Robert Philip (1791–1858): Congregational Minister. He was born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and entered Hoxton Academy in 1811, becoming Minister at Newington Chapel, Liverpool, in 1815. He moved to London in 1826, when he took up an appointment at Maberly Chapel, Kingsland. He authored a series of religious manuals, including Christian Experience, or, A Guide to the Perplexed (1828), that were popular in Britain and North America. Other publications included pamphlets against the opium trade and biographies of George Whitefield (1714–1770; DNB) and John Bunyan (1628–1688; DNB), all characterised by their strongly evangelical tone. He served on the board of the London Missionary Society. He resigned his post in 1855 and died three years later. Southey and Philip met in 1818. In 1825 Philip sent Southey a parcel of books, including one on South America. Southey’s reply acknowledged that their points of disagreement on religious matters were fewer and less important than those on which they agreed.