Edith Thompson (historian)

{{Short description|British historian and lexicographer (1848–1929)}}

Edith Thompson (1848-1929) was a historian and lexicographer.{{Cite journal |last=Howsam |first=Leslie |date=2004 |title=Academic Discipline or Literary Genre?: The Establishment of Boundaries in Historical Writing |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25058684 |journal=Victorian Literature and Culture |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=525–545 |doi=10.1017/S1060150304000646 |jstor=25058684 |s2cid=146501535 |url-access=subscription }} She wrote "History of England"Thompson, E. (1874) History of England, Macmillan the second volume of the "Historical Course for Schools", which was devised and edited by Edward Freeman,{{Cite journal |date=1875 |title=New Publications |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44763792 |journal=New England Journal of Education |volume=1 |issue=9 |pages=108 |jstor=44763792 }} with whom she corresponded regularly.{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb50-udx9|title=Letters from Edward Augustus Freeman to Edith Thompson – Archives Hub|website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk}}

She was also a prolific contributor to the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.{{Cite web|url=https://public.oed.com/history/oed-editions/contributors/|title=Contributors|website=Oxford English Dictionary}}Winchester, S. (2003) The Meaning of Everything: The story of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, Oxford {{ISBN?}} Along with her sister, Elizabeth Perronet Thompson, she provided 15,000 quotations for the dictionary.{{cite web |url=https://www.murrayscriptorium.org/commentaries/com-women-contributors.shtml |title=Women and the dictionary, Part I: Assistants and volunteers |author= |date= |website=Murray Scriptorium |publisher= |access-date=2023-12-19}} She also subedited the volume for "C" words and proofread volumes from "D" words onwards.{{cite web |url=https://www.dictionary.com/e/they-changed-language-history-learn-their-names/ |title=They Changed Language History. It's Time To Learn Their Names |author= |date= |website=Dictionary.com |publisher= |access-date= 2023-12-19}}

Thompson was barred from university, as a woman, but did receive some recognition as an Honorary Member of the Bath branch of the National Federation of University Women. She and her sister, Elizabeth Thompson (1857–1930) lived at Beaconsfield Lodge in Bath. Elizabeth published a historical novel The Veil of Liberty, A Tale of the Girondins (1895) under her penname "Peronne" and A Dragoon's Wife, A Romance of the 17th Century (1907) under her own name.

Thompson was the granddaughter of Thomas Perronet Thompson, a notable abolitionist, about whom she wrote a biography that went unpublished.{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb50-udth|title=Papers of Thomas Perronet Thompson |website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk}}