Charles Biddlecombe (dates unknown): Neighbour and friend. Biddlecombe met Southey in summer 1797 when the latter moved to the village of Burton in Hampshire. Southey described him as ‘rich enough to buy books, and very friendly, all that a neighbour should be’. Biddlecombe married in 1798, but his wife died in childbirth in March 1799, leaving him with an infant daughter.
John Laurens Bicknell (c. 1786-1845): Solicitor, author, Fellow of the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. He was the son of John Bicknell (1746–1787), a barrister, and his wife Sabrina (1756/7–1843; DNB). Bicknell’s father was an associate of Thomas Day (1748–1789; DNB), with whom he co-wrote The Dying Negro (1773). Sabrina Bicknell’s association with Day was rather different. She was the subject of his failed attempt to educate a wife by applying the theories of Rousseau.
(Mary) Matilda Betham (1776-1852): Writer and painter of miniatures. Her poetry was admired by Coleridge, who penned the complimentary ‘To Matilda Betham, from a Stranger’. Betham published Elegies (1797) and Poems (1808); Southey advised her about her poetry and sat to her for his portrait in 1808, as Coleridge also did. In 1809 Betham visited Greta Hall and painted Southey’s wife and children. Owing to the unconventionality of her conduct Betham’s family confined her in an asylum in 1819.
John Bell (1784-1864): Bookseller and antiquary. He was born and lived in Newcastle, where from 1803-1817 he ran a booksellers shop on Quayside. He was the founder of a short-lived numismatic society. In 1813 he was involved in the founding of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Upon Tyne, serving as its Treasurer until his bankruptcy. Southey corresponded with him in 1814 about Morris dancing.
Christopher Benson (1788-1868): A native of Cockermouth, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1809) and became a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1820, the first Hulsean Lecturer 1820–1822 and later Canon of Worcester Cathedral 1825–1868. Benson was a noted public speaker and Southey heard him preach during his 1820 visit to Cambridge. From this time they corresponded occasionally.
John Bell (c. 1747-1819): Prominent English merchant in Lisbon, admitted to the British Factory in 1774. Southey came to know him well during his visit to Portugal in 1800–1801. He appreciated Bell’s wide knowledge of the country and benefitted from his connections to Portuguese intellectual life. Bell’s special interest was numismatics.
Andrew Bell (1753-1832): Scottish clergyman, the founder and tireless advocate of the ‘Madras’ system of schooling. When a chaplain in India, Bell introduced to the Madras Orphan Asylum the ‘monitorial’ system, wherein brighter children were charged with supervising groups of slower children, and all were motivated by a graduated scale of rewards and punishments. Returning to Britain, Bell promoted the system in a series of publications and attempted to have it instituted by a board of education controlled by the Church of England.
Alfred Beesley (1799/1800-1847): Antiquary. He was born into a Quaker family in Oxfordshire, though he later left the Society of Friends. He did not complete his apprenticeship to a watchmaker, instead devoting himself to literary and scientific pursuits. His Japheth: Contemplation and Other Pieces was published by Longman in 1834 and his History of Banbury appeared in 1841. In 1824 he wrote to Southey requesting information on the latter’s proposed life of George Fox (1624–1691; DNB), founder of the Religious Society of Friends.
Horace Walpole Bedford (c. 1776-1807): Civil servant and miscellaneous writer. The younger brother of Grosvenor Charles Bedford and named after his father’s patron. He was educated at Westminster School (adm. 1784), where his nickname was ‘the Doctor’ or ‘Dr. Johnson’. He did not attend university and later held a post at the British Museum. Like his older brother, he did not marry. Southey’s friendship with Horace began at school and their correspondence (though occasionally intermittent) lasted until at least 1797.
Henry ('Harry') Bedford (c. 1782–1844): A Clerk in the Admiralty from 1804, rising to First Class Clerk in 1826–1844. He was often referred to by Southey as ‘the Master of the Rolls’ or ‘the Magister Rotulorum’. Henry was the only one of the Bedford brothers not to remain single. In 1826 he married Eliza Hore (dates unknown), a widow with three children. The couple had two further children, Henry–Charles–Grosvenor Bedford (1827–1880), who became a civil servant, like his father and two uncles, and Mary–Frances Bedford (1829–1885).
