Mountaineering in 1642: Darby Field and Native Americans Climb Mount Washington in New Hampshire
Darby Field: 1610-1650. (Maternal Tenth Great-Grandfather)
When we think of mountain climbers, we tend to think about
modern mountaineering with top-of-the line, high-tech gear, or we think about
Edmund Hillary becoming the first man, along with his guide Tenzing Norgay, to
scale Mount Everest in 1953. However, mountains have called to the adventurous
long before the twentieth century. I discovered that my
tenth-great-grandfather, Darby Field, was a seventeenth century mountaineer,
scaling Mount Washington in New Hampshire in 1642! He was the first European
immigrant to make the ascent, using the most primitive of equipment and with
the help of at least two indigenous men.
 |
| Mount Washington in New Hampshire's White Mountains |
Darby Field was likely born in 1610 in the Boston Borough,
Lincolnshire, England. While some colonists claimed he was an Irishman, it
appears his parents were English, tentatively identified as John Amyas Field
and Elen Hutchinson Field who were married in Boston, England on August 18,
1609.
Darby Field seems to have arrived in the Massachusetts
Colony at some point in the mid-1630s. He signed the Exeter Compact in 1639, although
he did not remain in Exeter. He was involved in several land transactions
around that time. According to Wikipedia, “he settled in Durham, New Hampshire,
by 1638, where he ran a ferry from what is now called Durham Point to the town
of Newington, across Little Bay. He was known as an Indian translator.” This
area was then called the Oyster River Plantation.
 |
| 1639 Exeter Compact with Darby Field's signature second from top in middle column |
Field married a woman named Agnes Roberts before or around
1631, and they had at least five children, including my ancestor, Mary Field. The
other children included sons Joseph and Zachariah Field, and daughters
Elizabeth and Sarah Field.
Field’s Indian language skills served him well in his most
famous adventure. In 1642, at the age of 32 or 33, he set out to climb a New
Hampshire mountain now called Mount Washington. At 6,288 feet, it’s the highest
peak in the northeastern United States.
With the help of two Native American men, he reached the
summit. Natives had told the colonists that the mountain’s peak had glittering
crystals and shiny stones. Field seemed to have hoped the stones were diamonds,
so his adventure probably had a financial motive.
Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop wrote about
Darby Field’s feat in his journal in 1642:
"One Darby Field, an Irishman, living about
Piscataquack, being accompanied with two Indians, went to the top of the white
hill. He made his journey in 18 days. His relation at his return was, that it
was about one hundred miles from Saco, that after 40 miles travel, he did, for
the most part, ascend; and within 12 miles of the top was neither tree nor
grass, but low savins [shrubs], which they went upon the top of sometimes, but
a continual ascent upon rocks, on a ridge between two valleys filled with snow,
out of which came two branches of Saco river, which met at the foot of the hill
where was an Indian town of some 200 people. Some of them accompanied him
within 8 miles of the top, but durst go no further, telling him that no Indian
ever dared to go higher, and that he would die if he went. So they staid there
till his return, and his two Indians took courage by his example and went with
him. They went divers times through the thick clouds for a good space, and
within 4 miles of the top, they had no clouds but very cold. By the way among
the rocks, there were two ponds, one a blackish water, and the other reddish
[the Lakes of the Clouds]. The top of all was plain about 60 feet square. On
the north side was such a precipice [the Great Gulf], as they could scarcely
discern to the bottom. They had neither cloud nor wind on the top, and moderate
heat. All the country about him seemed a level, except here and there a hill
rising above the rest, and far beneath them. He saw to the north, a great water
which he judged to be 100 miles broad, but could see no land beyond it."
Unfortunately, the crystals and shiny stones the natives had
mentioned turned out to be quartz and sheets of mica, also called Muscovy
glass, so Field’s excursion did not leave him wealthy.
 |
| Vintage Postcard of Mt. Washington taken from Darby Field, an open area named for him. |
Following his exploration of the White Mountains, Darby
Field continued to live in the Oyster River area. He received a license to sell
wine in 1644, presumably turning part of his dwelling house at Durham Point
into a tavern. Field sold this house to John Bickford in 1645, and the house
was later fortified into a garrison house, probably in the 1680s.
 |
| Map showing likely location of Darby Smith's house and tavern |
Darby Field and his family were still living in the Oyster
River settlement until at least 1649. Valentine Hill, another of my ancestors,
sold a property in 1649, and the transaction record notes that Darby Field was
dwelling on the property. Tragically, not long after that sale, Field seems to
have suffered some sort of mental illness, which left him “disordered”. The
community of Strawberry Bank was made responsible for his care and support by
the colonial court in 1649 or 1650. He died around 1650, and his estate was
probated in 1651. Field was only about forty years old at the time of his
death.
Darby Field’s amazing accomplishment in the great outdoors has
been recognized on a historical marker along New Hampshire Route 16. In
addition, Mount Field in the Willey Range of the White Mountains is named in
his honor.
 |
| Mount Field in the Willey Range, named to honor Darby Field |
Several other place names in the Durham area also feature
the Field name. The location of his former home along Durham Point has been
excavated by a team of archeologists and volunteers. They unearthed some of the
foundation stones from the house, along with a variety of seventeenth century
artifacts, probably from the period when the Bickford family owned the house.
Sources:
The Pioneers of Maine and New Hampshire 1623-1660. Charles
Henry Pope. Boston Mass. 1908. Pg. 67-68.
The Ancestry of J. G. Williams and Ursula Miller by Jim
Schneider and Holly Rubin. Lulu Press. 2013. Pgs. 144-46. https://books.google.com/books?id=Hgu1BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA145&lpg=PA145&dq=darby+field
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darby_Field
Vital Records from the New England Historical and
Genealogical Register. John Field marriage in 1609. Online database.
AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014.
(Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and
Genealogical Register.)
Vital Records from the New England Historical and
Genealogical Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England
Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally
published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB522/rd/21070/38/1426611978
“Hard by the Water’s Edge: A Preliminary Report of the Darby
Field Homestead-Bickford Garrison (27-ST-71 Excavations.” Brown, Craig J.;
Greenly, Mark; Lunt, Richard W., and Sablock, Peter. The New Hampshire
Archeologist. Vol. 54, 2014, Number 1, pages 14-38. https://www.academia.edu/28173770/Hard_By_The_Waters_Edge_A_Preliminary_Report_of_the_Darby_Field_Bickford_Garrison_27_ST_71_Excavations
Mount Field photo from Wikimedia Commons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Field_%28New_Hampshire%29#/media/File:Mtfieldprofile.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment