Writer. She was the daughter of Charles Williams (d. 1762) and his second wife Helen Hay (1730–1812). Her early writings included Edwin and Eltruda (1782), Peru (1784) and Poems (1786); the latter elicited a tribute from William Wordsworth, his first publication (‘Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress’). She moved in the circles that included Anna Letitia Barbauld, William Godwin, Samuel Rogers and Anna Seward, and was a committed abolitionist. From the early 1790s she lived mainly in France, which she first visited in 1790, or, during periods when it was unsafe for her to be there, in Switzerland. Her first hand account of the revolution – Letters from France – appeared in 1790 and eventually extended through eight volumes and several, revised editions. She translated writings by Bernadin de St Pierre (1737-1814) and Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). Other works included an account of the Hundred Days of 1815. After Napoleon’s fall from power, her home in Paris became a regular calling-in spot for English tourists. Southey visited her during in May 1817 during his continental tour.

Under-Master at Westminster School 1788–1802.

Daughter of the Irish educational writer and engineer, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817; DNB) and younger sister of the novelist, Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849; DNB). In April 1794 she married Thomas Beddoes, an acquaintance of her father’s. The marriage produced two sons (including the poet, Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849; DNB)) and two daughters, but proved unhappy.

The ‘Corn-Law Rhymer’. Son of an ironmaster, Elliott became an amateur botanist and a self-taught poet after his brother introduced him to Thomson’s Seasons. From 1808, when Elliott first requested Southey’s advice, Southey encouraged his poetic career: Elliott later declared that Southey had taught him the art of poetry. He published Night, or, the Legend of Wharncliffe in 1818 and Tales of the Night in 1820. From the 1820s, Elliott was a manufacturer in Sheffield, where, disgusted by what he saw as the adverse effects of the Corn Laws on business and on the poor, he campaigned for their repeal, especially through his Corn Law Rhymes (1831). Southey reviewed these critically in 1833, writing to Lord Mahon, ‘I never suspected him of giving his mind to any other object than poetry till Wordsworth put the Corn-Law Rhymes into my hands . . . In such times as these, whatever latent evil there is in a nation is brought out’.

Writer and publisher of the radical newspaper the Cambridge Intelligencer. In 1799, Flower was sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine of £100 for a libel against Richard Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff.

See Fricker family

Antiquarian and librarian. Born in Edinburgh, he was the son of the publisher and antiquarian bookseller William Laing (1764–1832; DNB) and his wife Helen (1767–1837). The elder Laing had lent books to help Southey with his edition of Le Morte d'Arthur (1817) and Southey visited his shop on his trips to Edinburgh in 1806 and 1819. David Laing entered his father’s business, becoming a partner in 1821. As well as being highly regarded for his professional knowledge, Laing also assembled his own extensive collection of books and manuscripts. Honours included election to a Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1824 and to the post of Librarian to the Society of Writers to H.M. Signet in 1837. Southey, who supported Laing’s candidacy for the latter, shared many of his bibliophilic and antiquarian interests, and they corresponded intermittently.

Eldest son of Southey’s schoolfriend from Westminster, Nicholas Lightfoot. He was a clergyman and long-serving Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, 1854–1887.

Legal writer, antiquary and member of the Royal Irish Academy. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he struck up a lifelong friendship with Thomas Moore (1779–1852; DNB). He was called to the Irish Bar in 1800, but never practised, instead holding posts as examiner to the prerogative courts and as Assistant, later Chief, Librarian of the King’s Inns, Dublin. His charitable and educational activities were numerous and included playing an important part in the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland. In 1818 Mason founded the Irish Society for ‘promoting the scriptural education and religious instruction of the Irish-speaking population chiefly through the medium of their own language’ and he was also the moving force behind an association for the improvement of Irish prisons and prison discipline. His best-known publication was a concise account of the history of Irish common and statute law from the Anglo-Norman invasion to the reign of Charles I – Essay on the Antiquity and Constitution of Parliaments in Ireland (1820). Mason met Southey in Keswick in autumn 1812. They corresponded for some twenty years, though few of their letters survive. Mason was especially keen to solicit Southey’s support for his educational projects.

Editor and owner of the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1792–1826. Printer, author and noted antiquarian. Among his many works was Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (1812–1815).

The widow of a Bristol accountant and Southey’s landlady in College Street, Bristol in 1795. Her daughter married James Jennings.

A resident of the Cumbrian port of Maryport. She was possibly a member of the Wood family, who were leading shipbuilders in the town. Miss Wood was the mortgagee of Greta Hall, Southey’s home, from 1815, and Southey paid his rent directly to her for a period from 1817 onwards. Southey corresponded with her intermittently on a professional basis.

Publisher, in partnership with J. Harris. In 1813 they suggested Southey should take up the continuation of John Campbell’s (1708–1775; DNB), Lives of the Admirals and Other Eminent British Seamen (1742–1744). Southey immediately declined the offer on the grounds of his inadequate knowledge of the subject.

