Watkin Williams Wynn, 5th Baronet (1772–1840): Elder brother of Charles Watkin Williams Wynn. Like his brother, Watkin was a long-serving MP 1794–1840, though he never held political office. His main interests were the family estates in North Wales, which he inherited in 1789, and military life – he raised the Ancient British Fencibles in 1794 and saw service in Ireland in 1798.

William Wilberforce (1759–1833): Son of a wealthy merchant in Hull; MP for Hull 1780–84, Yorkshire 1784–1812 and Bramber 1812–25. Wilberforce underwent a conversion to evangelical Christianity in the mid-1780s and became one of the country’s leading campaigners against the slave trade. Southey admired Wilberforce’s stance and the two started to correspond in 1813 over the need to promote Christian missionary activity in India.

Joseph Blanco White (formerly José María Blanco y Crespo; 1775–1841): Spanish poet and journalist. He was the grandson of an Irishman who had founded a business in Seville, though his mother was from a minor Spanish noble family. In 1798 he became a priest, though he had effectively abandoned this role by 1805 and did not find a new vocation until, in 1808–1810, he edited the Seminario Patriotico in Seville in aid of the Spanish cause, followed by El Espanol in London 1810–1814.

Richard Wellesley, Marquess Wellesley (formerly Wesley; 1760–1842): Governor-General of Bengal, who returned to England in early 1806. Wellesley’s governorship was marked by a drive to acquire more territory in India. On his return, political controversy soon erupted: James Paull (1770–1808; DNB), Indian trader (1790–1805), accused Wellesley of ruining his trade in Lucknow (Bengal) and undermining the nawab of Oudh’s authority there during the years 1801–1802. This challenge kept Wellesley out of political office until 1809.

Arthur Wellesley (1769–1852): Pre-eminent British soldier of the nineteenth century, created Duke of Wellington in 1814. In later life he was a Tory politician, and Prime Minister 1828–1830, 1834. Southey’s relationship with Wellington was deeply ambiguous. He passionately supported Wellington’s aim of defeating the French invasion of Spain in 1808–1813, but was often critical of Wellington’s tactics, especially his caution and unwillingness to rely on Spanish help.

Richard Watson (1737–1816), Bishop of Llandaff: In the 1790s a critic of the French revolution and its British supporters and an opponent of Gilbert Wakefield. Southey came to know Watson after his move to the Lakes, visiting him at his Calgarth estate in Troutbeck Bridge, Windermere, where he had lived since 1788.

Chauncy [also Chauncey] Hare Townshend [originally ‘Townsend’] (1798–1868): Poet and collector. Educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he won the Chancellor’s English medal in 1817 for a poem, ‘Jerusalem’. He was ordained but never took up a living. Determined on a poetic career, he wrote to Southey for advice. The latter encouraged his ambitions; Townshend visited Greta Hall and dedicated his Poems (1821) to the Poet Laureate.

Horatio Gates Spafford (1778–1832): American Quaker, inventor and writer. He sent Southey a copy of his Gazetteer of the State of New York (1813), and the two corresponded in 1817 about Spafford’s novel, The Mother-in-Law (1817), which was set in the Lake District.