Stephen Scholey (22 January 1815 – 13 May 1878) was a former Australian politician and member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

Early life

Scholey was born on 22 January 1815 in a house on Garden Street in the village of Holbeck, near

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

. 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 village 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 The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

'' for 1837 as resident at 25 Templars Street, with a butcher's business at 2 Cheapside, Leeds. He married at

Leeds Minster Leeds Minster, or the Minster and Parish Church of Saint Peter-at-Leeds (formerly Leeds Parish Church) is the minster church of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the site of the oldest church in the city and is of architectural and l ...

(St. Peter's, where he had been baptised) Ann (1809–1888) daughter of William Spink, a

Yeoman Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...

Wintringham Wintringham is a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It was part of the East Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. Location The village is near the A64 road and east of Malton. Two long-distance footpath ...

, East Riding of Yorkshire, by his spouse Mary Topham. They had two children:

John Scholey John Scholey (15 September 1840 in Holbeck, Leeds, – 14 April 1908 in Mayfield, New South Wales) was an extensive landed proprietor, prominent businessman, colliery owner, Director of Aberdare Collieries, and a Mayor. He was a Justice of the ...

(1840–1908), and 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 still living there in 1853.

New South Wales

In 1853 he first travelled to

East Maitland East Maitland is a suburb in the City of Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. It is on the New England Highway and it has two railway stations, Victoria Street (opened in 1857 with the Newcastle- Maitland line) and East Maitland (opened initi ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

as a livestock agent. He returned to

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 The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...

, with a Letters Patent from the colony's governor, Sir John Young (and witnessed by

Henry Parkes Sir Henry Parkes, (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was a colonial Australian politician and longest non-consecutive Premier of the Colony of New South Wales, the present-day state of New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australia. He has ...

, 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. In 1869 he stood unsuccessfully for a seat in the colony's parliament, coming second, losing by just 35 votes. However, on 24 February 1872, he was elected the Member of the

for

, a seat he held until his death. He became a friend and colleague of the famous New South Wales parliamentarian Sir Henry Parkes, and a leading light in the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...

. "Stephen Scholey, M.L.A.," had a town address in Jamison Street, Sydney, and country address in Melbourne Street, East Maitland. He died from a ruptured duodenal ulcer, and was buried in the

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

cemetery at East Maitland on 14 May 1878, the day after his death. An obituary for Stephen Scholey, with an

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

of him, appeared on Saturday 1 June 1878 in ''

The Sydney Mail ''The Sydney Mail'' was an Australian magazine published weekly in Sydney. It was the weekly edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' newspaper and ran from 1860 to 1938. History ''The Sydney Mail'' was first published on 17 July 1860 by J ...

''.

References

* ''The (British) Colonial Office List for 1874'' under New South Wales, p. 94. {{DEFAULTSORT:Scholey, Stephen 1815 births 1878 deaths People from Holbeck Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 19th-century Australian politicians