During this first term Machell's family affairs came to the fore. His father Mathew died, having modified his will to take account of properties burnt in the Great Fire, now prime building land in the City. His widow Jane and her son George Smither were his executors. Mathew had indulgently overlooked repayments which John owed to him on behalf of his stepmother: in 1683 and 1684 she was obliged to sue John for them, and for properties in Blackfriars and Cheapside, seemingly without success. John's half-brothers Joseph (citizen and Grocer of London) and Mathew Machell now had families of their own, and their sister Anne became engaged to William Newman in 1679, soon after his carvings for St Stephen Walbrook were completed and introduced.