John Gorham Palfrey (1796–1881): American theologian and politician. He was the son of John (1768–1843) and Mary Sturgis Gorham Palfrey (1772–1803) and the grandson of William Palfrey (1741–1781), prosperous merchant and Paymaster General of the Continental Army. He was educated at Harvard and in 1818 was ordained as Minister of the Brattle Street Church, Boston. In 1823 he married Mary Ann Hammond (1800–1897). In 1830 he was selected to succeed Andrews Norton as Professor of Sacred Literature at Harvard. He also became the first Dean of the university’s Divinity School.

Miss Palmer: A close friend of Southey’s aunt, Elizabeth Tyler. Her father was John Palmer (1702/3–1788), proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Bath, and her only brother the theatre proprietor and postal reformer John Palmer (1742–1818; DNB).

Leland Noel (1797–1870): Youngest son of the Leicestershire landowner Gerard Noel Edwards (afterwards Noel; 1759–1838; Hist P), MP for Maidstone 1784–1788 and Rutland 1788–1808, 1814–1838. Leland Noel took holy orders and became Vicar of Chipping Campden 1824–1832 and then Rector of Exton 1832–1870, a living held by his family. With Charles Edward Kennaway, he visited Southey in Keswick in October 1820, dining at Greta Hall and going on mountain walks with the Poet Laureate.

Amelia Opie (1769–1853): Writer. Born in Norwich, her father was the physician James Alderson (d. 1825). Brought up in progressive, Unitarian circles, she published poetry in the radical Norwich periodical, The Cabinet, in 1794. In 1798 she married the painter, John Opie (1761–1807; DNB) and moved to London, only returning to Norwich on his death in 1807. Opie contributed poems to Southey’s Annual Anthology (1799) and (1800) and became a prolific novelist after the success of Father and Daughter (1801).

Emma Frances Peachy (née Charter; d. 1809): Wife of Colonel and later Lieutenant-General William Peachy, from a family resident in Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, where she continued to spend winters after her marriage, Southey visiting on at least one occasion. In summer, Peachy was fond of rowing her boat on Derwentwater, near her home on Derwent Isle. Southey wrote an epitaph for her when she died, recalling her gliding across the lake in her skiff. Through Peachy, Southey was introduced to her uncle Sir Charles Malet (1752–1815) and his family.

John Parsons (1761–1819): Master of Balliol College, Oxford 1798–1819.

Caleb Hillier Parry (1755–1832): Physician. He was educated at the Warrington Academy and Edinburgh and settled in Bath in November 1779. He developed a large practice and participated in local scientific and agricultural societies. His An Inquiry into the Symptoms and Causes of the Syncope Anginosa Commonly Called Angina Pectoris (1799) was the first monograph on the pathology of angina pectoris. Parry was a friend of Edward Jenner (1749–1823; DNB), and dedicatee of the latter’s book on vaccination.

Susannah Peachy (dates unknown): The second wife of William Peachy, whom she married in 1812. She was the widow of James Henry of Jamaica.

Christopher Pegge (d. 1822): A fellow of Christ Church, Oxford and from 1790 Lees Reader in Anatomy. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1795 and was knighted in 1799.

Henry Phillpotts (1778–1869): Anglican cleric and controversialist. A native of Bridgwater, Somerset, Phillpotts was educated at Gloucester Cathedral School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He occupied a series of increasingly prestigious church appointments in Durham and its environs, and in 1830 became Bishop of Exeter. Phillpotts was an outspoken supporter of the Tories and wrote to Southey in 1819, enclosing some of his political pamphlets. But he was equally controversial on doctrinal matters, denouncing both evangelicals and Tractarians.