Samuel Ockenden (2nd) was born in the Gunn Inn which lay on the west side of Bexhill Down. His father, Samuel (1st), who married Jane Mitten, ran the inn which must have seen much activity at the time when the King’s German Legion was stationed in Bexhill. Their artillery was based on the Down. He also farmed nearby.
Samuel (2nd) married Charlotte Haywood whose family were millers. Samuel was a builder and carpenter and lived and worked in Sycamore House, Belle Hill, now known as Hillside Cottage and The Granary. He was also a sworn-in constable for Bexhill and once had the unpleasant task of taking charge of nine bodies which had been washed-up on the beach from a vessel wrecked off Bexhill. He is shown as owning 10 acres of land in the 1873 Landowners Return for Sussex.
He was elected to the Local Board in 1884. He was married for 65 years, his wife dying one year before him. When he died on 18 September 1895 at the age of 88 he was the oldest inhabitant of Bexhill.