Sarah (Sara) Fricker (1770–1845): Southey’s sister-in-law. The eldest surviving child of Stephen Fricker and Martha Rowles. Sarah and Southey were childhood friends, and it was through her that Southey met Robert Lovell in late 1793. Southey may well have been romantically interested in Sarah, before he became engaged to her sister, Edith Fricker, in 1794. Sarah met Samuel Taylor Coleridge through Southey and the two married on 4 October 1795. They had three surviving children – Hartley, Derwent and Sara. After frequent moves in the 1790s the Coleridges settled at Greta Hall in Keswick in 1800 in order to be near Wordsworth. However, their marriage was already troubled and Coleridge left for Malta in 1804, returning only occasionally and not at all after 1812. This left Sarah Coleridge dependent on Southey’s help to support her, her three children and her widowed sister, Mary Lovell. Sarah helped to run the household at Greta Hall and contributed to the education of the Southey and Coleridge children, and the situation seems to have worked harmoniously. Her relationship with Southey, who provided her with advice and support during her later marital difficulties, was affectionate, and at times jokey and rumbustious. In 1829 Sarah Coleridge left Greta Hall to live firstly with her son, Derwent, and then with her daughter, Sara.