Individual Details
Richard John FIELDS
(1744 - 1781)
Richard Fields : adventurer in the Indian trade
He was born c.1744 and came to South Carolina (from England or Virginia) with his father Richard Fields by 1754. Richard Fields Sr. was reimbursed by the legislature in January 1755 “for a Negro Slave of his that was executed for poisoning.” [SC Commons Journal of 8 Jan 1755, 12 Mar 1755, 9 May 1755]
Around 1765 or 1766 he met and married Susannah Emory (b.1750), daughter of William Emory (d.1770). It is likely they met near Charleston, probably at Goose Creek. This Susannah Emory was NOT the mother of Bushyhead (b.1758), the son of Captain John Stuart.
A 1766 deed locates Richard Fields Sr. on the Savannah River, on the South Carolina side, in what became the Abbeville District. [Langley, SC Deeds, III, 305]
By 1770 Richard Fields Jr. was established in the Indian trade with the Creek Indians of upper Georgia. Although he was married to a powerful Cherokee girl, the Cherokee trade was over-exploited and unprofitable after the Cherokee War (1762). After the murder of George Beck and Thomas Jackson by Creek Indians in 1771 in upper Georgia, Richard Fields was part of a group of traders that suggested the Creek Indians be allowed to pay off their debts to traders by transferring land to the traders. Indian Commissioner John Stuart (the father of Bushyhead) rejected the plan, though the governor of Georgia then presented it to the king. [Col Recs GA, Coleman XXVIII Pt 2, 351-361)]
It would be socially impossible for Richard Fields, a proud Englishman, to go to John Stuart, a proud Scotsman, with this plan if Stuart had fathered a child by the wife of Fields. It just would not happen. This is one of the more convincing facts toward proving that there were two Susannah Emorys.
Richard Fields died c.1781 in the Revolutionary War, probably as a British soldier or a loyalist. A Jacob Fields served with John Emory in a company of loyalists in Georgia. [Loyalists, I,470]
He was born c.1744 and came to South Carolina (from England or Virginia) with his father Richard Fields by 1754. Richard Fields Sr. was reimbursed by the legislature in January 1755 “for a Negro Slave of his that was executed for poisoning.” [SC Commons Journal of 8 Jan 1755, 12 Mar 1755, 9 May 1755]
Around 1765 or 1766 he met and married Susannah Emory (b.1750), daughter of William Emory (d.1770). It is likely they met near Charleston, probably at Goose Creek. This Susannah Emory was NOT the mother of Bushyhead (b.1758), the son of Captain John Stuart.
A 1766 deed locates Richard Fields Sr. on the Savannah River, on the South Carolina side, in what became the Abbeville District. [Langley, SC Deeds, III, 305]
By 1770 Richard Fields Jr. was established in the Indian trade with the Creek Indians of upper Georgia. Although he was married to a powerful Cherokee girl, the Cherokee trade was over-exploited and unprofitable after the Cherokee War (1762). After the murder of George Beck and Thomas Jackson by Creek Indians in 1771 in upper Georgia, Richard Fields was part of a group of traders that suggested the Creek Indians be allowed to pay off their debts to traders by transferring land to the traders. Indian Commissioner John Stuart (the father of Bushyhead) rejected the plan, though the governor of Georgia then presented it to the king. [Col Recs GA, Coleman XXVIII Pt 2, 351-361)]
It would be socially impossible for Richard Fields, a proud Englishman, to go to John Stuart, a proud Scotsman, with this plan if Stuart had fathered a child by the wife of Fields. It just would not happen. This is one of the more convincing facts toward proving that there were two Susannah Emorys.
Richard Fields died c.1781 in the Revolutionary War, probably as a British soldier or a loyalist. A Jacob Fields served with John Emory in a company of loyalists in Georgia. [Loyalists, I,470]
Events
| Birth | 1744 | England or Virginia | |||
| Death | 1781 | in the Revolutionary War, probably as a British soldier or a loyalist |
Families
| Spouse | Susannah Rebecca "Cherokee Raven" HEMBREE OR EMORY (1749 - 1844) |
| Child | John "Cherokee" FIELDS (1764 - ) |
| Child | Thomas "Cherokee" FIELDS (1766 - ) |
| Child | Susannah Su-Sa-Ni "Cherokee" FIELDS (1766 - ) |
| Child | Captain George "Cherokee" FIELDS (1765 - ) |
| Child | Luvica "Cherokee" FIELDS (1770 - ) |
| Child | Chief Richard Kalu-Gas "Cherokee" FIELDS (1771 - 1827) |
| Child | Rev. Turtle "Cherokee" FIELDS (1776 - 1844) |
| Father | Richard FIELDS (1714 - 1766) |
| Mother | Mary Susannah EMORY (1716 - ) |