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Harriet Diana Thompson

British writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ28030712 ↗
Source-derived summary

Harriet Diana Thompson, née Calvert (1811–1896) was a Victorian writer, best known for her Life of St Charles Borromeo.

Life

Harriet was born at Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, the daughter of Nicholson Calvert and Frances Pery, daughter and co-heir of the Viscount Pery.

On 30 July 1844, she married the Anglican clergyman Edward Healy Thompson at Marylebone. On her husband's conversion to Catholicism in 1846, she also joined the Catholic Church. She wrote biographies, histories and novels on Catholic subjects, and articles for the Dublin Review. Her stories of Catholic life won considerable popularity. She died at Pery Lodge, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, 21 August 1896.

Writings

Mary, Star of the Sea (1848)

The Witch of Malton Hill (1850)

Mount St.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Harriet Diana Thompson” as british writer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Harriet, Diana and Thompson.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1811, 1896, 1844, 1846—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1811-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Harriet, Diana and Thompson providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Harriet Diana Thompson”, the useful work is to connect “british writer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28030712. VIAF identifies the subject as 202374901. The Library of Congress control number is no2011191864. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1811, 1896, 1844 and 1846.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Harriet Diana Thompson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Harriet Diana Thompson primary sources, Harriet Diana Thompson archive and Harriet research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Harriet Diana Thompson”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Harriet Diana Thompson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.