>
> Gonzalo, you seem to be right. There is an obituary of Alexander Thom
> in the Journal of The Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland
> Vol. VII, Part LVI, 1879/1880:
>
> http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/8402/1/jssisiVolVIIIPartLVI_0508.pdf
>
> It is said that in the *History of Aberdeen*, Alexander's father
> Walter described himself as the author of the *Sketches*.
>
> It would be interesting to understand by what kind of process the
> Kress catalogue attributed the work to someone else. Perhaps, to make
> double sure you may try to contact the publisher of the Sketches,
> Longmans: they may well have kept the records.
>
> Daniele Besomi
>

Excellent find!  Thank you Daniele!  Well, that clarifies one point -
that Walter Thom was a Scottish emigre to Ireland.  His connection
with Peel only strengthens the speculation.

>
>  From my knowledge of the Kress-Goldsmith collection, most of the
> attributions (and especially the wrong ones) made in the catalog can be
> traced back to Henry Higgs's famous (though now outdated) Bibliography
> of economics published in 1935.
> Kenneth Carpenter is probably the man to contact to know more about the
> precise procedure followed to make the Kress-Goldsmith collection
> catalog (he was chief-librarian of the Kress collection for several
> years).
>
> Loic Charles
>

Thanks for the tip.  I will give that a shot.


Goncalo Fonseca