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 business at 2 Cheapside, Leeds.

He married at Leeds Minster (St. Peter's, where he had been baptised) Ann (1809–1888)[3] daughter of William Spink, a Yeoman of Wintringham, East Riding of Yorkshire, by his spouse Mary Topham.

[6] Stephen Scholey was elected Alderman for the new municipality on 25 April 1862;[7] and on 2 May 1867, he was commissioned by the Colonial Office, with a Letters Patent[8] from the colony's governor, Sir John Young (and witnessed by Henry Parkes, who had stood for election to the Legislative Assembly in Scholey's East Maitland in August 1863, but was defeated by J.

[10][11] However, on 24 February 1872, he was elected the Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for East Maitland,[12] a seat he held until his death.

[13][14] He became a friend and colleague of the famous New South Wales parliamentarian Sir Henry Parkes, and a leading light in the temperance movement.