He was born in Vestervig, Thy, Denmark as the son of captain Casimir Wilhelm von Scholten[1] and Catharina Elisabeth de Moldrup.

[2] As a young man, von Scholten joined the Danish army and in 1803 he was appointed ensign in a unit stationed in the West Indies.

He served in this role until 1814 when British occupation of the Danish West Indies ended, and he got his first official position on St. Thomas, as customs toller.

In spite of his relatively liberal attitudes, von Scholten was opposed to Christian VIII of Denmark's ruling that every child born of an unfree woman should be free from birth, as he felt that such an arrangement would cause discontent with serious consequences.

Peter von Scholten died on 26 January 1854 in Altona, Holstein (present day Germany), leaving little to his heirs.

During his early years on St. Thomas, Peter von Scholten enjoyed a wealthy lifestyle due to his position as customs officer during the surge in trade under the state of war between the nearby Spanish islands and the South American colonial insurgents.

[4] The consensus amongst modern scholars is that Anna Heegaard influenced von Scholten into a policy of more humane treatment of the black population.