Jeremiah Collins (1774-1853): Clergyman. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford (BA 1794). He eventually returned to his native Cornwall, where he became chaplain of the Truro Infirmary. He and Southey were friends for a short time in Oxford, but by mid-1794 they were permanently estranged.

The children of Robert Cottle, an unsuccessful Bristol tailor and draper. The family included Amos, Joseph and Robert (?1780–1858), a painter and founder of his own religious sect (‘the Cottlelites’), and five sisters, Elizabeth (c. 1764–1789), Mary (?1772–1839), Ann (?1780–1855), Sarah (d. 1834) and Martha (c. 1785–1800). Southey seems to have been acquainted with the entire Cottle family. After their secret marriage in November 1795, his wife Edith lived with the Cottle sisters for some of the time Southey was absent in Spain and Portugal.

Amos Simon Cottle (1768?-1800): Poet and translator. Elder brother of Joseph Cottle. Educated at the school run by Richard Henderson (1736/7–1792) at Hanham, near Bristol, and Magdalene College, Cambridge (matric. 1795, BA 1799). He then embarked on a legal training. He spent the final year of his life in London, where he was a friend of George Dyer and Charles Lamb, and died in his chambers at Clifford’s Inn. Author of Icelandic Poetry, or, The Edda of Saemund, Translated into English verse (1797; published by Joseph Cottle and with a dedicatory poem by Southey).

Edward Combe (c. 1773/4-1848): Clergyman. Son of Richard Combe of Harley St. Educated at Westminster (adm. June 1785) and Christ Church, Oxford (matric. October 1792, BA 1796, MA 1803). Admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, January 1795. Perpetual Curate of Barrington, Somerset, 1810; Rector of Earnshill and of Donyatt from 1821. Southey met Combe at Westminster and later described him as one of his ‘most intimate acquaintances’ during his years at school. Combe was known by the nicknames ‘His Majesty’ or the ‘King of Men’.

Josiah Conder (1789-1855): Started life in his father’s booksellers’ business, which he inherited and ran 1811–1819. However, he became better known as an industrious writer, editor and compiler, particularly of works on Nonconformist themes, and as owner and editor of the Eclectic Review, 1814–1837. In 1815 he married the poet Joan Elizabeth Thomas (c. 1786–1877) who wrote as ‘Eliza Thomas’.

John Chapman and Co: Merchant shipping company, whose offices were at 2 Leadenhall Street, London. In 1822 Southey used them to send a consignment of books to Copenhagen. Southey addressed his letter of 11 October 1822 to John Chapman, in the belief that the firm was still headed by its founder, John Chapman ‘of Whitby’ (1732–1822), though he had died on 5 January 1822. This Chapman was a Quaker and originally a supplier of canvas for sails, but his firm expanded under his ten sons into a leading shipping agent, insurer and bank.

Manuel do Cenáculo (1724–1814): Bishop of Beja, 1770–1802, Archbishop of Evora 1802–1814. Member of the Franciscan Order and Professor of Theology at the University of Coimbra 1751–1755. Cenáculo was closely associated with the reforms of the Marquis of Pombal, Prime Minister of Portugal 1750–1777, and retired to his bishopric when Pombal fell in 1777, devoting his energies to his library and promoting education. When Southey visited Portugal in 1800–1801 he obtained a letter of introduction to the Bishop from his uncle, Herbert Hill, and visited him at Beja in April 1801.

Sir Francis Legatt Chantry (1781-1841): English sculptor, who became the most well-known and fashionable practitioner in his field in the Regency era. Chantrey was the son of a small farmer from Derbyshire and started his career as a portrait painter, concentrating on sculpture from 1807 onwards. In 1809 he married a wealthy cousin, Mary Ann Wale (1787–1875), enabling him to move into a house and studio in Pimlico. From 1811–1812 onwards he was immensely successful and by 1822 could charge 200 guineas for a bust.

John Cawood (d. 1846): Tory ironfounder from Leeds. He took an active interest in issues relating to the poor and in 1819 was part of a delegation sent by the Leeds Poor Law authority to inspect Robert Owen’s New Lanark mills. He later (1844) became the first chairman of the new poor law authority in Leeds. In 1819 he wrote to Southey, sending a pamphlet he had written on the condition of the poor, probably A Plain Statement, Exhibiting the Whole of What Has Been Hyperbolically Designated, The Parish Controversy (1819).

Anthony Carlisle (1768-1840): Surgeon and anatomist. Born at Stillington, Durham, the third son of Thomas Carlisle and his first wife Barbara (d. 1768). Studied medicine in York, Durham and London, and was appointed surgeon to the Westminster Hospital in 1793. He married Martha Symmons in 1800 and in the same year was one of the founding members of the Royal College of Surgeons, serving as its president in 1829 and 1839. He moved in metropolitan literary and scientific circles, attending Mary Wollstonecraft on her death-bed in 1797.