Henry Bradley Biography

British lexicographer, born in Manchester; following an elementary education he became a clerk in a Sheffield cutlery business, where he remained for twenty years, achieving a remarkable knowledge of numerous European and classical languages in his spare time. In 1884 he moved to London. His abilities as a philologist came to notice through his extended review in the Academy of the first part of the New English Dictionary (1884), later known as the Oxford English Dictionary. He began contributing articles to the Dictionary and in 1888 was appointed assistant editor; he succeeded James Murray as senior editor in 1915. From 1896 onward he lived in Oxford, becoming a fellow of Exeter College in 1896. The best-known of his works of independent authorship is the widely read The Making of English (1904); his many articles, which include ‘English Place Names’, a seminal study in toponymy, were published as The Collected Papers of Henry Bradley in 1928. Among his other works is his edition of Caxton's Dialogues in French and English (1900).