By January 1872, John, now 26 years old, a large strong man as he was remembered, is described as a Cab Proprietor when he took out a mortgage of £40 on a piece of freehold land in Cobholm, Great Yarmouth. Further mortgages followed quickly in March and June 1872 and by 1879 his success had enabled him to borrow £500 to buy more land.
Those were the first steps to a lifetime's work that saw John and his wife Rosetta first build a farm, then with their children and grandchildren, the most successful dairy and milk delivery business in the area. But that again is another story.
As an aside, it was John's young children who taught him to write, as they went to school following the 1870 Education Act, see Education and he was able to sign his name on the 1879 mortgage, which he could not do in 1872.