Robert Banks Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury/2nd Earl of Liverpool (1770–1828): A Tory politician who was successively Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies and then, from 1812–1827, Prime Minister. 

George Kenyon, 2nd Baron Kenyon (1776–1855): Lawyer, landowner in North Wales and prominent opponent of Catholic Emancipation. He was also a close friend of Andrew Bell. Once Southey agreed to write Bell’s biography, this involved him in some correspondence with Kenyon, who was a trustee of the organisation set up in Bell’s Will to promote his educational plans.

John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (1735–1823): Commander in Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet 1796–9, 1800–1801, First Sea Lord 1801–1804.

Charles Edward Kennaway (1800–1875): Son of Sir John Kennaway, 1st Baronet (1758– 1836), who made a fortune in service to the East India Company and became a landowner in Devon. He served as Vicar of Chipping Campden 1832–1872 and Canon of Gloucester Cathedral. Kennaway visited Southey in October 1819 and again in October 1820 when he was on a tour of the Lake District in company with his university friend, Leland Noel.

Robert Harry Inglis, 2nd Baronet (1786–1855): Only son of Hugh Inglis, 1st Baronet (1744–1820; Hist P), Director of the East India Company and MP for Ashburton 1802–1806. Inglis was exceptionally well connected – Robert Peel was a friend from their days at Oxford University. He was also close to William Wilberforce; in 1815 he became the guardian of the nine orphaned children of their mutual friend, the banker and abolitionist Henry Thornton (1760–1815; DNB). Inglis was MP for Dundalk 1824–1826, Ripon 1828–1829, and Oxford University 1829–1854, but never held high office.

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773–1850): Scottish, Whig lawyer and critic, from 1803 editor of the Edinburgh Review and, as such, Southey’s bête noire for damning reviews of his, Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s poetry (Jeffrey is credited with identifying them as a school or sect of poets; see Edinburgh Review, 1 (October 1802), 63–83). Southey affected indifference but was acutely sensitive to Jeffrey’s reviews.

Francis Ingram-Seymour-Conway, 2nd Marquess of Hertford (1743–1822): Lord Chamberlain 1812–1821, and as such, a key figure in the appointment of Southey as Poet Laureate in 1813.

John Charles Herries (1778–1855): Started his life in office in 1798 as a junior, but well-connected, civil servant at the Treasury. He played an important part in the British war effort as Commissary-in-Chief 1811–1816, and later moved into politics as Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1823–1827, and Chancellor of the Exchequer 1827–1828. Southey knew him through Grosvenor Bedford and Herries proved helpful with franking Southey’s correspondence.

John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield (1735–1821): Politician, close friend and executor of Edward Gibbon (1737–1794; DNB). He was an MP for Coventry, 1780–1784, and Bristol, 1790–1802. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Sheffield in 1802, and obtained an earldom in 1816. Southey corresponded with him in 1817–1818, when Sheffield offered Southey sight of the papers of his son-in-law, General Sir Henry Clinton (1771–1829; DNB), to help with his History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

Edward John Littleton (formerly Walhouse; 1791–1863), Lord Hatherton: Politician. The son of Moreton Walhouse, he changed his name to Littleton in 1812 in order to comply with the terms of the will of his great uncle Sir Edward Littleton, the bulk of whose estates he inherited. He married Hyacinthe Mary (1789?–1849), the illegitimate daughter of Richard, 1st Marquess Wellesley. He was elected MP for Staffordshire in 1812, and supported Canning and Catholic emancipation. In 1835 he was created Baron Hatherton of Hatherton.