Reuben Farley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reuben Farley (17 January 1826 – 1899) was an English businessman, politician and philanthropist. He was the first Mayor of West Bromwich and served for four terms. He was also the first freeman of West Bromwich and the town's Farley Clock Tower stands in his honour.[1]
He was the eighth of ten children born to Elizabeth Farley and mining engineer Thomas Farley (1781–1830).[2] Farley was a pupil at Borwicks Heath Academy and an active member of the West Bromwich Institution for the Advancement of Knowledge. After a mining apprenticeship, Farley took over Dunkirk Colliery when he was 21. By 1861 he bought the Summit Foundry with his brother-in-law George Taylor. The foundry became one of the largest of its kind in South Staffordshire, and the firm won a medal at the 1897 Brussels Exhibition.
Farley played a leading role in several local limited companies. He was a leading shareholder and Chairman in Fellows Morton & Clayton, a large canal carrier which his brother-in-law Joshua Fellows had founded, and Edwin Danks & Co. an important local maker of boilers and boats. He was a director of the Sandwell Park Colliery Co. and later an active Chairman of the Hamstead Colliery Co.
His labour relations attitudes were stern. He condemned the eight-hour day as ‘interference with the liberty of the subject’ [3] He also criticised union organisers at the Summit Foundry for alienating employers from workmen. However, he provided excursions and pensions in his own firm and experienced little labour trouble.
.jpg)
