Stephen Scholey

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Mr and Mrs Stephen Scholey
Mr and Mrs Stephen Scholey

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

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[edit] Family

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.[1]

[edit] In Leeds

Stephen 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[2] for 1837 as resident at 25 Templars Street, with a butcher's shop at 2 Cheapside, Leeds. The 1853 edition gives his residence as 27 Trafalgar Street, Leeds.

[edit] New South Wales

By 1855 he was in East Maitland, New South Wales, where he had established himself as a livestock agent, and gradually diversified his business and political interests. In March 1862 a new municipality of East Maitland was created and elections were called.[3] He was elected Alderman for East Maitland Municipality on April 25, 1862 [4]; and on May 2, 1867, he was commissioned by the Colonial Office, with a Letters Patent from the colony's governor to that effect, to be Warden and President of the newly created Maitland District Council.

In 1869 he stood unsuccessfully for a seat in the colony's parliament coming second, losing by just 35 votes.[5] However, on February 24, 1872, he was elected the Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for East Maitland, a seat he held until his death.[6] "Stephen Scholey, M.L.A.," had a Town Address in Jamison Street, Sydney.[7] He was a friend and colleague of the famous New South Wales parliamentarian Sir Henry Parkes, and a leading light in the temperance movement.[8]

He died from a ruptured ulcer, and was buried in the Wesleyan cemetery at East Maitland on May 14, 1878, the day after his death.[9]

An obituary for Stephen Scholey, with an engraving of him, appeared on Saturday June 1, 1878 in The Sydney Mail.

He married Ann (1809-1888)[10] 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), and Mary Ann (1847-1896)[11] who married, as his second wife, Daniel Cotterill (1826-1916).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Will at the Borthwick Institute,York, Ref:IR26/1401/PFF3467)
  2. ^ p.599
  3. ^ New South Wales Government Gazette, April 11, 1862, no.66, p.717
  4. ^ New South Wales Government Gazette, May 13, 1862, no.87, p.920
  5. ^ Maitland Mercury newspaper, February 18, 1869
  6. ^ The New South Wales Legislative Assembly - Alphabetical roll, p.195
  7. ^ Sands' Sydney & Suburban Directory, 1873, pps:3 & 477
  8. ^ Mentions and letters of Stephen Scholey can be found in Politics in New South Wales 1856-1900, (edited by Brian Dickey, Cassell, Australia).
  9. ^ The Official Post Office Country Directory & Gazetteer of New South Wales for 1878-79, p.338, has him resident in Melbourne Street, East Maitland
  10. ^ Funeral Notice, Maitland Mercury, October 27, 1888, day after death
  11. ^ Funeral Notice, Maitland Mercury, September 5, 1896, date of death
  • The (British) Colonial Office List for 1874 under New South Wales, p.94.