Samuel Rogers (1763–1855): Poet and banker. His writings included The Pleasures of Memory (1792), ‘Columbus’ (1810), ‘Jacqueline’ (1814) and Italy (1822 and 1828). A wealthy, metropolitan Dissenter, Rogers was exceptionally well connected and had many acquaintances in common with Southey. They were on social terms, meeting occasionally and corresponding intermittently. They shared an interest in assisting others, a trait Southey drew on in 1816 when he asked Rogers to help the young poet Herbert Knowles.

William Roscoe (1753–1831): Lawyer, banker and leading public figure in his native Liverpool, which he represented in parliament 1806–1807. Roscoe was a Unitarian and a radical. He was also an expert on Italian history and literature and collected a notable library and series of Italian paintings, as well as writing The Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici (1796). He corresponded with Southey in 1798 on the whereabouts of William Gilbert.

Robert Rosser (d. 1802): Bristol-based printer. Best known for printing the Bristol Mercury.

Henry Crabb Robinson (1777–1867): The friend of almost every literary man of his day, first met Southey at a dinner at Dr Aikin’s in March 1808. Robinson had gone to Spain in 1808 as a special war correspondent of The Times, and through the connections he made at that time he was able to help Southey find materials he needed for the Edinburgh Annual Register.

William Isaac Roberts (1786–1806): A Bristol writer who died aged nineteen. Southey helped promote an edition of his letters and poems in 1811.

William Pople (fl. 1806–1837): Printer, bookseller and stationer, based at various addresses in central London. Before his move to the metropolis, he had been apprenticed to the Bristol printer Nathaniel Biggs. He printed several of Southey’s works, including The History of Brazil (1810–1819). Southey’s nephew, Robert Lovell, was apprenticed to him.

Owen Rees (1770–1837): Publisher and bookseller. He was born at Geli-gron, Wales, eldest brother of Thomas Rees, Unitarian minister and writer on theological history. Owen Rees migrated to Bristol where he became a bookseller. He later moved to London and in 1797 was taken into partnership by the publisher Thomas Norton Longman. From 1799 Longman and Rees became Southey’s main publishers. Rees retired from the business in early 1837.

Thomas Rees (1777–1864): Unitarian minister and writer on theological history. He was the younger brother of Owen Rees. Southey corresponded with him in 1809 over the Annual Review, which Rees edited for that year.

Susan Reeve (1788–1853): The daughter of the Unitarian hymn-writer, minister and manufacturer John Taylor (1750–1826; DNB) and his wife Susanna (1755–1823; DNB). She married Reeve in 1807. Of their three children, only one survived infancy: Henry Reeve (1813–1895; DNB), later editor of the Edinburgh Review.

Robert Philip (1791–1858): Congregational Minister. He was born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and entered Hoxton Academy in 1811, becoming Minister at Newington Chapel, Liverpool, in 1815. He moved to London in 1826, when he took up an appointment at Maberly Chapel, Kingsland. He authored a series of religious manuals, including Christian Experience, or, A Guide to the Perplexed (1828), that were popular in Britain and North America.