John Prideaux Lightfoot (1803–1887): Eldest son of Southey’s schoolfriend from Westminster, Nicholas Lightfoot. He was a clergyman and long-serving Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, 1854–1887.

Richard Lewis (1771–1843): Clergyman and schoolmaster. Educated at Balliol and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford (matric. 1792, BA 1796). He became a curate and master of the grammar school in Honiton, Devon. A friend of Southey’s at Oxford, they lost touch in later years.

Robert Eyres Landor (1781–1869): Writer and clergyman. Youngest brother of Walter Savage Landor.

Mary Lawrence (1780–1859): A Unitarian member of the circle of William Roscoe in Liverpool, whom Southey met on his visit there in February 1808. Lawrence ran a school, the Gateacre Academy, with her sisters Sarah and Eliza. A native of Birmingham, she moved to Leamington in later life.

Julia Landor (née Thuillier; 1794–1879): The daughter of an unsuccessful banker, she married Landor on 24 May 1811. They lived firstly on Landor’s estate at Lanthony and then in Italy. The Landors had three sons and one daughter, but by the 1830s their marriage was troubled. Landor left his wife in 1835 and settled first in England and then Italy.

Charles Lloyd, Senior (1748–1828): Quaker banker and translator of Homer. Father of Charles Lloyd.

Charles Lloyd (1775–1839): Poet. Eldest child of Charles, a wealthy Quaker banker, and his wife Mary. He matriculated at Caius College, Cambridge in 1798 but did not take his degree. He married Sophia Pemberton in 1799 and they moved to Ambleside in 1800.

John Leyden (1746–1839): A farmer from the area around Hawick, Roxburghshire, and father of the linguist and poet, John Leyden (1775–1811; DNB). In 1826 Southey wrote to Leyden to thank him for a copy of the Memoirs of Zehir-ed-Din Muhammed Baber, Emperor of Hindustan, published earlier that year. This combined his late son’s unfinished translation from the Eastern Turkish original with one by William Erskine (1773–1852; DNB) from a Persian version of the text.

Edward Hawke Locker (1777–1849): Locker initially held a number of administrative posts in the Navy, concluding his career as private secretary to Lord Exmouth (1757–1833; DNB) during the latter’s time as commander in the Mediterranean, 1811–1814. Southey first wrote to Locker in search of information for his History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832), but the two shared many interests and the correspondence continued.

Nicholas Lightfoot (c. 1771/2–1847): Clergyman and schoolmaster. Son of Nicholas Lightfoot of Moretonhampstead, Devon. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford (matric. 1790, BA 1794). Perpetual curate for Churcheton, Devon from 1795 and Rector of Stockleigh Pomeroy from 1831–1847. Southey met Lightfoot at Balliol and their friendship endured until his death. Southey briefly considered sending his brother Edward Southey to be educated by Lightfoot and in later life stayed with him during visits to the south west of England.