Character guide

Barnaby Rudge

major

Also known as Barnaby, poor Barnaby, sharp Barnaby, Rudge, bold Barnaby, Dear Barnaby

Barnaby moves through the riotous London crowds as the one lighthearted, undesigning creature in the whole assembly, clutching his blue flag and beaming at anyone who calls him bold. His devotion to his mother is total and touching, and he cannot fathom why the rough men around him sneer at such tenderness. That innocence makes him both the mob's most willing instrument and its most pitiable figure, and it is his fate, above all others, that the novel's gathering violence seems to threaten.

Hugh

major

Also known as Maypole Hugh, Hugh of the Maypole, the Maypole

Hugh sleeps in the ruinous outbuildings of the Maypole and can find his way anywhere blindfold, a savage, cudgel-carrying servant who owes no loyalty to anyone. He flatters Barnaby with visions of gold lace and grand houses, winking at the hangman Dennis even as he spins them, and the pleasure he takes in the boy's delight is as genuine as it is dangerous. In him the novel gives the riots their most magnetic and least trustworthy face, a man whose appetite for chaos will carry the story far past mere flag-carrying.

Mr. Geoffrey Haredale

major

Also known as Mr. Haredale, Geoffrey Haredale, Haredale

Mr. Haredale is landlord to the Maypole and master of the Warren, a man of stiff dignity whose family has been locked for years in a bitter quarrel with Sir John Chester. He keeps his niece Emma under a watchful, joyless care, and his temper is such that even his friends tread carefully around his honor. As anti-Catholic feeling begins to stir in London, his religion and his rank make him exactly the kind of man the coming storm will seek out, and his old grudge against Chester ensures he will not face it alone.

Edward Chester

major

Also known as Edward, Ned, Mr. Edward Chester, Mr. Edward

Edward Chester is the son of the elegant, sneering Sir John, from whom he has broken in disgust, and he loves Emma Haredale, whose uncle despises his name. His position is impossible from every side: his father mocks his sincerity, Haredale suspects his motives, and his own pride will not let him beg. His love for Emma is the quiet center of the novel's early chapters, and the feud between the two older men makes every step he takes toward her a provocation.

Joe Willet

major

Also known as Joe, Joseph Willet, young Joe, dear Joe

Joe Willet is the only son of old John Willet of the Maypole, a young man of spirit trapped in an inn where nothing ever changes and his father treats him like a boy. He loves Dolly Varden, the locksmith's pretty daughter, and knows that as long as he stays at the Maypole he will never be anything in her eyes. His decision to leave and seek his fortune is one of the novel's first acts of real courage, and it sets him on a path that will bring him back to London changed.

Simon Tappertit

major

Also known as Sim, Mr. Simon Tappertit, Mr. Tappertit, Sim Tappertit

Simon Tappertit is Gabriel Varden's apprentice, a thin-faced, sharp-nosed little fellow who styles himself Mr. Tappertit out of doors and is convinced he is above the middle size. His soul, as he puts it, is forever getting into his head, and it has filled him with majestic notions about the power of his eye and the dignity of his order. He drills a band of fellow apprentices in secret, and his absurd, combustible ambition makes him one of the novel's funniest figures and one of its most dangerous, since men like him are exactly what a riot needs.

Miss Miggs

supporting

Also known as Miggs, Angelic Miggs, the faithful Miggs

Miggs keeps house for the Vardens and keeps score against everyone in it, especially pretty Dolly, whose face she cannot forgive. Professing contempt for all men, she is hopelessly fixated on the apprentice Tappertit, and when slighted she turns spy, saboteur, and self-appointed night watchman at the keyhole. Her spiteful ingenuity makes her a small but constant engine of mischief in the Varden household.

Mr. Dennis

supporting

Also known as Dennis, the grinning Dennis

Dennis marches with Hugh and Barnaby as a self-styled man of action, all too ready to turn public disorder into private gain. He is disgusted by Barnaby's talk of mothers and sweethearts, insisting there is no place for tenderness among rebels, and nudges the bewildered boy toward violence he does not understand. His cold, grinning pragmatism sharpens the novel's portrait of a mob held together by appetite rather than conviction.

John Willet

supporting

Also known as John, old John, old John Willet

John Willet presides over the Maypole as if it were an unshakeable institution, dispensing ale and opinions with the gravity of a man who has never been contradicted. His comfortable certainties and his baffled affection for his son Joe make him easy prey for sharper men and harder times. When the riots reach his door, his paralysis becomes a quiet measure of how badly the old order has failed to protect itself.

Dolly Varden

major

Also known as Doll, Dolly, Varden, Miss Dolly

Dolly Varden returns home all smiles and dimples, teasing her father, dismissing her suitors, and pressing her nose into mysteries that are none of her business. She is loved by both Joe Willet and the apprentice Tappertit, and her light, self-assured vanity keeps both men guessing and Miss Miggs seething. Her curiosity about the Haredale secrets draws her toward the darker currents running beneath the novel's cheerful surfaces.

Sir John Chester

major

Also known as Sir John, John Chester, Chester

Sir John Chester moves through drawing-rooms and sickrooms with the same unruffled grace, dispensing charm where it costs him nothing and manipulation where it serves him. His estrangement from his son Edward and his quiet interest in the Haredale family's troubles mark him as a man who treats relationships as instruments. His suave, amoral presence gives the novel one of its most unsettling studies in respectable villainy.

