William Allen Proby (1779–1804): Naval officer, eldest son of John Joshua Proby, 1st Earl of Carysfort. He was made a captain in 1798 when only 19, probably because of his political connections.

William Pople (fl. 1806–1837): Printer, bookseller and stationer, based at various addresses in central London. Before his move to the metropolis, he had been apprenticed to the Bristol printer Nathaniel Biggs. He printed several of Southey’s works, including The History of Brazil (1810–1819). Southey’s nephew, Robert Lovell, was apprenticed to him.

Thomas Poole (1766–1837): Tanner and farmer of Nether Stowey in Somerset. He met Southey and Coleridge during their walking tour of 1794 and became a friend of both and a crucial financial support to Coleridge. Poole helped untangle the financial difficulties left by Coleridge’s failed periodical, The Watchman, found a house at Nether Stowey for Coleridge’s family in 1797 and provided much financial assistance for them while Coleridge was in Germany in 1798–1799. Poole was the central figure in reconciling Coleridge and Southey in August 1799.

Sarah Ponsonby (1755–1832): One of the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’. A member of an Anglo-Irish family, in 1780 she set up home with Eleanor Butler at Plas Newydd on the outskirts of Llangollen, a major staging post on the route from England to Ireland. Their relationship intrigued their peers and has continued to attract speculation. Although Ponsonby and Butler lived a life of retirement, simplicity and self-improvement, they received many guests – both admirers and tourists. They were visited by Southey in 1811.

Henry Phillpotts (1778–1869): Anglican cleric and controversialist. A native of Bridgwater, Somerset, Phillpotts was educated at Gloucester Cathedral School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He occupied a series of increasingly prestigious church appointments in Durham and its environs, and in 1830 became Bishop of Exeter. Phillpotts was an outspoken supporter of the Tories and wrote to Southey in 1819, enclosing some of his political pamphlets. But he was equally controversial on doctrinal matters, denouncing both evangelicals and Tractarians.

Richard Phillips (1767–1840): Author and publisher, initially in Leicester and from 1795 in London. In 1796 he founded the progressive Monthly Magazine, employing firstly John Aikin and from 1806 George Gregory as its editor. A radical and republican, Phillips himself wrote anti-government articles for the periodical under the signature ‘Common Sense’. Phillips’s business prospered in the first decade of the nineteenth century. In 1807 he was elected a sheriff of London and in 1808 he was knighted.

Joseph Phillimore (1775–1855): Lawyer. Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (matric. 1793, BA 1797, BCL 1800, DCL 1804). He won prizes at Christ Church for Latin verse (1793) and prose (1798), and the University English essay prize (1798) for his dissertation, ‘Chivalry’. Southey and Phillimore met at Westminster School, and their friendship lasted until the end of Southey’s time at Oxford. When Southey returned to Oxford in 1820 to receive an honorary DCL, Phillimore, by then Regius Professor of Civil Law, participated in the degree ceremony.

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.

Alfred Pettet (1788–1837): Born in Norwich, he was organist at Peter Mancroft church in the city from 1810 until his death. When Southey visited Norwich in 1824 he met Pettet, who successfully solicited a contribution from Southey to Pettet’s Original Sacred Music, the product of his conviction that Britain lacked good sacred music. Published by subscription and dedicated to George IV, the volume contained settings, by Pettet and others, of a number of older and contemporary devotional poems.

Spencer Perceval (1762–1812): Chancellor of the Exchequer 1807–1812, and Prime Minister 1809–1812. Southey admired Perceval’s opposition to Catholic Emancipation and Perceval was reported to be impressed by Southey’s attacks on Methodism. Perceval’s assassination in 1812 deeply shocked Southey, as it seemed to reveal popular sympathy with Perceval’s killer and to weaken the government’s hostility to Catholic Emancipation.