George Martin Maber (d. 1844): Clergyman. Educated at St Paul’s School, London and then at Cambridge. He was personal chaplain to Lord Bute and from 1795 Rector of Merthyr Tydfil. Maber and Southey met during a voyage to Portugal in November 1795.
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.
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.
Henry Hart Milman (1791–1868): Clergyman, poet and historian. His brilliant career at the University of Oxford included winning the Newdigate Prize in 1812 and he was elected Professor of Poetry 1821–1831. He became a Fellow of Brasenose College in 1814 and was ordained in 1816. Milman’s ecclesiastical career was equally illustrious, despite controversies over his orthodoxy prompted by his History of the Jews (1830), and he became a Canon of Westminster Abbey in 1835 and Dean of St Paul’s in 1849.
John Miller (1787–1858): Clergyman. Educated at the University of Oxford, where he won the Chancellor’s Medal for Latin prose and became a great friend of John Keble (1792–1866; DNB). In 1817 he delivered the University’s Bampton Lectures, on the subject of ‘The Divine Authority of Holy Scripture’. When he met Southey in 1820, Miller was a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, and Curate of Bishopstone, Wiltshire. He sent Southey a copy of his work, most probably his Bampton lectures.
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.
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.
Susannah Frances May (née Livius; 1767–1830): Wife of John May, whom she married in 1799.
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.
