He brought an action of ejectment in the name of himself and Mary Almira to recover possession of a tenement in Windsor of which she was the owner, and secured judgment without any defence being offered.

He secured the indictment of one of her brothers in the United States District Court for having opened one of his letters to his wife.

He presented a statement of the facts of the abduction and bigamous marriage of Mary Almira to the Grand Jury of Windsor County, and procured an indictment against her two brothers and Mary Almira and Jeremiah “for conspiracy to carry her without the state of Vermont” to become the bigamous wife of Jeremiah.

He followed Jeremiah and Mary to Boston in July, 1833, and laid the matter before the Grand Jury there, but before any action could be taken Jeremiah and Mary Almira “withdrew from the city of Boston, left New England, took passage at the city of New York in an outward bound vessel, and retired to the other side of the Atlantic.”

Out of one of the actions instituted in the name of Roswell Field and Mary Almira, his wife, grew a libel suit, brought by Mistress Susanna against him, in which the special pleas drawn and filed by Roswell Field were pronounced by Justice Story “to be masterpieces of special pleading.”  Through all these proceedings Mr. Field disclaimed all intention or wish “to visit legal pains and penalties” upon his wife, whom he regarded “as the victim and scapegoat of a wicked conspiracy.”

Finally, and after the birth of a child, Jeremiah and Mary Almira were forced to bring a suit for the nullification of the Putney marriage.  Field met the complaint with a plea that set out all the facts.  He contended that, as the Putney marriage was between persons of legal discretion and consent, there could be no condition that would render it voidable at the election of either.  Every law and precedent was in favor of the inviolability of the Putney marriage, and yet so powerful were the family influences and so distressing would have been the results of a finding in his favor, that the lower court preferred to disregard precedents and law rather than illegitimatize the innocent children of Jeremiah and Mary.  The same view was taken by the higher court, which absolved Mary of “being fully acquainted with the legal consequences of a solemnization of marriage.”  The court itself was forced to regard the ceremony as “a promise or engagement to marry,” rather than a completed and sacred contract.  The opinion as rendered is one long apology for declaring the Putney marriage invalid, in order to save Mary Almira from the crime of bigamy and her children from being the offspring of an illicit union.