John Scholey
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John Scholey (15 September 1840, Leeds, Yorkshire - 14 April 1908, Mayfield House, near Newcastle, New South Wales) was an extensive landed proprietor, prominent businessman, colliery owner, and Mayor. In 1900 he was listed as a Justice of the Peace and member of the Newcastle Land Board, a division of the New South Wales Justice Department.
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[edit] Background
The Scholey family are to be found with various spellings in ancient manuscripts but often as de Scolay or Scoley. Burke's 1844 Armory has them long resident at Gawber Hall, outside Barnsley, now in South Yorkshire.[citation needed]
John was the son of a Leeds businessman, Stephen Scholey (1815-1878) who entered the service of the Colonial Office in New South Wales, and was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for East Maitland.
[edit] New South Wales
John appears in the 1851 Census Return at 27 Trafalgar Street, Leeds, Yorkshire, aged 11, with his parents and his sister Mary Ann. However by the time of his marriage to Anne, née Greaves (1845-1931), on 16 January 1865, at Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, Newcastle, New South Wales, the cathedral register states that he was now resident in that parish. His father was a witness at the ceremony. In The Official Post Office Country Directory & Gazetteer of New South Wales for 1878-79 he is listed thus: "Scholey, John, Hunter Street, Newcastle" (p.423) and this listing is identical in the same directory for 1882 (p.338). On his daughter Jessie's birth certificate in February 1883, John Scholey stated that he now resided at Hamilton, a garden suburb of Newcastle.
[edit] Business interests
On his daughter Agnes's birth certificate (1888) he is described as "Landowner". He had become an extensive land speculator, and diversified his business interests very widely. John Scholey eventually bought up much of the Newcastle district known as North Waratah, subdividing it as the city environs grew, and renaming it Mayfield after one of his daughters. Other streets in the suburb still bear his surname, and some of his daughter's Christian names: Clara, Ada, Dora, etc.[citation needed]
He sold at a handsome profit the land at Mayfield, bordering the Hunter River, which unil recently housed much of the BHP steelworks (now demolished) and other huge heavy industries. He was also founder of the Richmond Main Colliery on the South Maitland coalfields, following coal exploration on his extensive landholdings in that district. His syndicate eventually sold their majority shareholding to J & A Brown and Abermain-Seaham Collieries Ltd. The main shaft was named the Scholey shaft and at one time this colliery produced the largest daily tonnage in the State, as well as providing all the electricity requirements for nearby Kurri Kurri and other townships.
[edit] Civic positions
John Scholey, as thrice elected Mayor of the Municipality of Waratah, New South Wales, received an official invitation to the New South Wales Government's State Banquet held in Sydney on Thursday 26th January 1888 to commemorate the first 100 years of settlement in the colony. The Earl of Carnarvon and Lord Carrington were present along with a host of other well-known dignitaries.
A practising Christian, he was lay representative for Waratah to the 122nd Church of England Synod held at Newcastle in May 1900; he was Diocesan Warden for Newcastle's Christ Church Cathedral, a member of the Newcastle Diocesan Council, and also a member of the Diocesand Church Property Committee. (see The Diocese of Newcastle by Professor A.P.Elkin, Sydney, 1955). He was the sole surviving Executor of the Will of his father-in-law, William Greaves, another Newcastle businessman, when he signed the declaration that all affairs to do with that estate were now complete, 18th May, 1907.
[edit] Death
A full report of John Scholey's funeral appeared in the Newcastle Herald, on Thursday 16 April, 1908. It names a many of the most prominent attendees and states that over 200 telegrams of condolence were received. He was buried in the Church of England division of Sandgate Cemetery, Newcastle. In his Will (proved 8 October 1908) he bequeathed his entire estate to his wife, by whom he had seven daughters, six of whom survived him. His daughter Clara married Robert, son of Charles Upfold, the managing director of the Sydney Soap and Candle Company, the largest such concern in the Southern Hemisphere. His youngest daughter, Agnes, died a spinster in 1972.
His splendid sandstone mansion Mayfield House is now a shadow of its former glory, an old people's home owned by the Baptist Church, its once magnificent gardens being built upon.
John Scholey was described on his daughter's marriage certificates in 1898 (Ada, and Clara), and upon his death certificate, as a "gentleman".
