Nathan Bailey

Nathan Bailey (1691-1742) was a lexicographer and schoolmaster in London. He worshiped as a Seventh-day Baptist in the Mill Yard congregation in Goodman’s Fields, Whitechapel. He appears to have been dropped from the membership rolls of the church by 1718, and was operating a school for boys in Stepney in the 1720s and ’30s. His Universal Etymological English Dictionary first appeared in 1721, with a second volume in 1727, superseded by his Dictionarium Britannicum in 1730 and 1736. Samuel Johnson used Bailey’s Dictionary as a foundation for his own work in the 1750s, and references to his dictionary have appeared in several novels of the 18th and 19th centuries. He also published textbooks for schools, especially grammar texts. His death was noted in the Gentleman’s Magazine.