Another footnote from the OED:
THAN
1b: With a personal or relative pronoun in the objective case instead of the nominative (as if than were a preposition).
This is app. the invariable construction in the case of than whom, which is universally accepted instead of than who. With the personal pronouns it is now considered incorrect.
1560 Bible (Genev.) Prov. xxvii. 3 A fooles wrath is heauier then them bothe. 1569 J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 165 We cannot resiste them that be stronger then vs. 1718 Prior Better Answer 27–8 For thou art a girl as much brighter than her, As he was a poet sublimer than me. 1762 Goldsm. Cit. W. xxxviii, I am, not less than him, a despiser of the multitude. a1774 I Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) I. 163 Others, later than him, who appeal to experience as well as he, affirm the contrary. 1792 Wakefield Mem. (1804) I. 108 He was much older than me. 1815 Scott Guy M. xvii, I+could not be expected+to be wiser than her. c1825 Beddoes Second Brother i. i, You are old, And many years nearer than him to death. 1861 E. O'Curry Lect. MS. Materials 253 He is better than me, then, said the monarch.
Clive
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