Stephen Scholey

Stephen Scholey
Mr & Mrs Stephen Scholey
Born	22 January 1815 Holbeck Village, Leeds, England
Died	13 May 1878 (1878-05-14) (aged 63) East Maitland N S W
Nationality	British
Occupation	Member NSW Parliament

Stephen Scholey (22 January 1815 – 13 May 1878) was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the British colony of New South Wales, Australia. He was born in Garden street, Holbeck village, near Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, and died at East Maitland, New South Wales.

The son of John Scholey (1774–1834) a landed proprietor, by his spouse Mary née Gray (1778–1856), Stephen, with his brother and sister, inherited a Leeds estate from their father which included a major part of the township of Holbeck, now a suburb of Leeds.

Scholey was first apprenticed as a butcher, as was his brother, John. Stephen was listed in White's History, Gazetter & Directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire for 1837 as resident at 25 Templars Street, with a butcher's business at 2 Cheapside, Leeds.

He married at Leeds Minster (St.Peter's, - where he had been baptised), Ann (1809–1888) daughter of William Spink, a Yeoman of Wintringham, East Riding of Yorkshire, by his spouse Mary Topham. They had two children: John Scholey (1840–1908), Mary Ann (1847–1896) who married, as his second wife, Daniel Cotterill (1826–1916). Both his children were born at the family residence at 27 Trafalgar Street, Leeds, and they were living there in 1853.

In 1853 he first travelled to East Maitland, New South Wales as a livestock agent. He returned to Leeds two years later on the ship Speedy, when he sold his business. He thereafter diversified his business and political interests and returned to colony. On 13 December 1861, he and James Brunker purchased 600 head of cattle at a sale in the Northumberland Hotel, Maitland. In March 1862 a new municipality of East Maitland was created and elections were called. Stephen Scholey was elected Alderman for the new municipality on 25 April 1862; and on 2 May 1867, he was commissioned by the Colonial Office, with a Letters Patent from the colony's governor, Sir John Young (and witnessed by Henry Parkes, who had stood for election to the Legislative Assembly in Scholey's East Maitland in August 1863, but was defeated by J. B. Darvall), to that effect, to be Warden and President of the Maitland District Council.