page_title: Tamworth, Staffordshire
section_title: Early times to 1900
hierarchical_section_title: Tamworth, Staffordshire / Notable people / Early times to 1900
caption_attribution_description: Detail of Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt, by Henry William Pickersgill
context_page_description: Tamworth is a large market town and borough in Staffordshire, England, 14 miles north-east of Birmingham and on the West Coast Main Line. The town adjoins Warwickshire to the south and east, Lichfield to the north and west and local junctions of the M6 Toll motorway. It takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through it. Its resident population was 76,696.
  Tamworth was historically divided between Warwickshire and Staffordshire until 1889, when the town was placed entirely in Staffordshire.
  Tamworth hosts a simple but elevated 12th century castle, a well-preserved medieval church and a Moat House. Tamworth was the capital of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia during the Heptarchy of seven kingdoms and throughout its later, greater, form.
  The town's industries include logistics, engineering, clothing, brick, tile and paper manufacture. Until 2001 one of its factories was Reliant, which produced the Reliant Robin three-wheeler car and the Reliant Scimitar sports car.
context_section_description: Anthony Dyott (c.1560–1622) lawyer, politician, Recorder of Tamworth from 1598, MP for Lichfield from 1601 to 1621
  Thomas Blake (c.1597–1657) English Puritan clergyman,  controversialist of moderate Presbyterian sympathies.
  John Swinfen (1613–1694) politician and MP variously between 1645 and 1691, elected for Tamworth in 1659, 1661 and 1681
  Captain Elizur Holyoke (c.1618—1676) of Springfield, Massachusetts, namesake of the mountain, Mount Holyoke, emigrated from Tamworth in 1637
  John Rawlet (1642–1686) Anglican cleric,  preacher and writer of religious literature
  Thomas Sheasby senior (c.1740–1799) civil engineer and contractor, built bridges and canals
  Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850), a British statesman,  served twice as Prime Minister (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) Regarded as the father of modern British policing. MP for Tamworth from 1830 to 1850
  Henry John Roby (1830–1915) classical scholar,  writer on Roman law, Liberal MP for Eccles 1890/1895 and a Cambridge Apostle
  William Gordon Bagnall (1852–1907) mechanical engineer, founded W.G. Bagnall in 1875
  Joseph Adcock (1864–1914) Anglican clergyman and first-class cricketer in New Zealand
  Frederick William Thomas (1867–1956) an English Indologist and Tibetologist
  Appleby Matthews (1884–1948) conductor, organist and first conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
  William MacGregor (1848–1937) Egyptologist, magistrate, Chairman of Tamworth Herald 1906–1928 and Tamworth benefactor.
caption: Sir Robert Peel
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