Poet, dramatist, reviewer and editor. The son of the law stationer James Abraham Heraud (d. 1846) and his wife Jane (d. 1850), he was educated privately. Eschewing the business career for which he had been intended, Heraud embarked on a literary life. He wrote essays, including ones on German literature, for periodicals, contributing to the Quarterly Review from 1827 and the Athenaeum from 1843. He was the assistant editor of Fraser’s Magazine 1830–1833.

Ann Elizabeth Heraud (d. 1867): Daughter of Henry Baddams (1776–1842); she married John Abraham Heraud on 15 May 1823 and the couple had six children, one of whom, Edith Heraud (d. 1899), an actress, wrote a Memoir of her father (1898).

Richard Heber (1774–1833): Book-collector. Son of Reginald Heber, clergyman and landowner. Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford (BA 1796, MA, 1797). Heber edited some minor classical writers, but his main interest was his book collection, which finally totalled over 100,000 volumes housed in eight different locations. Though he concentrated on early English poetry and drama his library included classical works and a wide selection of European and Latin American literature. Heber was exceptionally generous in lending his books, and let Southey use his copy of Amadis of Gaul.

Reginald Heber (1783–1826): Younger half-brother of Richard Heber, he was ordained in 1807 and gained some reputation as an Anglican theologian and hymn-writer. He was deeply interested in missionary work, was well-read on West and South Asia and was an occasional contributor to the Quarterly Review. In 1823 his friend Wynn obtained for him the post of Bishop of Calcutta and he died in India after a brief, but highly successful, term of office. Southey wrote a poem in memory of Heber for the Life of Reginald Heber (1830).

William Hazlitt (1778–1830): Writer and painter. He first met Southey in 1803, whilst in the Lakes on a commission from Sir George Beaumont to paint Coleridge, Hartley Coleridge and Wordsworth. Their relationship was, though, to be conducted largely in the public sphere, via the medium of newspapers and reviews. The catalyst for so public a relationship was undoubtedly Southey’s appointment as Poet Laureate in September 1813. Over the next decade or so Hazlitt produced a series of reviews and essays devoted to Southey and his works.

Mary Hays (1759–1843): Writer. Brought up in a Dissenting home in London, she first found fame with her Cursory Remarks on an Enquiry into the Experience and Propriety of Public Worship (1792). This propelled her into the circle of radicals around the publisher Joseph Johnson (1738–1809; DNB). Hays’s Memoirs of Emma Courtney (1796) gained her some notoriety, as it was a thinly-disguised version of her relationship with the radical William Frend (1757–1841; DNB).

Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786–1846): Painter and diarist. Southey admired his work and corresponded with Haydon whilst working on an article for the Quarterly Review on Haydon’s New Churches, Considered with Respect to the Opportunities they Offer for the Encouragement of Painting (1818).

Joseph Haslewood (1769–1833): London solicitor, who became a well-known bibliographer and antiquary. He edited many early English texts and created a very important collection of ephemeral literature. Southey corresponded with him about the works of Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770; DNB).

Aaron (fl. 1820s–1850s) Hartwell (or Hartnell): In early 1824 Southey was elected as an Honorary Member of the Bristol Literary and Philosophical Society and Hartwell corresponded with him on this matter, as he was the organisation’s Secretary. Local directories describe Hartwell as a ‘Professor of Mathematics’ and he contributed papers on astronomy to the Bristol Literary and Philosophical Society.

John Harris (1756–1846): Publisher, who mainly specialised in juvenile books. In 1813, in collaboration with C. J. Barrington, he ventured into new territory and suggested that Southey should take up the continuations of John Campbell’s (1708–1775; DNB), Lives of the Admirals and Other Eminent British Seamen (1742–1744). Southey immediately declined the offer on the grounds of his inadequate knowledge of the subject.