John Yelverton Mills, husband of Alice Clara McDougall Bowden is George Alfred Mills' eldest brother. Once I saw your data I realised how George and Maria must have met, through John and Alice. John and George's father, John Mills, knew the Bowden family and it was through that family friendship that John and Alice met.  It was at John Yelverton Mills' house that George married Maria in 1869.

John Yelverton Mills b.21.6.1841 Parramatta, eldest son of John Mills and Helena Frances Checkley. Educated at his father's private school, the Aldine House Academy on George St. Parramatta. Married January 1869 to Alice Bowden, b.10.10.1845 Sydney. Alice was a Wesleyan Methodist and so her parents would have known John's father from the Wesleyan Methodist church for which John was a preacher every sunday, usually at Dundas Methodist church but sometimes at other churches. John went into business as a junior partner in his father-in-laws' Thomas Wheaton Bowden's real estate firm. They developed a real estate firm called Bowden and Mills, that auctioneered land and subdivided estates into housing blocks. Many of the subdivisions around Sydney from Auburn to Mosman were all subdivided and auctioneered by Mills and Bowden. 1024

John Yelverton Mills' mansion, called 'The Cedars', which was located in Parramatta, taken before 1885, before the family moved to Darling Point.