Educated at Westminster School (adm. 1786). A friend of Southey’s during his schooldays.

Doctor and author of medical treatises. Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (matric. 1793, BA 1797). A friend of Southey’s during his time at Oxford, and possibly a school friend as well.

Wife of John Theodore Koster, whom she married in Lisbon in 1778. The couple had twelve children, many of whom died young.

Writer. Sister of Charles Lamb. She suffered from bouts of insanity and in 1796 she killed their mother. After this incident she was cared for by her brother or in asylums. The siblings wrote Tales from Shakespeare (1809) together.

The daughter of an unsuccessful banker, she married Landor on 24 May 1811. They lived firstly on Landor’s estate at Lanthony and then in Italy. The Landors had three sons and one daughter, but by the 1830s their marriage was troubled. Landor left his wife in 1835 and settled first in England and then Italy.

Clergyman and schoolmaster. Educated at Balliol and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford (matric. 1792, BA 1796). He became a curate and master of the grammar school in Honiton, Devon. A friend of Southey’s at Oxford, they lost touch in later years.

See Eleanor Charlotte Butler (1739–1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755–1832)

See Pemberton, Sophia (d. 1830)

Scottish writer. He made his reputation through his contributions to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine from 1817 onwards and became Walter Scott’s son-in-law in 1820. He was editor of the Quarterly Review 1825–1853 and completed a monumental Life of Sir Walter Scott (1837–1838). Southey corresponded with him intermittently on professional matters.

The son of Mary and Robert Lovell, his father’s early death left him with few prospects (significantly less than those of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s children, whose paternal relations were capable of greater generosity). In 1803 the money paid by the Lovell family for his education ceased. Southey and John May tried to get Robert Lovell Junior into Christ’s Hospital. They failed. The boy was apprenticed to a London printer and effectively separated from his mother, who lived with the Southeys in Keswick. The impact of this on his character seems to have been profound. In 1836 his first cousin Sara Coleridge described his lack of social skills: ‘From nine years old he has had to shift and scramble a good deal for himself, to bear up against a hard world which would have crushed <or injured> the frame it did not render to a certain degree tough & unyielding ... [he] never had the opportunity of acquiring a taste for domestic, scarcely even for social enjoyment: we ought not to wonder that he is deficient in many qualities which can only be fostered thereby.’ Robert Lovell Junior predeceased his mother. He disappeared whilst on a European walking tour in 1836.

Unmarried sister of Lord Sunderlin. Southey got to know the family well when they visited the Lakes in 1812–1813.

Clergyman, poet and historian. His brilliant career at the University of Oxford included winning the Newdigate Prize in 1812 and he was elected Professor of Poetry 1821–1831. He became a Fellow of Brasenose College in 1814 and was ordained in 1816. Milman’s ecclesiastical career was equally illustrious, despite controversies over his orthodoxy prompted by his History of the Jews (1830), and he became a Canon of Westminster Abbey in 1835 and Dean of St Paul’s in 1849. Milman contributed regularly to the Quarterly Review, had many friends in literary life and continued to enjoy as much prominence as a writer as he did as a cleric. His poetry included the epic, Samor, Lord of the Bright City (1818); in later life he concentrated on history, especially his History of Latin Christianity down to the Death of Pope Nicholas V (1855).

Irish poet, playwright, and satirist, who in later life turned to writing biography, including a life of his friend Byron, whose Whig politics he shared. As a poet Moore achieved commercial success with his Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Little (1801); subsequent volumes included Irish Melodies (1808–1834), Intercepted Letters, or, The Twopenny Post-Bag (1813), and The Fudge Family in Paris (1818). Southey’s oriental romances Thalaba and Kehama were important influences on Moore’s Lalla Rookh (1814). However, he did not hold Moore’s work in high regard and in 1807 used an Annual Review essay on the latter’s Epistles, Odes and Other Poems (1806) to accuse him of being ‘a corrupter of the public morals’.

