Patrick Bell (1799–1869) by unknown engraver, pubd 1868 (after E. Strachan) © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Article
Jonathan Brown
Bell, Patrick (1799–1869), Church of Scotland minister and inventor of agricultural machinery, was born in April 1799 at mid-Leoch, in the parish of Auchterhouse, a few miles north-west of Dundee. He was one of at least two sons of George Bell, a tenant farmer at ...
Article
Common, John (1778–1868), agricultural engineer, was born in High Buston, Warkworth, Northumberland, on 25 January 1778, the second child in the family of five sons (one died in infancy) and four daughters of Robert Common of High Buston, a millwright and cartwright from a family of skilled mechanics, and his wife (probably ...
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Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (1803–1899) by Sir William Hamo Thornycroft, 1880 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
A. J. Arbuthnot
revised by Peter L. Schmitthenner
Cotton, Sir Arthur Thomas (1803–1899), army officer and irrigation engineer, was born on 15 May 1803 at Woodcote, Oxfordshire, the ninth son of Henry Calveley Cotton (d. 1837) of Woodcote House, who served in the royal guards (postal service), and his wife, ...
Article
Jonathan Brown
Fowler, John (1826–1864), agricultural engineer, was born on 11 July 1826 at Melksham, Wiltshire, one of at least four sons of John Fowler (1792–1861), merchant, and Rebecca (1799–1842), daughter of William and Jenny Hull of Uxbridge, Middlesex; his younger brother William Fowler achieved prominence as a financier and politician. His father was a leading member of the Quakers in ...
Article
Jonathan Brown
Garrett family (per. 1778–1884), agricultural engineers, came to prominence with Richard [i] Garrett (1757–1839), who founded the business in Suffolk in 1778. Richard came from a family that had been bladesmiths since the late seventeenth century at least. He was born at ...
Article
[Anon.]
revised by John Martin
Macdonald, Duncan George Forbes (1827/8–1884), agricultural engineer and writer, was the youngest son of John Macdonald (1779–1849) and his second wife, Janet, eldest daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie, of Millbank. Initially he devoted himself to the study and practice of agriculture on his father's extensive glebe, before starting business on his own account in 1848, as an agricultural engineer in ...
Article
Jonathan Brown
Marshall family (per. 1848–1922), agricultural engineers, came to prominence with William Marshall (1812–1861), born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, the son of John Marshall, who was in business there. His father has been described in different sources as a shipwright, or as a block and tackle manufacturer. ...
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Andrew Meikle (1719–1811) by A. Reddock, c. 1790–1800 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
Meikle, Andrew (1719–1811), millwright and inventor of the threshing machine, was born on 5 May 1719, probably at Saltoun, Haddingtonshire. He was one of at least two brothers. His father, James Meikle, wright in Nether Keith, Haddingtonshire, working on behalf of Henry Fletcher...
Article
R. B. Prosser
revised by Robert Brown
Menzies [Menzey], Michael (d. 1766), advocate and inventor of agricultural and mining machinery, was probably one of the Menzies of Culter-Allers, Lanarkshire; little is known of his origins, but a younger brother was ‘sheriff-depute’ of Haddingtonshire. Menzies was admitted a member of the ...
Article
Bertha Porter
revised by Sean Kelsey
Monson, Sir John, second baronet (1599–1683), politician and financier of fen drainage, was born in St Sepulchre, London, the eldest son of Sir Thomas Monson, first baronet (1563/4–1641), of South Carlton in Lincolnshire, and his wife, Margaret (1569–1630), daughter of Sir Edmund Anderson...
Article
A. D. M. Phillips
Parkes, Josiah (1793–1871), agricultural and civil engineer, was born on 27 February 1793 at Warwick, the third son of John Parkes, a wool-carding and wool-spinning mill owner in Warwick, and his wife, Sarah. His younger brother was Joseph Parkes (1796–1865), an election agent and reformer. ...
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