Elizabeth "Eliza" Field (June 1, 1804 – August 17, 1890) was an English-born Canadian writer and artist. She was also known as Elizabeth Jones, Elizabeth Jones Carey and Kecheahgahmequa. ElizaFieldsDrawnByMatildaJones

Biography

The daughter of Charles Field, a soap and candle manufacturer, and Elizabeth Carter, she was born in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

and attended a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. When her mother died in 1820, she returned home to look after her younger brothers and sisters. In 1831, she met Peter Jones, an

Ojibwa The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

Methodist minister from Canada who was raising funds to support his missionary work; they married in New York City in 1833 despite opposition by her parents and many of her friends. They settled in a cabin on the Credit River Indian Reserve. She was frequently ill and suffered two miscarriages and two still births. However, she taught the children about Christianity and taught the young girls how to sew. She visited England in 1837–38 with her niece

Nahnebahwequa Nahnebahwequa (''Naaniibawikwe'' in the Fiero spelling, meaning "Standing-Upright Woman") or Catherine Bunch was an Ojibwa spokeswoman and Christian Missionary. Early life Born in the early fall of 1824 at the Credit River, now called Port Credi ...

and, when she returned, gave birth to a son. From 1841 to 1849, they worked at the Muncey mission near London in Canada West. Her husband's was frequently ill during this period. In 1851, they moved to a house in Brantford; her husband died five years later. In 1858, she married John Carey, a farmer from New York. It was not a happy marriage and she appears to have separated from Carey several years later. She taught painting in Brantford and continued to write for a time. Around 1880, she lost her sight. In 1838, she published ''Memoir of Elizabeth Jones, a little Indian girl'', an account of the life of her niece. In 1854, she received a prize for her miniature watercolours at the Upper Canada Provincial Exhibition. She arranged for the publication of Peter's diaries as ''Life and journals'' in 1860 and of his ''History of the Ojebway Indians'' in 1861. Field also added her own drawings to ''History''. She wrote ''Sketch of the life of Captain

Joseph Brant Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant (March 1743 – November 24, 1807) was a Mohawk people, Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York (state), New York, who was closely associated with Kingdom of Great Britain, Great B ...

, Thayendanagea'' which appeared in the ''New Dominion Monthly'' in 1872. Field died in Brantford at the age of 84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Elizabeth 1804 births 1890 deaths 19th-century Canadian women writers 19th-century Canadian writers 19th-century British women writers 19th-century English writers Canadian women painters English emigrants to pre-Confederation Canada Pseudonymous women writers People from Lambeth 19th-century British women artists Painters from London 19th-century pseudonymous writers