The Wits and Beaux of Society. Volume 1

Katherine Thomson (1797–1862) (née Byerley, also as Mrs A. T. Thomson, pseudonym Grace Wharton) was an English writer, known as a novelist and historian. She married, in 1820, the physician Anthony Todd Thomson, as his second wife. At her husband’s suggestion Thomson began biographical compilation, starting with a brief Life of Wolsey for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, in 1824. She developed anecdotal biography, as used by Isaac D’Israeli, John Heneage Jesse, and Agnes Strickland. It gave her material for a series of historical novels, anticipating those of Emma Marshall.