William Sotheby (1757–1833): Poet and translator. Born into a wealthy family, Sotheby served in the army before devoting himself to literature in 1780. He had many close friends in the literary world, including Joanna Baillie, and unobtrusively helped a number of authors who were in financial trouble. Sotheby’s poetry had little success and he was best known for his translation of Oberon (1798). Southey was first introduced to him in 1802, finding Sotheby ‘a man of taste & much original thought’, though he valued his criticism above his poetry.

William Smyth [also Smythe] (1765–1849): Historian and poet. Born in Liverpool, he was educated at Eton College and Peterhouse, Cambridge. His appointment as Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge in 1807 was controversial and attributed to patronage by the Holland House set. He wrote poetry – publishing English Lyrics in 1807 – and took an interest in contemporary poets, including Henry Kirke White, whom he knew during the latter’s time at university.

William Hawkes Smith (1786–1840): Author, draughtsman and lithographic printmaker from Birmingham. He was a Unitarian and supporter of a variety of radical causes, and in 1818 sent Southey his proposed set of illustrations for Thalaba the Destroyer (1801). Southey agreed to try and promote the work, and endeavoured to persuade his friends to subscribe to the publication of Smith’s work, which Longman brought out later in 1818.

William Smith (1756–1835): Politician. He was the son of Samuel Smith (1728–1798), a wealthy wholesale grocer and Dissenter. William Smith’s business activities were not successful, but his family’s money subsidized his lengthy political career – he was MP for Sudbury 1784–1790 and 1796–1802, Camelford 1791– 1796 and Norwich 1802–1806, 1807–1830. Smith was a long-standing supporter of parliamentary reform, religious equality and the abolition of the slave trade. He was also an early supporter of the French Revolution, an enthusiastic Whig from the early 1790s and a convert to Unitarianism.

Thomas Woodruffe Smith (c. 1747–1811): A wealthy Quaker merchant who lived at Stockwell Park, Surrey, with his second wife, Anne Reynolds (dates unknown) of Carshalton. The Smiths were friends of Grosvenor Charles Bedford and Duppa.

Thomas Smith (c. 1770–1822): Country gentleman and JP, of Unitarian and liberal views and literary and scientific interests. He was born in Cirencester, and later owned estates at Bownham House, near Minchinhampton, Gloucestshire and at Easton Grey, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He trained as a barrister but a speech impediment meant that he never practiced. He was known as the ‘Macenas of his neighbourhood’ for his patronage of men of letters and his philanthropy.

Maria Woodruffe Smith (1795–1854): Younger daughter of Grosvenor Bedford’s friend, Thomas Woodruffe Smith. She visited Keswick in 1826, at the time when her permanent address was in Acre Lane, Clapham. Southey wrote to her afterwards with news of himself and events in Keswick. In 1833 Maria Woodruffe Smith married George Head Head (1795–1876), a Quaker banker and active abolitionist, of Rickerby Hall, Carlisle.

Grace Smith (née Weatherall; 1751/2–1832): Wife of Major-General John Smith (1754–1837; DNB); grandmother of Charlotte-Julia Jephson. She visited the Lakes, including Keswick, in 1812.

Elizabeth Smith (c. 1764–1859): Wife of Thomas Smith and a noted collector of autographs and manuscripts.

Percy Bysshe Shelley: (1792–1822): Eldest son of the wealthy Sussex landowner, baronet and MP, Sir Timothy Shelley (1753–1844). He became a published poet and novelist while still at Eton and was expelled from University College, Oxford, in March 1811 for writing The Necessity of Atheism (1811). In August 1811 he eloped with, and married, Harriet Westbrook (1795–1816), causing a temporary breakdown in relations with his family.