Mrs. Varden

supporting

Also known as Varden, Mrs. V.

Mrs. Varden is a lady of uncertain temper, cheerful when others are dull and peevish when they are merry, ruling her home through a fog of religious feeling and sudden grievance. Her chief victim and accomplice is the servant Miggs, on whom she vents her wrath and from whom she absorbs flattery. Her volatility turns the Varden household into a comic weather system, against which her steady husband's patience looks almost heroic.

Gabriel Varden

major

Also known as Varden, Gabriel, honest Gabriel, Mr. Varden

Gabriel Varden keeps his shop, his apprentice Sim Tappertit, and his peace of mind with the same patient craftsmanship he brings to a lock. His chief domestic trial is his wife Martha, whose capricious temper and self-important servant Miggs keep the household in a state of comic weather. Because he is trusted by Catholics and Protestants alike, he becomes a rare point of contact between the novel's feuding households — and a man whose plain goodness the coming violence will test.

The Blind Man

supporting

Also known as blind man, Stagg

Stagg moves through the shadows of the Rudge mystery, tracking a woman to her hospital bedside and coolly reporting her refusal to save a condemned man. He loves to feel his victims squirm, drawing out their impatience as a kind of entertainment, and rattles the coins of riot-night plunder in his pockets. His ruthless self-interest makes him a perfect instrument of the novel's darker machinery, and his grip on the fugitive's secret keeps the plot's central dread alive.

Gashford

supporting

Also known as Muster Gashford, dear Gashford, Mr. Gashford

Gashford glides through the Gordon household with the smooth manners of a trusted servant, but his real talent is for manipulation: he pours drink, drops rumours of Romish chapels, and lets Hugh and Dennis believe the idea was their own. When the mob rushes out, he stops mid-laugh, listens, draws on his gloves, and strolls into the crowded streets to watch what he has set loose. His quiet treachery gives the riots their most chilling engine.

Lord George Gordon

supporting

Also known as Lord George, Gordon, George Gordon

Lord George Gordon is the name on every Londoner's lips as the great petition against the Catholics draws thousands to St. George's Fields. He has declared he will not present it unless attended by a vast body of 'good and true men,' and the city buzzes with his supposed power. Whether he is a sincere fanatic or a vain enthusiast, his blue cockades and his name become the spark that ignites the novel's central catastrophe.

Solomon Daisy

minor

Also known as Solomon, little Solomon Daisy, Daisy

Clerk at the Maypole, tells the story of the murder.

Emma Haredale

supporting

Also known as Emma, Miss Haredale, Miss Emma

Emma Haredale is dragged from her home by the mob alongside Dolly Varden, and in the jolting carriage she keeps her composure while her companion sobs. Her feelings run deep but seldom surface, and her terror is not for herself but for her uncle Geoffrey, whom she fears has been massacred. Her secret attachment to Edward Chester — son of her uncle's enemy — makes her both a victim of the riots and a quiet emblem of the divisions they feed on.

Grip

supporting

Also known as dear old Grip, old Grip

Grip perches on Barnaby's shoulder through the tumult of the riots and the quieter dread of the prison yard, croaking encouragement or remonstrance as the moment demands. He is a creature of odd, almost human sympathy, and his feeble croak beside the condemned is one of the novel's most affecting small gestures. More than a pet, he is the visible thread tying Barnaby's innocence to the violence closing around him.

John Grueby

minor

Also known as Grueby, John, Honest John, bluff John Grueby

Loyal servant to Lord George Gordon.

Mr. Parkes

minor

Also known as Parkes, Long Parkes, Phil Parkes, Messrs. Parkes

One of the regulars at the Maypole Inn.

Mr. Cobb

minor

Also known as Cobb, Tom Cobb, Tommy Cobb

Another regular at the Maypole Inn.

Thomas Curzon

minor

Also known as Curzon, Thomas Curzon of the Golden Fleece

Landlord of the Golden Fleece, mentioned in the murder story.

Mrs. Rudge

supporting

Also known as the widow

Mrs. Rudge keeps a small, poor household with her son Barnaby, and the locksmith Gabriel Varden treats her with a gentle, wary kindness. When a soft knock comes at the shutter, her mild manner cracks into agitation, and she insists on answering it alone — a choice that exposes the dread she lives with. That dread, tied to a man she clearly knows and fears, makes her the quiet hinge on which the novel's mystery begins to turn.

Martha

minor

Also known as Martha⁠

Servant at the Maypole Inn.

Mary Jones

minor

Also known as Mary, Polly

A woman mentioned in connection with the riots.

Mr. Akerman

minor

Also known as Akerman

Governor of Newgate Prison.

Peak

minor

Servant to Sir John Chester.

Sir George Saville

minor

Also known as Saville, Sir George

Historical MP, mentioned in the context of the riots.

Lord Mansfield

minor

Historical judge, his house is attacked during the riots.

King George III

minor

Also known as King George, King George the Third

The King, mentioned in the context of the riots.

Sir John Fielding

minor

Also known as Sir John

Historical magistrate, mentioned in the narrative.

Sir William Meredith

minor

Historical figure, mentioned in passing.

Lord Chesterfield

minor

Also known as Chesterfield

Historical earl, referenced by Sir John Chester.

Phil Parkes

minor

Also known as Phil, long Phil Parkes

One of the Maypole regulars.