Henry Colburn (1784/5-1855): One of the leading publishers of the first half of the nineteenth century. After setting up in business in 1806 he became well-known for promoting popular fiction, including ‘silver fork’ society novels, naval adventures and historical novels. He also had an interest in numerous periodicals, including the New Monthly Magazine, the Literary Gazette and the Athenaeum, and gained a reputation for ‘puffing’ his own authors in their pages.
William Cobbett (1763-1835): A journalist whose weekly paper, the Political Register, took an anti-jacobinical line until 1804, but thereafter became progressively more radical, supporting Burdett at the Westminster election of 1807. From 1810 to 1812 he was imprisoned after being prosecuted by the government for criticising flogging in the militia. Cobbett’s political development was the exact opposite of Southey’s and Southey was a consistent critic of Cobbett.
Willem de Clercq (1795-1844): Poet and important figure in the Réveil, the anti-modernist spiritual revival in the Dutch Reformed Church of the Netherlands, which also included de Clercq’s friend, Willem Bilderdijk. He was born in Amsterdam, the child of wealthy grain merchants and studied French, German and Greek with the intention of becoming a preacher, but his ambitions were thwarted by the French invasion of 1813.
Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846): Campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade, and a friend of the Wordsworths, Coleridge and Southey. He moved to the Lake District in 1794 and lived in retirement at Eusemere, near Pooley Bridge, Ullswater, until 1806. Clarkson and his wife returned to her native Suffolk in 1806, and remained there until his death. He returned to the campaign against the slave trade in 1804 and wrote ceaselessly in the cause until the passing of the 1833 Act abolishing slavery in the British empire. He also wrote admiringly of the Quakers.
Catherine Clarkson (née Buck; 1772-1856): A native of the Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds, she married Thomas Clarkson in 1796. She shared his radicalism and became close friends with the Wordsworths, Southey, Coleridge and Crabb Robinson. Owing to her illness, she was treated by Beddoes in Bristol in 1804 and 1805; she and her husband moved south to Suffolk from the Lake District for the sake of her health in 1806.
Adam Clarke (1762-1832): Wesleyan Methodist minister and scholar. Born in County Londonderry, Ireland, he was the son of an Anglican schoolmaster and his Presbyterian wife. He became a follower of John Wesley (1703–1791; DNB) in 1779 and was later a prominent Methodist. An autodidact and gifted linguist, Clarke’s wide-ranging interests encompassed Persian, Arabic, Hindu, Coptic and Sanskrit texts, alchemy, the occult, astronomy, folk tales, mineralogy and conchology.
Louisa Charter (b. 1776): Sister of Emma Peachy and Elizabeth Charter (1782–1860), the friend and correspondent of George Crabbe (1754–1832; DNB). The three sisters were the daughters of Thomas Charter (1741–1810), a solicitor and estate manager, and Elizabeth Malet (1748–1804), of Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, a family known to Southey’s Aunt Mary, who lived nearby in Taunton. Southey first met Louisa Charter in Keswick in 1804.
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.
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.
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.
