He was the eldest son of Moses Field and Susan Kittridge, daughter of Samuel Osgood, first Commissioner of the U. S. Treasury.

From March, 1843, till November, 1845, he spent in European and Asiatic travel, and then resumed his studies in N. Y., where he was admitted to the bar in Jan., 1848, and was for several years in partnership with his cousin, Hon.

His health having failed, he visited Europe again in the spring of 1848, and a third time in the autumn of 1854, when he was solicited to fill the position of Secretary of the U. S. Legation at Paris, which he accepted.

In October, 1863, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Treasury at Washington, which office he resigned June 15, 1865, on the failure of his health.

"[7][8] Field wrote in a letter to The New York Times: "that there was 'no apparent suffering, no convulsive action, no rattling of the throat...[only] a mere cessation of breathing'...

[11] Judge Field manifested his interest in Yale by serving as chairman of the executive committee of the Woolsey Fund, from its organization in 1871 until his death.