Herbert Hill (c. 1749–1828): Southey’s maternal uncle. Hill was the product of a second marriage, and after his father’s death was left short of money (even having to ‘pay his own school bills when it was in his power’) and on extremely bad terms with his older half-brother. Hill was educated at Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1772, MA 1774). From 1782–1807, he was chaplain to the British factory at Lisbon. Hill took a paternal interest in his nephews, and helped finance Southey’s education.

Alfred Hill (b. 1815): Fourth son of Herbert and Catherine Hill. He became a lawyer.

Poet, dramatist, reviewer and editor. The son of the law stationer James Abraham Heraud (d. 1846) and his wife Jane (d. 1850), he was educated privately. Eschewing the business career for which he had been intended, Heraud embarked on a literary life. He wrote essays, including ones on German literature, for periodicals, contributing to the Quarterly Review from 1827 and the Athenaeum from 1843. He was the assistant editor of Fraser’s Magazine 1830–1833.

Richard Heber (1774–1833): Book-collector. Son of Reginald Heber, clergyman and landowner. Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford (BA 1796, MA, 1797). Heber edited some minor classical writers, but his main interest was his book collection, which finally totalled over 100,000 volumes housed in eight different locations. Though he concentrated on early English poetry and drama his library included classical works and a wide selection of European and Latin American literature. Heber was exceptionally generous in lending his books, and let Southey use his copy of Amadis of Gaul.

Ann Elizabeth Heraud (d. 1867): Daughter of Henry Baddams (1776–1842); she married John Abraham Heraud on 15 May 1823 and the couple had six children, one of whom, Edith Heraud (d. 1899), an actress, wrote a Memoir of her father (1898).

Samuel Carter Hall (1800–1889): Journal editor and writer. He was born at Geneva barracks, County Waterford, where his father, Robert Hall (1753–1836), was an officer in the Devon and Cornwall Fencibles. In c. 1802 the family moved to Topsham in Devon but later returned to Ireland. Hall developed an early interest in literature and the arts. His first poem was occasioned by the death of his eldest brother, Revis, at the battle of Albuera in 1811. In 1822 Hall moved to London.

Justus Hiddes Halbertsma (1789–1869): Minister in the Mennonite Church in the Netherlands and leading figure in the creation of a literary tradition in West Frisian. He was born in Grou in Friesland, the son of a baker, and trained at the Mennonite seminary in Amsterdam 1807–1813, before becoming a Minister in Bolsward 1814–1821 and Deventer 1822–1856. Halberstma and his two brothers issued the first collection of folk tales in Western Frisian, De Lapekoer fan Gabe Skroar, in 1822, and the collection was reissued and expanded throughout his lifetime.

John Guthrie (d. 1824): Bookseller, originally from Aberdeenshire he moved to Edinburgh where he was a founder of the firm Tait & Guthrie. In autumn 1803 Henry Herbert Southey lodged with him at 2 Nicolson St.

John Matthew Gutch (1776–1861): Educated at Christ’s Hospital with Coleridge and Lamb and later the owner and printer of Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, 1803–1844. He also printed Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria (1817). Gutch was an enthusiastic collector of antiquarian books, and major sales from his library occurred in 1810, 1812, 1817 and 1858.

Robert Gooch (1784–1830): Obstetric physician from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. He became a close friend of Henry Herbert Southey when they both studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and also knew William Taylor. Gooch graduated MD in 1807 and became, as Henry also did, a contributor to the journal the London Medical Record. In 1811–1812 Gooch set up a successful medical practice in London, and published important works on puerperal fever. Gooch met Southey on a tour of the Lakes in 1811 and the two began a lifelong correspondence.