History of agriculture the New Leicester sheep. Machines were invented to improve the efficiency of various agricultural operation, such as Jethro Tull's seed drill of 1701 that mechanised seeding at the correct depth and spacing and Andrew Meikle's threshing machine of 1784. Ploughs were steadily improved, from Joseph Foljambe's Rotherham iron plough in 1730 to James Small's improved "Scots Plough" metal in 1763. In 1789 Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies was producing 86 plough models for different soils. Powered farm machinery began with Richard Trevithick's stationary steam engine, used to drive a threshing machine, in 1812. Mechanisation spread to other farm uses through the
Thomas Howard (1651–1701) he had three sons and a daughter. Only one son survived him, dying the year after him aged 14. His daughter Diana married (in 1703) Edward Ward, 8th Baron Dudley and 3rd Baron Ward, who died in 1704, leaving her pregnant with a posthumous son, who succeeded his father in the Dudley estates, but died in 1731 without issue. Thomas Howard (1651–1701) Thomas Howard (1651–1701) was the only surviving son of Sir Robert Howard of Ashtead, Surrey. He served as a Teller of the Exchequer from 1689 until his death, a post that provided him with a house at Westminster.