Francis Freeling, 1st Baronet (1764–1836): Postal administrator and book collector. A supporter of William Pitt (1759–1806; DNB), in the 1790s Freeling was involved in monitoring the activities of corresponding societies and supporters of the French revolution. A bibliophile, he was elected to the fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries in 1801. Southey and Freeling were both the sons of Bristol tradesmen.

Edith Fricker (1774–1837): Southey’s first wife. The third surviving child of Stephen Fricker and Martha Rowles. Southey and Edith met as children in Bristol. They married in secret on 14 November 1795 at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. As her sister Sarah later explained, Southey ‘left ... [Edith] at the Church door’ and the following day departed for Spain and Portugal. Edith spent the early days of her marriage living with the Cottle sisters and using her maiden name, only reverting to ‘Southey’ when the secret became public in early 1796.

John Prior Estlin (1747–1817): Unitarian minister, at Lewin’s Mead Chapel, Bristol, and school master. Educated at the Warrington Academy, he moved to Bristol in 1771. Married Mary Coates (1753–1783) and, after her death, Susanna Bishop (d. 1842). He was on good terms with a number of writers, including Southey (whom he had taught briefly when he took over Mr Foot’s school, Bristol), Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Anna Letitia Barbauld. His publications included The Nature and Causes of Atheism (1797).

John Gibson (c. 1794–1860): Tea dealer, based in the port of Whitehaven, Cumbria, where he was deputy postmaster 1837–1860. He was a keen collector of autographs, books and prints and corresponded with Southey in the 1820s.

William Gifford (1756–1826): Long known to Southey as a Tory critic and editor of the Anti-Jacobin, Gifford became the first editor in 1809 of a new conservative journal begun on Southey’s advice – the Quarterly Review. Gifford then approached Southey through their mutual friend Grosvenor Charles Bedford to be a contributor. Gifford continued as editor until 1824, frequently the target of Southey’s ire over the cuts and interpolations he made to Southey’s contributions.

William Gilbert (1763–1824): Poet and astrologer. Born in Antigua, son of Nathaniel Gilbert, speaker of the Antiguan House of Assembly. In 1788 he came to England to work as a lawyer, but suffered a mental collapse and was placed in an asylum run by Richard Henderson (1736/7–1792) at Hanham near Bristol. (In an earlier career as a schoolmaster, Henderson had numbered Joseph Cottle among his pupils.) Gilbert was released after a year and went to London, where he worked as an astrologer and maker of magic talismans.

Robert Pearse Gillies (1788–1858): Born in Forfarshire, the son of a small landowner. After losing most of his fortune, he settled in Edinburgh in 1815 and pursued a literary career. Gillies became an expert on German literature, publishing many translations in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, and was a close friend of Walter Scott. At Scott’s suggestion, he persuaded Messrs Truettel and Wurtz to set up the Foreign Quarterly Review in 1827, with Gillies as editor; Southey contributed to the first issue.

Sarah (Sara) Fricker (1770–1845): Southey’s sister-in-law. The eldest surviving child of Stephen Fricker and Martha Rowles. Sarah and Southey were childhood friends, and it was through her that Southey met Robert Lovell in late 1793. Southey may well have been romantically interested in Sarah, before he became engaged to her sister, Edith Fricker, in 1794. Sarah met Samuel Taylor Coleridge through Southey and the two married on 4 October 1795. They had three surviving children – Hartley, Derwent and Sara.

Mary Fricker (1771–1862): Southey’s sister-in-law. The second surviving child of Stephen Fricker and Martha Rowles. In the early 1790s she worked as an actress in Bath and Bristol theatres. She married Robert Lovell in January 1794, in spite of the disapproval of his family. Their son, also called Robert, was born in 1795. After Lovell’s death in 1796, Southey tried to persuade his family to provide for his widow and child. He was only partially successful.

Fricker family: Stephen Fricker (1738–1786) and his second wife Martha Rowles (1750–1809) and their six surviving children: Sarah, Mary, Edith, Martha (b. 1777), Eliza (b. 1778) and George (b. 1785). The failure of his business speculations (including the manufacture of sugar pans) contributed to Stephen Fricker’s early death and to a sharp decline in the fortunes of his family.