Thomas Aveling was born 11 September 1824 at Elm, Cambridgeshire. His mother was widowed while Aveling was still young and the family settled in Hoo (Rochester, Kent). His mother remarried to the Rev. John D'Urban of Hoo. Thomas' stepfather brought him up with "a Bible in one hand and a birch rod in the other". Aveling was apprenticed to Edward Lake, a farmer, of Hoo. Aveling married Edward's niece, Sarah Lake (daughter of Robert Lake of Milton-Chapel near Canterbury) and in 1850 took a farm at Ruckinge on Romney Marsh. In 1851 he was recorded as a farmer and grazier employing 16 men and 6 boys. The business also included a drainage tile works. In 1859, Aveling invented the traction engine when he modified a Clayton & Shuttleworth portable engine, which had to be hauled from job to job by horses, into a self-propelled one. The alteration was made by fitting a long driving chain between the crankshaft and the rear axle. Aveling later invented the steamroller in 1867. Thomas Aveling is regarded as "the father of the traction engine".