Edinburgh-based publisher whose firm, William Blackwood and Sons, became the leading Scottish publisher of the 1820s and 1830s. Blackwood’s career started in the antiquarian bookselling business, but gradually moved into publishing. His appointment, in 1811, as Edinburgh agent for John Murray gave him excellent links to the English book trade and English authors. In 1817 he founded a new Tory periodical – the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. Within six months this was refounded as Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, which rapidly emerged as a major counterpart to the Edinburgh Review. Blackwood, travelling with Murray in the latter’s coach, visited Southey in Keswick in September 1818. Although his (and Murray’s) attempts to enlist Southey as a contributor to the new magazine failed, Blackwood and Southey did correspond occasionally. The publisher was more successful with Caroline Bowles. She contributed to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine and published her other writings with Blackwood’s firm. This connection ensured that, after Southey’s death, Bowles chose Blackwood as the publisher of two works co-authored with her late husband: The Life of the Rev. Andrew Bell (1844; also co-authored with Cuthbert Southey) and Robin Hood: A Fragment; with Other Fragments and Poems (1847).

One of the leading publishers of the first half of the nineteenth century. After setting up in business in 1806 he became well-known for promoting popular fiction, including ‘silver fork’ society novels, naval adventures and historical novels. He also had an interest in numerous periodicals, including the New Monthly Magazine, the Literary Gazette and the Athenaeum, and gained a reputation for ‘puffing’ his own authors in their pages. In 1814 Colburn wrote to Southey, asking for biographical details and a portrait of Southey to use in the first issue of his New Monthly Magazine. Southey obliged, directing Colburn to a copy of the bust of Southey sculpted in 1813. The article and portrait appeared in the New Monthly Magazine, 1 (January–June 1814), 566–571.

Second wife of Robert Gooch, whom she married in January 1814. She was the sister of the surgeon Benjamin Travers (1783–1858).

Poet, dramatist, reviewer and editor. The son of the law stationer James Abraham Heraud (d. 1846) and his wife Jane (d. 1850), he was educated privately. Eschewing the business career for which he had been intended, Heraud embarked on a literary life. He wrote essays, including ones on German literature, for periodicals, contributing to the Quarterly Review from 1827 and the Athenaeum from 1843. He was the assistant editor of Fraser’s Magazine 1830–1833. He also published poems, including the epics The Descent into Hell (1830) and The Judgement of the Flood (1834), and plays. Heraud had a wide circle of acquaintances. Southey was one of the many more established writers Heraud knew socially and from whom he solicited advice on his writing and literary career.

The daughter of the Anglican clergyman George Watts (d. 1810), she married another cleric, Thomas Hughes. In the late 1810s she became a friend and correspondent of Southey and, later, of his second wife Caroline Bowles. She was also on excellent terms with Walter Scott, and her Letters and Recollections of the latter was published in 1904.

Lawyer, landowner in North Wales and prominent opponent of Catholic Emancipation. He was also a close friend of Andrew Bell. Once Southey agreed to write Bell’s biography, this involved him in some correspondence with Kenyon, who was a trustee of the organisation set up in Bell’s Will to promote his educational plans.

Soldier. The younger brother of Coleridge’s school fellow, Charles Valentine Le Grice (1773–1858). Educated at Christ’s Hospital, where he was a contemporary and friend of Charles Lamb, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He obtained an army commission and died in Jamaica.

Educated at University of Edinburgh. He married Mary Grey on 27 April 1813 and was Minister of Kelso. He worked with John and James Ballantyne on the Edinburgh Annual Register, producing the yearly ‘Chronicle’ from late 1810. He was one of the financial guarantors of their co-partnership, along with Walter Scott. He was described as ‘highly and justly respected, and esteemed for the urbanity of his manner, his unaffected piety, and other excellent qualities’ (James Haig, A Topographical and Historical Account of the Town of Kelso (Edinburgh, 1825), p. 119).

Physician. He was educated at the Warrington Academy and Edinburgh and settled in Bath in November 1779. He developed a large practice and participated in local scientific and agricultural societies. His An Inquiry into the Symptoms and Causes of the Syncope Anginosa Commonly Called Angina Pectoris (1799) was the first monograph on the pathology of angina pectoris. Parry was a friend of Edward Jenner (1749–1823; DNB), and dedicatee of the latter’s book on vaccination. His celebrity patients included Edmund Burke (1729/30–1797; DNB). He was the father of Charles Henry Parry (1779–1860; DNB), who was a companion of Coleridge on his visit to the Harz Mountains in 1799. Parry and Southey undoubtedly knew each other via mutual friends in Bath. They corresponded in 1798 about a print of Joan of Arc.

Lawyer. Eldest son of Revd Henry and Bella Peckwell. In 1811, he assumed his mother’s surname. Educated Westminster (adm. 1785) and Christ Church, Oxford (matric. 1792, BA 1796, MA 1799). Admitted to Lincoln’s Inn 1795, called to the Bar 1801; Serjeant-at-Law 1809. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bengal, 1821; knighted 1822. Author of Cases on Controverted Elections in the Second Parliament of the United Kingdom (1805–1806). He never married. Peckwell was a friend of Southey’s during his time at Westminster School and Oxford.

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.