John Kersey

Kersey compiled Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum, a general English dictionary explaining difficult words. The first edition was printed in London in 1708. [Dictionary of National Biography](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography%2C_1885-1900/Kersey%2C_John)

Kersey edited the sixth edition of Edward Phillips's New World of English Words, published in 1706. He later issued his own Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum in 1708 and a further edition of Phillips's dictionary in 1720. [Dictionary of National Biography](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography%2C_1885-1900/Kersey%2C_John)

It covers difficult English words as well as phrases from old statutes, records, charters, writs, and legal processes. It also includes interpretations of personal names, making it broader than a simple spelling dictionary. [University of Toronto lexicon](https://leme.library.utoronto.ca/lexicons/1305/)

Kersey's 1708 dictionary appeared nearly half a century before Samuel Johnson's famous dictionary of 1755. His work belongs to the early period when English dictionaries were expanding from word lists into general reference books. [Google Books](https://books.google.com/books/about/Dictionarium_Anglo_Britannicum_or_a_gene.html?id=t01gAAAAcAAJ)