Helen Maria Williams (1759–1827): Writer. She was the daughter of Charles Williams (d. 1762) and his second wife Helen Hay (1730–1812). Her early writings included Edwin and Eltruda (1782), Peru (1784) and Poems (1786); the latter elicited a tribute from William Wordsworth, his first publication (‘Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress’). She moved in the circles that included Anna Letitia Barbauld, William Godwin, Samuel Rogers and Anna Seward, and was a committed abolitionist.

Thomas Wilkinson (1751–1836): Cumbrian landscape gardener, who owned a small estate at Yanwath, south of Penrith, and advised William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, on improvements to his grounds. Wilkinson, a Quaker, was a friend of Thomas Clarkson and of Wordsworth. A keen fellwalker and a poet, Wilkinson published Tours to the British Mountains; with the Descriptive Poems of Lowther, and Emont Vale (1824).

Simon Wilkin (1790–1862): Owner of a paper mill in Norwich, with wide interests, including entomology. Bankruptcy led him to establish a printing and publishing business in Norwich which produced the work of, among others, Amelia Opie and William Taylor. His most impressive project was his new edition of the life and works of Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682; DNB), which finally appeared in 1835–1836. Southey advised Wilkin on the early stages of this project and greatly admired Wilkin’s work.

Robert Wilberforce (1802–1857): The second son of William Wilberforce and his wife Barbara. He was educated privately and then at Oriel College, Oxford, becoming a Fellow of the latter in 1826. However, he resigned his Fellowship in 1831 and took up a career in the Church of England, becoming Archdeacon of the East Riding in 1841. He was close to many of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1854. Wilberforce met Southey as a young man during family visits to the Lake District.

Richard White (1771–1847): Partner in Blake, White and Ainger, solicitors of Essex Street, London, who handled the business affairs of Jacob Pleydell–Bouverie, 2nd Earl of Radnor (1750–1828). White corresponded with Southey in 1826 when the Earl arranged Southey’s election (without his knowledge) for the pocket borough of Downton.

John Neville White (1782–1845): Elder brother of Henry Kirke White. He was called by his second name, 'Neville'. Southey greatly admired him and the two men became regular correspondents. He initially trained as a medical student in London, but then became a hosiery merchant. In the latter capacity he was able to help Southey acquire books and newspapers from South America for his work on the Edinburgh Annual Register (1810–13) and the History of Brazil (1810–19).

James White (1787–1885): Younger brother of Henry Kirke and (John) Neville White. He attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating in 1815; Southey sent him some encouraging letters when White was disappointed by his academic performance. White never married and became a clergyman. Initially, he held difficult curacies in industrial parishes in West Bromwich and then St George’s, Manchester (1826–42) – Southey helped him acquire the latter post.

Henry Kirke White (1785–1806): The son of a butcher in Nottingham, White was a studious boy who, after being articled to a lawyer, learned classical languages and, with help from Capel Lofft (1753–1824 ; DNB), patron of Robert Bloomfield, published Clifton Grove, a Sketch in Verse, with other Poems in 1803. The book was violently attacked in the Monthly Review (February 1804); Southey then wrote to White offering encouragement.

William Westall (1781–1850): Painter and engraver, whose works played an important role in the shaping of Romantic ideas of the landscape. He was the half brother of the academician Richard Westall (1765–1836; DNB). In 1801 he was appointed as the landscape draughtsman for the voyage to New Holland and the South Seas commanded by Matthew Flinders. His travels eventually also took him to Canton and Bombay. He arrived back in England in 1805 and was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society later that year. He held exhibitions of his foreign views in 1808 and 1809.

Benjamin West (1738–1820): Painter. Born in Pennsylvania, the son of an innkeeper, West travelled to Italy in 1760 and England in 1763, remaining there for the rest of his life. Although he worked in a number of genres, West became best known, first, as a history painter and, later in his career, as a painter of religious subjects. His works included, Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus (1768) and The Departure of Regulus from Rome (1769), the latter commissioned by George III.