ARNOLD & FIELD
( Daniel Arnold & Richard M. Field )

by Richard Slaney
June 1, 2000
    This was a Providence, R.I. toolmaking partnership between Daniel Arnold and Richard Montgomery Field. Daniel Arnold was born in 1775.1Richard M. Field was born July 8, 1775 .2 Richard M. Field is the Field of " Fuller & Field", a toolmaking partnership in Providence , RI that included Joseph Fuller Jr., the adopted son of Joseph Fuller. Daniel Arnold is the son of Nehemiah Arnold, a house-wright who lived in Providence from 1785 through 1833.3 Daniel Arnold may have apprenticed in Joseph Fuller's toolmaking shop.4 Here Daniel would have worked beside Richard M. Field and his older brother Joseph Fuller Jr. (born Joseph Field). When the "Fuller & Field" partnership ended, probably around 1805, Daniel Arnold joined with Richard M. Field and together they made the woodworking planes that are stamped "Arnold & Field".5

    The "Arnold & Field" planes are ten inches long, made of birch, have flat chamfers and fluting, and have relieved wedges. The "Arnold & Field" planes, like the "Fuller & Field" planes, borrow from a style of planemaking that was developed in the workshop of Joseph Fuller around 1790. There are less than five "Arnold & Field" planes that survive today. This toolmaking partnership could not have lasted much more than one year. The presence in Providence of the older and more established toolmakers Joseph Fuller and John Lindenberger would have made it difficult for the younger toolmakers trained in Providence to stay there and be financially successful at their trade.6

Notes:

1.  Daniel Arnold died April 17, 1862, "in the 88 year of his age. His obituary is in the Providence Journal, April 18, 1862. I was not able to find a record of the day and month of his birth.

2.  Richard M. Field died in 1843. Harriet A. Brownell, Genealogy Of The Fields. Providence, 1878, p.53. See also his cemetery records at North Burial Ground, Prov., R.I.

3.  Daniel Arnold was the first born son of Nehemiah Arnold. The fifth son of Nehemiah was Anthony B. Arnold, born May 14, 1791. In 1816 Anthony B. Arnold married Abby Fuller, the daughter of Joseph Fuller Jr. (see Biographlcal Cyclopedia Of Rhode Island. Providence, 188l, p.256.)

4. Daniel Arnold was fourteen years old in 1789 and his father Nehemiah would have been thinking about a trade or job situation for his son. Because he lived on the west side of Providence in the same neighborhood where Joseph Fuller lived and worked, Nehemiah Arnold would have known Joseph Fuller. A housewright, Nehemiah may have purchased some of his tools at the Fuller shop. My guess is that Nehemiah saw in toolmaking a better future for his son than he could expect in the uncertain world of the housewright.

5. Daniel Arnold and Richard M. Field had more in common than toolmaking. In 1799 they sailed together as crewmen on the ship "Ann and Hope" from Providence to China, a six month voyage. The original logbook of the "Ann and Hope" for this voyage still exists, and on the page titled "Officers and People belonging to Ship" is the name "Richard M. Field" followed immediately by the name of "Daniel Arnold". Each man is called a "landsman", a term that meant an inexperienced seaman or sailor. (The logbook of the "Ann and Hope" is in Manuscripts Dept. at the R.I. Historical Society Library.)

6. Both Daniel Arnold and Richard M. Field left behind the world of the mechanic or artificer and spent most of their adult lives as traders and merchants. Daniel Arnold is called a "merchant" in an 1806 land deed and until his death in 1862 he played an important role in the civic and commercial affairs of Providence. In 1811 he leased Peck's Wharf on the Providence River and built there stores and warehouses that became the center of his commercial empire. Two of his younger brothers, Anthony B. Arnold and Stephen Arnold, followed his example and became prosperous traders involved in the shipping business.

Richard M. Field is called a "mariner" in a 1813 land deed and a "merchant" in land deeds from 1816 through 1824.

* A note on researching "Arnold"

    Two R.I. tool researchers, Robert Bills and Barry Weaver, told me about a Nehemiah Arnold, a Providence house-wright, whose son Anthony B. Arnold married in 1816 Abby Fuller, the daughter of Joseph Fuller Jr. I researched the life of Nehemiah Arnold expecting to discover that he was the Arnold of "Arnold & Field.. What I learned showed that Nehemiah Arnold could have been the toolmaker. He lived on the west side of the city in the same neighborhood where Joseph Fuller lived and worked. Nehemiah Arnold and Joseph Fuller were both members in the 1790's of the Providence Association Of Mechanics And Manufacturers. And some of Nehemiah's children were involved in the same church where Joseph Fuller worshiped. But Nehemiah Arnold, born in 1748, was twenty seven years older than Richard M. Field who was the Field of "Arnold &  Field". The age difference, I felt, was too great between two men who had different trades. Nehemiah was a house-wright and Richard M. Field was trained as a toolmaker. A better fit seemed to be Daniel Arnold, Nehemiah's oldest son, who could very well have apprenticed to Joseph Fuller. Daniel was the same age as Richard M. Field. Nehemiah's other sons were all born after 1775 and were younger than Richard M. Field. I felt that if Richard M. Field had been the older partner, his name would have gone first on the "Arnold & Field" stamp.