George Mitford (1760–1842): Educated at Edinburgh University he practised briefly as a surgeon and in later life assumed the unauthorised title of ‘Doctor’. He married Mary Russell (1750–1830), a distant and wealthy relation of the Dukes of Bedford. Their only child was the writer Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855; DNB). Mitford’s inverate gambling, social pretensions and extravagant expenditure brought his family close to ruin on several occasions. Southey wrote to Mitford in 1812 to acknowledge receipt of copies of works by Mary Russell Mitford.