 After moving to Bath, Somerset, he became a corn merchant and had difficulty paying tax on the portion of Durnford property he inherited in Sherborne while trying to support his family of 5 young children and first wife, Dinah.John resumed paying land tax in Sherborne during his second marriage, when Oke was 5 years old, the year he was baptized (7 January 1799) at Sherborne Abbey (The Abbey Church of St. Mary the Virgin).By July 1805, John was ill and died in October (after Oke's 11th birthday).