[5] Nicholas Newlin was a member of the Religious Society of Friends and an Irishman who lived in the Quaker town of Mountmellick, in Queens County, Ireland.

In May, 1683, Newlin, fleeing religious persecution, emigrated to Pennsylvania with his wife, Elizabeth, and three children: Nathaniel, Rachel, and John, on the ship Levee from Liverpool.

In October, 1683 purchased the mill property from William Penn in Concord Township, about ten miles (16 km) northwest of the town of Chester.

Newlin was a prominent citizen, serving on the province's governing body, the Provincial Council in 1686 and 1687, as a Justice of the Peace, and on the Courts of Chester County.

Through Nathaniel's inheritance from his father, and the land Mary Mendenhall held, and by their purchase of 7,750 acres (3,140 ha) that became Newlin Township, they became together one of the largest landowners in Chester County.

[4] In 1742, William and Anne Trimble, the owners of a neighboring gristmill, built a house overlooking the Newlin mill.

[9][10] Southeastern Pennsylvania was the leading producer of grain in the colonial period and mills could be easily powered by the steep descent of the streams, called the Fall Line, in the area.

Disagreements between his two sets of children resulted in a judgment of $11,326.30 against his estate, forcing the sale of the mill.

In 1942 the mill stopped commercial production and the buildings were used temporarily as a bookstore and an antique store.

The water exits underground through the tail race and travels about 150 yards (140 m) back to Chester Creek.

[19] In 1850 owner Casper Sharpless purchased 20,000 bushels of wheat for $22,000 and sold flour worth $30,000.

[4] This house should not be confused with the Newlin Miller's House about 12 miles (19 km) north in West Whiteland Township which was built in the early 19th century by William Newlin and listed separately in the National Register of Historic Places.

It served as a post office and polling station for the community of mill workers in the area.

1 in Place, Memory and Time, Essays Commemorating The Tricentenial of the Nathaniel Newlin Grist Mill, 1704–2004.

2 in Place, Memory and Time, Essays Commemorating The Tricentenial of the Nathaniel Newlin Grist Mill, 1704–2004.