See Fricker, Edith (1774–1837)

Edward Southey (1788–1847): Southey’s youngest brother, he spent much of his childhood in the household of Elizabeth Tyler. Southey was much preoccupied with arranging Edward’s education, though plans to send him to St Paul’s School did not work out. It is not certain where he was educated. Southey despaired, noting ‘I never saw a lad with a better capacity or with habits more compleatly bad’. Edward was to lead an increasingly rackety, disreputable life, trying his hand at being a sailor, soldier and, eventually, a provincial actor.

Edith May Southey (1804–1871): Southey’s oldest surviving child. She was a close friend of both her cousin, Sara Coleridge (1802–1852) and of Dora Wordsworth (1804–1847), who were of a similar age. Edith May was educated at Greta Hall by her father and aunts, Sarah Coleridge and Mary Lovell. She was a talented linguist – she learned Danish, for instance, alongside Southey - but was also practically-minded and as a young adult took an important role in organising the household and social events at Greta Hall.

Henry Herbert Southey (1784–1865): Physician. Southey’s younger brother. With the help of his uncle Herbert Hill, Southey provided money for Henry Herbert’s education at Norwich and Edinburgh. His concerns about his younger brother’s lack of application proved — eventually — to be ill-founded, and in later life the two enjoyed a close friendship. Henry graduated MD on 24 June 1806, producing, with Southey’s help, a dissertation on the origins and course of syphilis which suggested an American origin for the disease.

William Shield (c. 1748/9–1829): Master of the King’s Music 1817–1829. Shield was born near Gateshead and made a name as a violinist in Newcastle, before moving to London, where he became principal violinist at Covent Garden in 1773 and later ‘house composer’ for the theatre. Shield made use of Northumbrian folk tunes, and wrote light operas and music for string quartets and trios. He was also a friend of Joseph Haydn (1732–1809; DNB).

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.

Samuel Simpson (1802–1881): An inveterate autograph hunter, Simpson wrote to Southey in 1821 and 1826, asking for Southey’s autograph. On both occasions Southey declined, sending Simpson humorous poems instead. Simpson’s identity is hard to be sure of, but he may have been the Samuel Simpson, born in Lancaster in 1802 and son of John Simpson (1779–1846), a retired West India merchant.

Emma Southey (1808–1809): Southey’s third daughter.

Mary Sawier (d. before April 1798): The widow of a Bristol accountant and Southey’s landlady in College Street, Bristol in 1795. Her daughter married James Jennings.

Poet and scholar. Sayers was born in London but after his father died when Sayers was a child, he spent his early years mainly in Suffolk and Norfolk. Sayers inherited a small estate from his grandfather in 1778 and qualified as a doctor in the Netherlands but decided to concentrate on literature from 1789 onwards. He settled in Norwich and became a central figure in the city’s intellectual life – William Taylor was an old schoolfriend.