Manuel Abella (1753-1817): Spanish scholar, historian and archivist. He was one of the secretaries to the commission that drew up the plans for the Cortes that met in 1810 and later served in that body as a deputy from Aragon. In 1810-1811 he was in London as secretary to the Duke of Albuquerque, the Cortes’s representative in the United Kingdom. At this time, Southey (who had been given an introduction to Abella by Henry Crabb Robinson) wrote to him requesting documents that might help with accounts of the Peninsular War Southey was producing for the Edinburgh Annual Register. Abella obliged and continued to send Southey material after he returned to Cadiz in 1811. The two men became friendly, despite never meeting. Southey offered Abella advice on where his son might attend school in England and Abella arranged for Southey to become a Fellow of the Royal Spanish Academy and the Royal Academy of History. After the restoration of royal absolutism in 1814 Southey lost contact with Abella.