William Calvert (1771-1829): Was at school with Wordsworth at Hawkshead, where he later became schoolmaster. On the death of his father, Calvert became a man of independent means, inheriting, alongside other property, the estate of Bowness on the east shore of Bassenthwaite, near Keswick. He was a member of Southey’s Lake District circle. His younger brother Raisley (1773–1795) left Wordsworth a legacy of £900.

John Mitchinson Calvert (1802-1842): The eldest son of William Calvert. He became a doctor and friend of the Scottish writer John Sterling (1806–1844; DNB), and through Sterling, made the acquaintance of Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881; DNB) and John Stuart Mill (1806–1873; DNB). Calvert suffered from tuberculosis and died at Falmouth on his way to Madeira.

Thomas Cadell (1773-1836): Bookseller. The son of the London bookseller Thomas Cadell (1742–1802; DNB), he took over his father’s business in 1793, working in partnership with William Davies (d. 1820; DNB).

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788-1824): Best-selling poet. His father, John Byron (1757–1791), was an army officer who squandered the inheritance of Byron’s mother, Catherine Gordon. At the age of ten, Byron inherited the title of Baron Byron of Rochdale and Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire from his great-uncle. Byron was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and composed poetry from childhood. His attacks on his contemporaries (including Southey) in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809) made him well-known, despite the work’s anonymity.

John Marten Butt (1774-1846): Clergyman and author. Only son of George and Mary Martha Butt and brother of Mary Martha Sherwood (1775–1851; DNB), author of The Fairchild Family. Educated Westminster (adm. 1788) and Christ Church, Oxford (matric. 1792, BA 1796, MA 1799). Curate of Witley, Worcestershire; Rector of Oddingley, Worcestershire from 1806 and Vicar of East Garston, Berkshire from 1806. Author of The Last Vision of Daniel (1808) and other works. His first wife was Mary Ann Congreve; his second, Jemima Hubbal.

Eleanor Charlotte Butler (1739-1829): One of the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’. Butler was an Anglo-Irish woman who, despite family disapproval, in 1780 set up house with Sarah Ponsonby at Plas Newydd, on the outskirts of Llangollen, North Wales. Their relationship fascinated contemporaries and has continued to attract speculation. Although the Ladies were famed for their lifestyle of retirement, simplicity and self-improvement, they received many guests – both admirers and tourists. Southey visited in 1811.

Charles Butler (1750-1832): Leading Catholic layman, lawyer and writer, especially on legal matters. In 1791 he became the first Catholic called to the Bar since the Revolution of 1688; he was closely involved in attempts to secure Catholic Emancipation from parliament. Southey met him in 1811 and found him ‘thoroughly amiable’. However, he replied to Southey’s Book of the Church (1824) with a defence of Catholicism, The Book of the Catholic Church (1825). This in turn provoked Southey’s Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae (1826).

Hans Busk (1772-1862): Poet, scholar, Radnorshire landowner and Justice of the Peace. In his youth he had spent time in Russia as a member of the chevalier guard of Catherine II, the Great (1729–1796; Empress of Russia 1762–1796). He published several collections of light verse, and in 1819 sent a copy of one of these – The Banquet, in Three Cantos – to Southey.

James Burney (1750-1821): Naval officer and writer, second son of the music historian Dr Charles Burney (1726–1814; DNB) and brother of Charles (1757–1817; DNB) and Frances (Fanny; 1752–1840; DNB). He was nicknamed the ‘Capitaneus’ by Southey. He was sent to sea at the age of 10. In 1772 he sailed in the Resolution on James Cook’s (1728–1779; DNB) second voyage to the South Seas and on his return home in 1774 acted as an interpreter for Omai, the first Tahitean to visit Britain. Burney sailed on Cook’s third voyage and witnessed the latter’s death in 1779.

George Burnett (c. 1776-1811): Writer. The son of John Burnett, a farmer, of Huntspill, Somerset. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford (matric. 1793).