- Stephen Scholey
Stephen Scholey was a Member of the
New South Wales Legislative Assembly . He was bornJanuary 22 ,1815 , in Garden street,Holbeck village, nearLeeds ,West Riding of Yorkshire , and diedMay 13 ,1878 , at EastMaitland, New South Wales .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. [Will at the Borthwick Institute,York , Ref:IR26/1401/PFF3467)]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 " [p.599] 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.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. [ "New South Wales Government Gazette", April 11, 1862, no.66, p.717] He was elected Alderman for East Maitland Municipality onApril 25 ,1862 [ "New South Wales Government Gazette", May 13, 1862, no.87, p.920] ; and onMay 2 ,1867 , he was commissioned by theColonial Office , with aLetters 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. [ "Maitland Mercury" newspaper, February 18, 1869] However, on
February 24 ,1872 , he was elected the Member of theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly for East Maitland, a seat he held until his death. [ "The New South Wales Legislative Assembly - Alphabetical roll", p.195] "Stephen Scholey, M.L.A.," had a Town Address in Jamison Street,Sydney . [ "Sands' Sydney & Suburban Directory", 1873, pps:3 & 477] He was a friend and colleague of the famous New South Wales parliamentarian SirHenry Parkes , and a leading light in thetemperance movement . [Mentions and letters of Stephen Scholey can be found in "Politics in New South Wales 1856-1900", (edited by Brian Dickey, Cassell, Australia).]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. [ "The Official Post Office Country Directory & Gazetteer of New South Wales for 1878-79", p.338, has him resident in Melbourne Street, East Maitland]
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) [ Funeral Notice, "Maitland Mercury", October 27, 1888, day after death] 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) [ Funeral Notice, "Maitland Mercury", September 5, 1896, date of death] who married, as his second wife, Daniel Cotterill (1826-1916).References
* "The (British) Colonial Office List for 1874" under New South Wales, p.94.
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