Who first wrote the English Dictionary?

There is a great degree of debates about who first wrote the English dictionary.  However, a research on the Internet suggests that the first English Dictionary was written in 1604 by Robert Cawdrey (born 1537/8?, died in or after 1604).  It was published in London in the same year with the title "Table Alphabeticall" consisting of only 120 pages, listing 2,543 words along with very brief (often single-word) definitions.  His Table Alphabeticall can be found at the following link:

The Dictionary was little more than a list of synonyms. The purpose of this publication was for the benefit and help of ladies, gentlewomen, or other unskillful persons. The words chosen were quite arbitrary and often obscure.  His aim was not to create a comprehensive catalog, but rather an in-depth guide for the lesser educated who might not know the hard usual English words, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, or French.  Although, there was a second edition in 1609, a third edition in 1613, and a fourth edition in 1617, the book did not bring him fame or fortune. 

It was Samuel Johnson (born 1709, died in 1784) who worked for nine years and got his Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language published in 1755.  It had a far-reaching impact on Modern English.  The Dictionary brought Johnson popularity and success; until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary, 150 years later.  Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary.  The dictionary listed 40,000 words.  Each word was defined in detail, the definitions illustrated with quotations covering every branch of learning. It was a huge scholarly achievement, a more extensive and complex dictionary than any of it's predecessors.  A version of Johnson's dictionary can be found at the following link:

It is to be noted that there were other versions of English Language Dictionaries and some other publications before and after Cawdrey and Johnson.  A list of these documents is as follows:

Source: www.englishclub.com

References

1. 1755 - Johnson's Dictionary

2. A Dictionary of the English Language By Samuel Johnson

3. A Table Alphabeticall of Hard Usual English Words (1604) By Robert Cawdrey

4. Hard Wordes in Plaine English

5. History of the English Language

6. Johnson's Dictionary By Samuel Johnson, Henry John Todd, John Walker (manuscript)

7. Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language

8. Samuel Johnson and the First English Dictionary

9. Samuel Johnson from Wikipedia

10. Table Alphabeticall - Robert Cawdrey from Wikipedia

11. The Dictionary of the English Language

12. The First English Dictionary, 1604 Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall

13. The Plan of an English Dictionary (1747) by Samuel Johnson