John White was born in Chiddingly, Sussex in 1847 the youngest son of Richard and Eliza, and was Jesse White’s younger brother. John was one of two miller’s apprentices working for George’s Wickens in Chiddingly, aged 14. John married Sarah Potter in 1870 in Eastbourne where John was by now a fully-fledged miller. They had several children; including Hephzibah Maria in 1875. By 1891 he had a Baker’s shop at 11 Southdown Terrace on Ocklynge Road, Eastbourne, where his daughter Hephzibah was the assistant in the shop. John was now a Miller’s foreman, so supervising a number of millers and may have taken over as miller from his brother Jesse at Oldland when he died in November 1891, employing John Frederick Newnham and David Driver as assistant millers. We don’t know exactly when John and Sarah physically moved into the Mill House at Oldland, although they were definitely there from April 1901, but could have been there from 1894 the year daughter Hephzibah Maria married in Keymer. John also owned a baker’s shop and confectioners on the High Street in Ditchling, and employed O.J Myall as manager in about April 1904.
Text from: “The Millers’ of Old Land Mill” by Colin Hewitt.
