Thomas Oxley (ca. 1787–1851), inventor and educator, was born in England. He later claimed that he drew plans for a steamship in his native land as early as 1807 but failed to attract support. Following a brief tenure as a teacher in Haiti beginning in 1818, Oxley operated an academy in Norfolk by 1820. He was in Richmond by 1822, when he designed an engine powered by carbonic acid. Residing by 1824 in Liverpool, England, Oxley later claimed to have been part of a three-person team that conceptualized plate photography without, however, creating a working model. His numerous published articles and monographs included two works on shorthand: Facilography, or a System of Easy, Expeditious Writing (London, 1810), and Expeditious Writing, or an new and easy system of Short Hand (London, 1818); and two others on the mathematics of astrology: The Celestial Planispheres, or Astronomical Charts (1830), and The Gem of the Astral Sciences, or Mathematics of Celestial Philosophy (1848). Oxley conducted a school in Liverpool and lectured in Manchester. In 1845 he received a British patent for an expanding screw propeller. Oxley died in London (City of Washington Gazette, 6 Feb. 1818; Boston Recorder, 17 Apr. 1819; American Commercial Beacon and Norfolk & Portsmouth Daily Advertiser, 16 May 1820; Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette 6 [1826]: 88–9; 30 [1839]: 329–30; 35 [1841]: 65–72; 44 [1846]: 161–3, 497–501; Manchester Times and Gazette, 5 Feb. 1831; Liverpool Mercury, 2 Jan. 1829; UkNA: England census, Surrey, 1841, 1851 [age given as forty-eight and sixty-two, respectively]; Burial Register for South Metropolitan Cemetery, West Norwood, London, 9 Dec. 1851 [age given as sixty-four]).

Oxley’s american land clearing machine “for felling and trimming trees” was said to be “peculiarly adapted to removing stumps, from recently cleared land, by cutting them off smooth with the surface, upon which they stand. Trees can also be trimmed without climbing, to the height of 30 feet.” It could be operated by four men, four horses, or a steam engine, cut down trees as much as fifty times faster than usual at a third of the cost, and “cut up the roots and render the land immediately fit for the plough and seed” (American Commercial Beacon and Norfolk & Portsmouth Daily Advertiser, 12 Dec. 1820; Providence [R.I.] Gazette, 13 June 1821). On 18 Apr. 1821 Oxley was awarded a patent for this machine after the United States Congress passed a special act authorizing the issuance of one to him even though he was not a citizen (JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States description ends , 10:91, 266, 267, 269 [3 Jan., 3 Mar. 1821]; List of Patents description begins A List of Patents granted by the United States from April 10, 1790, to December 31, 1836, 1872 description ends , 225).