William Scholefield

[1] He was a leading figure in the politics of the rapidly growing industrial town of Birmingham in the mid-nineteenth century,[2] serving as the first mayor in 1838–39, and one of the constituency's two Members of Parliament from 1847 to 1867.

[1] Following a number of years in Canada and the United States, where he had married Jane Matilda Miller of New York, Scholefield returned to Birmingham in 1837 to work in his father's business.

He duly acted as returning officer for the inaugural borough elections in December 1838, and at the meeting of the new town council was unanimously chosen as first mayor of Birmingham.

[1] Three years later a general election was called, and Scholefield was returned along with the sitting Radical MP, George Frederick Muntz.

On occasion he found himself outside the mainstream of Liberal politics, in particular opposing the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, and by supporting the Union States during the American Civil War.