam in 1816, was for some time a partner in Dudley's firm, and settled in 1850 in California, where he was instrumental in forming the laws of the state, and was judge of the Supreme Court in 1857-59. Appointed chief-justice in 1859, he was raised to the supreme bench of the United States in 1863, and voted with the Democratic minority of the electoral commission in 1877. In 1880 he received 65 votes on the first ballot for the presidential candidate.
Another brother, CYRUS WEST FIELD, was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1819, and at the age of fifteen entered the employment of A. T. Stewart, in New York. In the twelve years preceding 1853 he built up a prosperous paper-manufacturing business, from which he then partly retired, only to engage with great enthusiasm in the promotion of the Atlantic telegraph. For this he secured a charter from the colonial government of Newfoundland for fifty years; and, being joined by Peter Cooper and other American capitalists, he organised the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company in 1854, and the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1856. Devoting himself entirely to the work of 'mooring the New World alongside the Old,' he crossed the ocean repeatedly, labouring to arouse public interest in the project; and when the first cable was successfully laid in 1858 he was hailed by his countrymen with the enthusiasm his efforts had deserved. After a few weeks' operation the cable was silent; but he continued his exertions, although the civil war for a time absorbed all attention; and on the establishment in 1866 of the telegraphic communication between the two continents, which has never since been interrupted, he received from congress a gold medal and the thanks of the nation. He also was awarded the grand medal of the Paris Exhibition of 1867. He afterwards helped to develop the elevated railway system in the city of New York. He died in straitened circumstances on 12th July 1892. See ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.