# Lorna Doone — Character guide

> Key figures in Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore.

- [John Ridd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/john_ridd.md): John Ridd measures his worth in wheat-ricks, sickles, and the plain decency of Exmoor yeomen, yet his heart has been snagged since boyhood by a girl whose very name makes guilt of her. He is strong enough to hoist a man 
- [Lorna Doone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/lorna_doone.md): Lorna lives among the Doones as a jewel they keep but do not understand, and her instinctive courtesy belongs to a world she has never seen. When John Ridd brings her eggs wrapped in clover-hay, she weeps at the scent of
- [Annie Ridd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/annie_ridd.md): Annie Ridd is the softest voice at the harvest-supper and the steadiest hand when her family is threatened. Married to the charming Tom Faggus, she defends him with tears and arguments even as his wildness endangers them
- [Tom Faggus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/tom_faggus.md): Tom Faggus is the cousin every Ridd dinner-table both dreads and enjoys, a man who can rob a coach and call it public charity. His pardon should have made him respectable, but the delight of wildness keeps pulling him ba
- [Jeremy Stickles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/jeremy_stickles.md): Stickles arrives in the West Country with a signet, a commission, and a very high opinion of his own brains, which he is happy to explain to anyone he deems trustworthy. He binds John to secrecy about plots, dukes, and t
- [John Fry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/john_fry.md): John Fry is the servant who sits down to dinner before the church clock strikes eleven and calls his master 'your worship' with a goose-leg in his mouth. He is loyal in his fashion, but his stories and his stomach often 
- [Carver Doone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/carver_doone.md): Carver Doone rules Glen Doone through violence and terror, and his claim on Lorna makes her a captive prize rather than a free woman. His cruelty is the dark counterweight to John Ridd's steady decency, and the mere thre
- [Ruth Huckaback](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/ruth_huckaback.md): Ruth Huckaback is the granddaughter of wealthy Uncle Reuben, a small woman whose plain looks and proud spirit make her an outsider in a household that measures worth by beauty and fortune. When John's mother carelessly i
- [Uncle Reuben Huckaback](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/uncle_reuben.md): Uncle Reuben Huckaback is a wealthy Dulverton merchant whose godliness and thrift make him both respected and faintly comic to his Exmoor relatives. His disappearance on the road near Watchett sets the household into a f
- [Gwenny Carfax](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/gwenny_carfax.md): Gwenny Carfax serves Lorna Doone with a devotion that borders on ferocity, following her mistress out of the glen and into a world that treats her as a curiosity. Small in stature and large in spirit, she bristles at sli
- [Betty Muxworthy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/betty_muxworthy.md): Betty Muxworthy has served the Ridds so long that she treats John as a boy to be scolded and poked with saucepan covers, even when he has grown into the master of the farm. She hates Uncle Ben, grins at misfortune, and s
- [Sir Ensor Doone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/sir_ensor_doone.md): Sir Ensor Doone founded the outlaw colony in Glen Doone and rules it with a fear that even Carver respects, though age has made him a strange mixture of dignity and decay. He is Lorna's grandfather and the one power in t
- [Counsellor Doone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/counsellor_doone.md): Within Glen Doone he is the calculating brain behind the family's plunder, dressing up brigandage in legal and reverend-sounding language while the brawn of Carver does the rest. His true gift is survival by rhetoric: he
- [Simon Carfax](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/simon_carfax.md): Lorna's grandfather, a former soldier who was separated from her.
- [Lord Jeffreys](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/lord_jeffreys.md): Infamous judge during the Bloody Assizes, encountered by John.
- [Marwood de Whichehalse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/marwood_de_whichehalse.md): Rival suitor to Lorna, a dissolute young squire.
- [Winnie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/winnie.md): Tom Faggus's clever and loyal mare, who helps John.
- [Mother Melldrum](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/mother_melldrum.md): She runs the Ridd homestead with love and blunt practicality, raising John and his sisters while nursing a long grudge against the Doones who killed her husband. Her counsel to John is a tangle of tenderness and realism:
- [Charleworth Doone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/charleworth_doone.md): A younger Doone, involved in the clan's raids.
- [Kit Badcock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/kit_badcock.md): A poor farmer wronged by the Doones, who seeks John's help.
- [Peggy Badcock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/peggy_badcock.md): Kit Badcock's wife, who pleads for his release.
- [Lord Alan Brandir](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/lord_alan_brandir.md): Lorna's cousin and a nobleman, who supports her claim.
- [Earl Brandir](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/earl_brandir.md): Lorna's grandfather, the Earl of Lochawe.
- [Benita](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/benita.md): Lorna's former nurse, who reveals her true parentage.
- [Parson Bowden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/parson_bowden.md): The local clergyman, a friend of the Ridd family.
- [Annie Ridd (younger)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/annie_ridd_younger.md): John's younger sister, often conflated with the main Annie but distinct in some references.
- [Mistress Ridd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/mistress_ridd.md): John's mother, also referred to by her married name.
- [Kickums](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/kickums.md): John's stubborn and strong horse.
- [Old Cop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/old_cop.md): An old horse on the Ridd farm.
- [Smiler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/smiler.md): A farm ox, known for its gentle nature.
- [Mr. Spank](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/mr_spank.md): A cruel schoolmaster at Blundell's school.
- [Lord Churchill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/lord_churchill.md): Historical figure, later Duke of Marlborough, mentioned in passing.
- [Bill Dadds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters/bill_dadds.md): A minor character, possibly a farmhand.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lorna_doone_se/characters