 He was born in Garden street, Holbeck village, near Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, and died at East Maitland, New South Wales.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.Scholey was first apprenticed as a butcher, as was his brother, John.