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.

Christian Ignatius Latrobe (1758–1836): Moravian minister and composer – he was a friend of Joseph Haydn (1732–1809; DNB). Born into the Moravian community at Fulneck, Yorkshire, he was educated in Germany and returned to England in 1784. From 1787 to 1834 he was secretary to the Moravian Brethren’s Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel to the Heathen. In 1790 he initiated the influential Periodical Accounts of Moravian missions, and in 1795 became secretary of the international Moravian church in Britain.

Thomas Digges La Touche(1799–1853): Church of Ireland clergyman, from a prominent family of bankers and landowners of Huguenot descent. He was Rector of Killenaule, Co. Tipperary. He stayed in Keswick in 1827 with his wife and family and became very friendly with Southey and his family. He sent gifts on his return home, for which Southey wrote to thank him.

Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864): Writer and poet (in English and Latin) whose 1798 Gebir, Southey declared, contained ‘some of the most exquisite poetry in the language’. Landor inherited wealth in 1805 and in 1808 met Southey at Bristol, offering to pay for the publication of future poems that Southey might write. Thus encouraged, Southey completed The Curse of Kehama (1810), sending drafts to Landor, and Roderick the Last of the Goths (1814). In 1812 Landor himself published a blank verse tragedy on Spain, Count Julian, with Southey’s help.

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

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.

Joseph Lancaster (1778–1838): The educationalist whose monitorial system of teaching mirrored that of Southey’s friend Andrew Bell. Although a Quaker, and opposed to corporal punishment, Lancaster’s disciplinary methods, involving public humiliation and confinement, lost him Southey’s approval. Bell relentlessly promoted his own Anglican educational system over Lancaster’s, and Lancaster found greater success in the United States, Mexico and South America.

Thomas Phillipps Lamb (?1752–1819): Politician. The father of Thomas Davis Lamb. He was married to Elizabeth Davis and lived at Mountsfield Lodge, near Rye. By the mid-eighteenth century the Lamb family had become the dominant force on Rye corporation and wielded great political influence in the borough. Lamb was the government agent in Rye and sat as an MP for the town 1812–1816 and 1819, though (like his son) he is not known to have spoken in the House of Commons. He was Mayor of Rye some 18 times between 1775–1817.

Thomas Davis Lamb (1775–1818): Politician. The eldest son of Thomas Phillipps Lamb and his wife Elizabeth Davis. Educated at Westminster (adm. 1788); Edinburgh University (1792) and Christ Church, Oxford (matric. Dec 1793). Lamb’s family were wealthy, politically influential and well-connected. His father was the government manager at Rye, Sussex. Lamb’s career benefited from the patronage of Lord Liverpool (1727–1808; DNB) and his eldest son, Lord Hawkesbury, a future Prime Minister.

Mary Anne Lamb (1764–1847): Writer. Sister of Charles Lamb. She suffered from bouts of insanity and in 1796 she killed their mother. After this incident she was cared for by her brother or in asylums. The siblings wrote Tales from Shakespeare (1809) together.