Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/433

 to his death Scholefield was continuously harassed by disputes over the restoration of the church. Himself a low-churchman, he was also constantly assailed on points of doctrine (cf., Vindication of Anglican Reformers: an Examination of Scholefield's Discourses, 1841; other pamphlets by same, 1842, 1843). The result was a disastrous division among the parishioners. He preached for the last time at St. Michael's on 26 Sept. 1852. He died suddenly, at Hastings, on 4 April 1853, being buried at Fairlight, Hastings. His wife died on 27 Sept. 1867. One son, the Rev. J. E. Scholefield of Warwick, survived him.

Scholefield examined for several years at Christ's Hospital, and he did a vast quantity of unremunerated work for Cambridge charities and for candidates for orders. He spoke constantly at missionary meetings, and was sole trustee of the Cambridge Servants' Training Institution from its foundation. The Scholefield theological prize, founded at Cambridge in 1856 by public subscription, appropriately commemorates him. He was a successful teacher. Though his lectures were not profound, he presented the views of other scholars with admirable clearness. He held that Porson's followers attended too exclusively to verbal criticism. His successor in the Greek chair, Dr. William Hepworth Thompson [q. v.], bore testimony to the practical value of his lectures, and Dr. Benjamin Hall Kennedy [q. v.] pronounced him ‘a sound scholar, with fair critical acumen, but lacking in imagination and taste.’

There is a portrait of him, presented by George Francis Joseph, A.R.A. [q. v.], in the possession of his son. In addition to a number of sermons, Scholefield published ‘Passion Week,’ 1828, seven editions, and ‘Hints for an improved Translation of the New Testament,’ 1832; 2nd, 1836; 3rd, 1850; 4th, by W. Selwyn, 1857; appendix, 1849. He edited, besides the works noted: 1. ‘Psalm and Hymn Book,’ 1823, eleven editions. 2. ‘Middleton on the Greek Article,’ 1828. 3. ‘Archbishop Leighton's Prælectiones, and other Latin Remains,’ 1828; 2nd ed. 1837. 4. ‘Æschylus' Eumenides,’ 1843. 5. ‘Archbishop Ussher's Answer to a Jesuit,’ 1835. 6. ‘Works of Bishop James Pilkington,’ 1842. 7. ‘Bishop Jewel on the Sacraments,’ 1848. 8. ‘Parallel Greek and English Testament,’ 1836; 2nd ed. 1850; 3rd, 1857; new ed. by Scrivener, 1895.

[Memoir by his widow, with notes by W. Selwyn, canon of Ely, London, 1855; Julian's Hymnology, p. 1015; Funeral Sermons by T. T. Perowne and H. Venn; Gent. Mag. 1827 ii. 270, 1853 i. 664; information from the Rev. J. E. Scholefield.]

 SCHOLEFIELD, WILLIAM (1809–1867), politician, born in 1809 in the ‘Old Square,’ Birmingham (now absorbed in new buildings), was second son of (1744–1844), M.P. for Birmingham.

His father, whose chief residence in later life was Edgbaston Grove, Birmingham, long engaged in business in Birmingham as a banker, merchant, and manufacturer, and took an active part in politics and in municipal and charitable affairs there. During the reform agitation of 1830–2 he was vice-president of the Political Union, and was elected (12 Dec. 1832), with Thomas Attwood, the first representative of Birmingham after the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832. In and out of parliament he advocated the radical programme, arguing for triennial parliaments, vote by ballot, and free trade. He was re-elected for Birmingham at the general elections of 1835, 1837, and 1841, on the first two occasions with Attwood, and on the last with George Frederick Muntz [q. v.] He still occupied himself with banking business, becoming a director of both the National Provincial Bank of England and the London Joint-Stock Bank. He died in London on 4 July 1844. He was twice married, and left two sons, Clement Cotterill and William (Gent. Mag. 1844, ii. 431, 695; Birmingham Journal, 1846).

In 1837 William, the younger son, after travelling through the United States and Canada, settled down at Birmingham, taking part in his father's business and associating himself with public affairs under his father's guidance. In 1837 he became high bailiff of the court leet of Birmingham. Next year the city received after a long struggle a charter of incorporation of Birmingham. On 5 Nov. the legal document was publicly read in the town-hall. On 26 Dec. the first election of town councillors took place, and Scholefield was chosen the first mayor. On his father's death in July 1844 he stood for the vacant seat in parliament, and expressed views even more extreme in their radicalism than those his father had adopted. He was defeated by Richard Spooner, a conservative. But at the general election of 1847 he was returned with George Frederick Muntz. In 1852 and 1857 Muntz and Scholefield were again elected. In 1857, on Muntz's death, his place was taken by John Bright without opposition, and Scholefield and Bright continued to hold the seat together till the former's death on 9 July 1867. He married and left issue.

Trained in liberal principles by his father, Scholefield advocated in parliament every