Mrs Danvers (d. 1803): Mother of Charles Danvers. She lived at Kingsdown in Bristol and became very close to Southey when he was resident in the city in the late 1790s and 1802–1803. After her death in the influenza epidemic of 1803, Southey described her as someone ‘whom I regarded with something like a family affection.’
John Davey (d. 1798): Master of Balliol College, Oxford 1785–1798.
Isaac D’Israeli (1766–1848): Son of Benjamin Disraeli (1730–1816), a wealthy Italian-Jewish merchant. Isaac devoted his life to his library and miscellaneous literary works, most famously his Curiosities of Literature (1791). He corresponded with Southey on literary subjects on an intermittent basis, and dedicated the fourth edition of his The Literary Character; or the History of Men of Genius (1828) to him. Southey praised his good nature, but thought him a mixture of knowledge and ignorance.
James William Dodd (?1759/60–1818): An Usher at Westminster School from 1784.
Francis Douce (1757–1834): English antiquarian and Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum 1799–1811. Southey reviewed Douce’s Illustrations of Shakespeare and Ancient Manners (1807) and sent him some suggestions for further notes on obscure phrases in Shakespeare’s plays.
Kate Deacon (dates unknown): A friend of Grosvenor Charles Bedford and his family. Daughter of Mr and Mrs Deacon.
William Coxe (1748-1828): Clergyman, historian and travel writer. His successful clerical career culminated in his appointment as Archdeacon of Wiltshire 1804–1828, but he devoted most of his time to historical writings, including History of the House of Austria (1807) and Memoirs of the Bourbon Kings of Spain (1813). Coxe concentrated on diplomatic exchanges and high politics, leading Southey to view his books as very dull, if worthy. The two corresponded briefly about European history.
Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847): Clergyman and bibliographer. He and Southey met at a dinner given by Longman, the publisher. Dibdin sent the Poet Laureate a copy of his expensive and lavishly illustrated Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821). This courtesy initiated a spasmodic correspondence between the two men on literary matters.
John Edmondson (d. 1823): A surgeon and apothecary in Keswick, who treated the Southey family.
George Dyer (1755–1841): Author and advocate of political reform. Son of John Dyer, a shipwright of Bridewell, London. Educated at Christ’s Hospital and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (BA 1778). From the late 1780s to mid-1790s he was active in reformist causes, a member of the Constitutional Society and author of An Inquiry into the Nature of Subscription to the Thirty-Nine Articles (1789, 2nd revised edn 1792), Complaints of the Poor People of England (1793) and A Dissertation on the Theory and Practice of Benevolence (1795).
