"first English dictionary, Robert Cawdrey's A Table Alphabeticall (1604), 2500 rare and borrowed words, intended for literate women who knew no Latin or French, need to read Bible, concern with correctness " Point: The inventory did not state what kind of "old search" ......or dictionary, as may be the case, so it could have been any kind of dictionary regardless of the fact that Samuel Johnson put together a more comprehensive dictionary in mid 18th century. This is from: http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/english/fajardo/teaching/eng520/emodeng.htm