Susannah Frances May (née Livius; 1767–1830): Wife of John May, whom she married in 1799.

Michael Maurice (1766–1855): Unitarian minister and schoolmaster. Born at Eastwood, Yorkshire, he was educated at Leeds Grammar, Hoxton Academy and Hackney College. In 1787 he converted to Unitarianism. From 1787–1792 he was assistant minister of the Old Meeting, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. He was a foundation member of the Unitarian Society in 1791 and in 1792 was elected evening preacher at the chapel at Hackney in which Joseph Priestley preached in the mornings. In 1794 he married Priscilla Hurry, daughter of a Yarmouth timber merchant.

Henry Joseph Monck Mason (1778–1858): Legal writer, antiquary and member of the Royal Irish Academy. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he struck up a lifelong friendship with Thomas Moore (1779–1852; DNB). He was called to the Irish Bar in 1800, but never practised, instead holding posts as examiner to the prerogative courts and as Assistant, later Chief, Librarian of the King’s Inns, Dublin. His charitable and educational activities were numerous and included playing an important part in the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland.

John Marshall (1765–1845): Wealthy businessman, who developed factory-based flax-spinning in Leeds. He was a close friend of William Wordsworth through his wife Jane Pollard (1770–1847), who had been at school in Halifax with Dorothy Wordsworth. He visited the Lake District regularly following his marriage in 1795, built a country home at Hallsteads on the shores of Ullswater in 1815 and was Sheriff of Cumberland in 1821. Later, in 1832, he bought the Derwentwater Estates. Southey wrote to him in 1827 to inform him that Derwentwater was covered in flies.

Catherine Malone (c. 1749–1831): Unmarried sister of Lord Sunderlin. Southey got to know the family well when they visited the Lakes in 1812–1813.

Miss Maynard (dates unknown): A friend of Felicia Hemans, Miss Maynard lived in Clifton, Bristol. Southey had met her in his home city, where they had acquaintances in common. In 1816 she sent Southey some manuscript music.

James Heywood Markland (1788–1864): Antiquary. Born in Manchester, in 1808 he moved to London to practise law. He married Charlotte (d. 1867), daughter of Sir Francis Freeling, in 1821. Markland was a committed Anglican, collector of fine editions, and writer on literary history, and on antiquarian and religious subjects. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, member of the Roxburghe Club, and, after retiring to Bath in 1841, an active member of the Royal Archaeological Institute and the British Archaeological Association.

John May (1775–1856): Merchant, financier and business agent. A member of a wealthy family, both his father (Joseph) and grandfather were successful merchants in Lisbon. He was educated at Newcome’s Academy, Hackney, where he was taught by George Coleridge, with whom he became lifelong friends. May went to Lisbon in 1793, in order to learn the family trade, returning to England in 1796. May married Susannah Frances Livius in 1799. The marriage produced four children. May and Southey met in Portugal in 1796. Their friendship was to last until the latter’s death.

Eleanor Mary Elizabeth Locker (née Boucher; 1793–1861). She was the daughter of Jonathan Boucher (1738–1804), an English clergyman who worked in Virginia 1759-1775 and became a friend of George Washington. She married Edward Hawke Locker in 1815.

George Mitford (1760–1842): Educated at Edinburgh University he practised briefly as a surgeon and in later life assumed the unauthorised title of ‘Doctor’. He married Mary Russell (1750–1830), a distant and wealthy relation of the Dukes of Bedford. Their only child was the writer Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855; DNB). Mitford’s inverate gambling, social pretensions and extravagant expenditure brought his family close to ruin on several occasions. Southey wrote to Mitford in 1812 to acknowledge receipt of copies of works by Mary Russell Mitford.