Thomas Smith (c. 1770–1822): Country gentleman and JP, of Unitarian and liberal views and literary and scientific interests. He was born in Cirencester, and later owned estates at Bownham House, near Minchinhampton, Gloucestshire and at Easton Grey, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He trained as a barrister but a speech impediment meant that he never practiced. He was known as the ‘Macenas of his neighbourhood’ for his patronage of men of letters and his philanthropy.

Maria Woodruffe Smith (1795–1854): Younger daughter of Grosvenor Bedford’s friend, Thomas Woodruffe Smith. She visited Keswick in 1826, at the time when her permanent address was in Acre Lane, Clapham. Southey wrote to her afterwards with news of himself and events in Keswick. In 1833 Maria Woodruffe Smith married George Head Head (1795–1876), a Quaker banker and active abolitionist, of Rickerby Hall, Carlisle.

Grace Smith (née Weatherall; 1751/2–1832): Wife of Major-General John Smith (1754–1837; DNB); grandmother of Charlotte-Julia Jephson. She visited the Lakes, including Keswick, in 1812.

Elizabeth Smith (c. 1764–1859): Wife of Thomas Smith and a noted collector of autographs and manuscripts.

Percy Bysshe Shelley: (1792–1822): Eldest son of the wealthy Sussex landowner, baronet and MP, Sir Timothy Shelley (1753–1844). He became a published poet and novelist while still at Eton and was expelled from University College, Oxford, in March 1811 for writing The Necessity of Atheism (1811). In August 1811 he eloped with, and married, Harriet Westbrook (1795–1816), causing a temporary breakdown in relations with his family.

Harriet Shelley (née Westbrook; 1795–1816): Shelley’s first wife. They eloped and married in 1811. They had two children, but Shelley left her in 1814. She committed suicide two years later.

Samuel Simpson (1802–1881): An inveterate autograph hunter, Simpson wrote to Southey in 1821 and 1826, asking for Southey’s autograph. On both occasions Southey declined, sending Simpson humorous poems instead. Simpson’s identity is hard to be sure of, but he may have been the Samuel Simpson, born in Lancaster in 1802 and son of John Simpson (1779–1846), a retired West India merchant.

William Shield (c. 1748/9–1829): Master of the King’s Music 1817–1829. Shield was born near Gateshead and made a name as a violinist in Newcastle, before moving to London, where he became principal violinist at Covent Garden in 1773 and later ‘house composer’ for the theatre. Shield made use of Northumbrian folk tunes, and wrote light operas and music for string quartets and trios. He was also a friend of Joseph Haydn (1732–1809; DNB).

Richard Sharp (1759–1835): Businessman, Dissenter, radical and writer, but most famous for his conversational powers – hence his nickname ‘Conversation’ Sharp. He was born in Newfoundland, the son of the elder Richard Sharp, an army officer. But the family soon returned to England and Sharp took over his grandfather’s hat-making business, later moving into the West India trade. He was a member of various radical organisations in the 1790s and Whig MP for Castle Rising 1806–1812 and Portarlington 1816–1819.

Seward family: A Worcestershire family consisting of four brothers and three sisters. The death of Southey’s close friend Edmund Seward in 1795 was followed by that of his brother John (educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, MB 1795, and physician to the Worcester infirmary) in December 1797. Some time afterwards, the eldest brother, William (a lawyer, based in Ledbury, Herefordshire) shot himself. A fourth brother, whose name Southey does not record, was a ‘mere farmer’ of a ‘methodistical turn’. Of the sisters, one married Mr Severn (a clergyman) and two remained unmarried.