The wife of one of Southey’s oldest friends, John James Morgan. She was the daughter of Moses Brent (d. 1817), a silversmith, and had married John James Morgan in 1800.

Brother of Edward Nash. Southey corresponded with him occasionally following Edward Nash’s death in January 1821.

Archivist, historian, and contributor to both the Edinburgh Review and the Quarterly Review. Although he spent his early career in a solicitor’s office and later qualified for the Bar, Palgrave's historical and antiquarian interests won out. He was appointed a Sub-Commissioner of the Record Commission in 1822 and in the following year changed his name and converted from Judaism to Anglicanism on his marriage to Elizabeth (1799–1852), a daughter of Dawson Turner. He published widely on historical subjects and also edited numerous volumes of historical documents. In 1838 he became the executive head of the newly established Public Record Office, a post he held until his death. He was an occasional correspondent of Southey’s.

Master of Balliol College, Oxford 1798–1819.

Wife of Colonel and later Lieutenant-General William Peachy, from a family resident in Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, where she continued to spend winters after her marriage, Southey visiting on at least one occasion. In summer, Peachy was fond of rowing her boat on Derwentwater, near her home on Derwent Isle. Southey wrote an epitaph for her when she died, recalling her gliding across the lake in her skiff. Through Peachy, Southey was introduced to her uncle Sir Charles Malet (1752–1815) and his family.

Southey lodged with Peacock and his wife in Newington Butts in 1797. Peacock was involved in the book trade, possibly as a travelling salesman. The Peacocks were unhappily married and later in life Mrs Peacock was central in having her husband committed to a private asylum. On at least two occasions, Peacock wrote to Southey from his ‘place of confinement’ and in 1816 Southey made enquiries about his case.

Leading politician in the first half of the nineteenth century. He served as Chief Secretary for Ireland 1812–1818, Home Secretary 1822–1827, 1828–1830 and Prime Minister 1834–1835, 1841–1846. Peel was always a controversial figure, especially when he changed tack and supported Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845–1846. Both decisions alienated his conservative followers and he split the Tory Party on the latter occasion. Southey had long admired Peel and felt betrayed over his support for Catholic Emancipation; but relations were restored sufficiently for Peel to offer Southey a Baronetcy in 1835 and a further government pension of £300 p.a.

Daughter of a Birmingham manufacturer, she married Charles Lloyd on 24 April 1799. They moved to Old Brathay, near Ambleside, in 1800. They had nine children and a notably happy family life, despite Charles Lloyd’s bouts of mental instability. Thomas De Quincey claimed that ‘as a wife and mother’ Sophia was ‘unsurpassed’.

Lawyer. Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (matric. 1793, BA 1797, BCL 1800, DCL 1804). He won prizes at Christ Church for Latin verse (1793) and prose (1798), and the University English essay prize (1798) for his dissertation, ‘Chivalry’. Southey and Phillimore met at Westminster School, and their friendship lasted until the end of Southey’s time at Oxford. When Southey returned to Oxford in 1820 to receive an honorary DCL, Phillimore, by then Regius Professor of Civil Law, participated in the degree ceremony. Phillimore was not very tall, hence his nickname ‘little Joe’.

Politician and writer. Educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. In the mid 1790s, Carysfort developed an interest in Southey’s poetry, communicating with him through his cousin and Southey’s patron Charles Wynn. Southey arranged for Carysfort to be sent copies of his books, though any letters he wrote to the peer have not survived. Carysfort’s critiques of ‘The Retrospect’ and Madoc are in National Library of Wales, NLW MS 4819. Carysfort’s own Dramatic and Narrative Poems were published in 1810.

The daughter of the Unitarian hymn-writer, minister and manufacturer John Taylor (1750–1826; DNB) and his wife Susanna (1755–1823; DNB). She married Reeve in 1807. Of their three children, only one survived infancy: Henry Reeve (1813–1895; DNB), later editor of the Edinburgh Review.