Scholfield family.

The Scholfield family played an important role in the early history of the American textile industry. Arthur and John Scholfield came to Boston from Liverpool in 1793 and began to make woolen cloth in Charlestown, Mass. John made textile machinery for this endeavor based on his memory of machinery in England. The carding machines built by the Scholfields provided the impetus for the spread of this technology throughout New England. The Scholfields moved to Newburyport, Mass. in Dec. 1793, and built a woolen mill on the Parker River at Byfield (Newbury), Mass. John Scholfield later began woolen mills in various places in Connecticut, including Montville (1799), Stonington (1806) and Waterford (1812). Arthur Scholfield had a carding mill in Pittsfield, Mass. from 1801 to ca. 1816. In 1802, James Scholfield started a clothier operation in what is now North Andover, Mass., and is said to have set up the first carding machines in the area.