Edward Littleton, 4th Baronet (1726–1812): Of Penkridge, Staffordshire. He lived at Teddesley Hall, where Mary Barker resided as his companion. Littleton was MP for Staffordshire from 1784 to 1812. Mary Barker’s brother-in-law, William Brewe (dates unknown), was his steward.

Nicholas Lightfoot (c. 1771/2–1847): Clergyman and schoolmaster. Son of Nicholas Lightfoot of Moretonhampstead, Devon. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford (matric. 1790, BA 1794). Perpetual curate for Churcheton, Devon from 1795 and Rector of Stockleigh Pomeroy from 1831–1847. Southey met Lightfoot at Balliol and their friendship endured until his death. Southey briefly considered sending his brother Edward Southey to be educated by Lightfoot and in later life stayed with him during visits to the south west of England.

John Prideaux Lightfoot (1803–1887): Eldest son of Southey’s schoolfriend from Westminster, Nicholas Lightfoot. He was a clergyman and long-serving Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, 1854–1887.

John Leyden (1746–1839): A farmer from the area around Hawick, Roxburghshire, and father of the linguist and poet, John Leyden (1775–1811; DNB). In 1826 Southey wrote to Leyden to thank him for a copy of the Memoirs of Zehir-ed-Din Muhammed Baber, Emperor of Hindustan, published earlier that year. This combined his late son’s unfinished translation from the Eastern Turkish original with one by William Erskine (1773–1852; DNB) from a Persian version of the text.

Richard Lewis (1771–1843): Clergyman and schoolmaster. Educated at Balliol and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford (matric. 1792, BA 1796). He became a curate and master of the grammar school in Honiton, Devon. A friend of Southey’s at Oxford, they lost touch in later years.

Samuel Le Grice (1775–1802): Soldier. The younger brother of Coleridge’s school fellow, Charles Valentine Le Grice (1773–1858). Educated at Christ’s Hospital, where he was a contemporary and friend of Charles Lamb, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He obtained an army commission and died in Jamaica.

Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830): Portrait painter. The son of a Bristol innkeeper, he was self–taught and displayed his brilliant talents as a draughtsman from childhood. He established himself as a fashionable painter in 1790 with a portrait of Queen Charlotte (1744–1818; DNB) and was much patronised by royalty. He was knighted in 1815 and was elected President of the Royal Academy in 1820. Southey wrote to him that year in response to an invitation he had received to the Academy’s Annual Dinner. Sir Robert Peel later commissioned Lawrence to paint Southey’s portrait.

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.