Dorothy Wordsworth (1771–1855): Author, poet and diarist. Dorothy was born in Cockermouth, the younger sister of William Wordsworth and the third of five children of John Wordsworth (1741–1783), a legal agent for the Lowther family, the most powerful landowners in the Lake District. The early death of her parents led to Dorothy spending the period 1778–1787 with a cousin in Halifax, followed by time in Penrith with her grandparents and with an uncle in Norfolk. From 1794 she began sharing a house with her brother William and the two siblings remained very close for the rest of their lives.

Christopher Wordsworth (1774–1846): Anglican clergyman and scholar. He was the youngest brother of William Wordsworth and, like his older brother, was educated at Hawkshead School and Trinity College, Cambridge (1792–1796), where he became a Fellow in 1798. He was ordained in 1799 and enjoyed a successful clerical career through the patronage of Charles Manners-Sutton (1755–1828; DNB), Archbishop of Canterbury 1805–1828, whose son Wordsworth had tutored.

Catherine Wordsworth (1808–1812): Fourth child of Mary and William Wordsworth. Born 5 September 1808. Died of convulsions on 4 June 1812.

Sara Wood (dates unknown): A resident of the Cumbrian port of Maryport. She was possibly a member of the Wood family, who were leading shipbuilders in the town. Miss Wood was the mortgagee of Greta Hall, Southey’s home, from 1815, and Southey paid his rent directly to her for a period from 1817 onwards. Southey corresponded with her intermittently on a professional basis.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797): Author and promoter of women’s rights. Wollstonecraft was born in London, the fifth of seven children of Edward John Wollstonecraft (1736–1803), an increasingly unsuccessful businessman and farmer. Financial troubles forced the family to move frequently. Wollstonecraft initially worked as a lady’s companion, in a school she set up with her sisters and a friend, and as a governess. But in 1787 she decided to concentrate on a literary career, aided by the radical publisher, Joseph Johnson (1738–1809; DNB), for whom she wrote reviews and translations.

William Winterbotham (1763–1829): Baptist Minister. He was born in London and apprenticed to a silversmith, but after a conversion experience he became a Baptist Minister in 1789 and the following year moved to Plymouth to take charge of the congregation at How’s Lane Meeting House. In 1793 he was sentenced to four years imprisonment for two radical sermons he preached to his congregation. Winterbotham passed most of his incarceration in Newgate prison and spent his time in writing – he published an account of his trial, sermons and works of divinity and geography.

John Wingfield (c. 1757–1825): Under-Master at Westminster School 1788–1802.

Molly Wilson (?–1820): Housekeeper at Greta Hall, daughter of a Keswick midwife. Beloved of the Southey and Coleridge families; ‘Wilsy’ left money in her will to the Southey and Coleridge children.

John Wilson [pseud. Christopher North] (1785–1854): Scottish author and journalist from a wealthy family. He was an early admirer of Wordsworth and settled in the Lake District in 1805. Southey did not know him well. Financial losses forced Wilson into journalism and he became the mainstay of Blackwood’s Magazine 1817–1854, where he wrote some notorious attacks on his former idols, Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Glocester [also Gloucester] Wilson (c. 1770–1850): Civil Servant. Son of Edward Wilson (1739–1804), Prebendary of Gloucester Cathedral and Canon of Windsor and Sarah Wilson, née Giffin (1734–1810). Edward Wilson had been a tutor to the young William Pitt. He was appointed one of the Commissioners of Customs in 1799, was a Fellow of the Royal Society and wrote two works in opposition to a return to the gold standard in 1811–1812. Wilson married Elizabeth Whitear (1775–1852), widow of Francis North (1778–1821), in 1825 and retired to Hastings in later life.