Character guide

Lady Mason

major

Also known as young Mason, Mason, dear Lady Mason, crushing Lady Mason, Dear Lady Mason, poor Lady Mason, Very Noble Lady Mason, LIII Lady Mason

Trollope warns us plainly that the interest of this tale centers on Lady Mason, though she is not its marriageable heroine. Raised from commerce into Sir Joseph Mason's household, she now clings to Orley Farm for her son Lucius while her stepson's lawyers circle. Her quiet dignity under suspicion, and the tears she sheds when pressed to fight back, make her the moral and emotional hinge of the whole book.

Felix Graham

major

Also known as Felix, Graham, Mr. Graham, Mr. Felix, poor Graham, Mr. Felix Graham, friend Graham, Master Graham, poor Felix, So Graham

Felix Graham is the kind of man Madeline Staveley knows she ought not to have loved: able, ambitious, but without the birth or money her parents expect. He has never spoken a word of love to her, yet a glance, a handshake, and the tremor of his touch have told her everything. His career and his heart pull in different directions, and his fate becomes tangled with the Orley Farm trial, where his professional judgment will be tested alongside his private hopes.

Lucius Mason

major

Also known as little Lucius Mason, baby Lucius, Mr. Mason, Lucius Mason, Lucius, young Lucius Mason, young Mason, Master Lucius, Mr. Lucius Mason

Lucius Mason returns to Orley Farm as its young master, convinced of his rights and impatient with anyone who questions them. When Dockwrath begins spreading accusations of forgery against his mother, Lucius wants to indict the man for libel and rides to confront him, taking Peregrine Orme along for support. His filial loyalty is genuine, but his pride and inexperience make him a volatile defender of a cause far more complicated than he understands.

Mr. Furnival

major

Also known as the great Mr. Furnival, XII Mr. Furnival, Furnival, old Mr. Furnival, old Furnival, Mr. ¬†Furnival, Mr. Furnival⁠

Mr. Furnival is the great lawyer Lady Mason relies on to save Orley Farm, and his professional loyalty to her is beyond question. But at fifty-five the abstemious young barrister has become a Lothario with a purple nose, and Mrs. Furnival, remembering their dingy Keppel Street parlor, attributes it all to port wine. His divided attentions, domestic and otherwise, shadow the trial and complicate the defense of his most vulnerable client.

Mrs. Orme

major

Also known as dear Mrs. Orme, young Orme, This Mrs. Orme, Poor Mrs. Orme, Mrs. Orme⁠—intent

Mrs. Orme loves Lady Mason with a loyalty that survives every revelation, standing by her through the trial when others fall away. She is the steady heart of The Cleeve, tending to Sir Peregrine as the ordeal visibly ages him, and riding back from Orley Farm in silence when words fail. Her kindness gives the novel its moral center, and her grief at parting from Lady Mason measures what the scandal has truly destroyed.

Samuel Dockwrath

major

Also known as Mr. Dockwrath, Mr. Samuel Dockwrath, Samuel, Sam, Dockwrath, XX Mr. Dockwrath, that Mr. Dockwrath, scoundrel Dockwrath

Dockwrath is a small-town lawyer who has taken up the Orley Farm case on what he calls public motives, though his pleasure in talking about it suggests otherwise. Over brandy and cigars he boasts to the visiting Mr. Crabwitz that young Mason has no more right to the property than a stranger, and that even old Furnival cannot save the widow. Vindictive, shrewd, and delighted with his own importance, he is the engine that turns private suspicion into public catastrophe.

Sir Peregrine Orme

major

Also known as Sir Peregrine, young Peregrine Orme, Peregrine Orme, Sir Peregrine Ormes, the Ormes, young Peregrine, Peregrine junior, poor Peregrine, Peregrine the younger, And Peregrine, young Orme

Sir Peregrine is the upright, warm-hearted head of The Cleeve, grandfather to young Peregrine and father to the widowed Mrs. Orme, whose loyalty to Lady Mason draws him into the Orley Farm affair. His late-life proposal to Lady Mason exposes a tender, almost boyish need for companionship beneath the baronet's dignity, and his confidence in her shatters his health once doubt enters. His decline measures how deeply the case reaches into private life, making him the story's most affecting barometer of shame and devotion.

Madeline Staveley

major

Also known as Madeline, young Staveley, Staveley, aunt Madeline, poor Madeline, Miss Madeline, Whereupon Madeline

Madeline is the prized daughter of Noningsby, raised amid comfort, church-going, and her mother's careful ambitions for a good marriage. She resists being managed, whether by Peregrine's impetuous suit or by her mother's horror at the Florence Nightingale reading that hints at a life beyond courtship. Her open door and unhurried talks with the injured Felix Graham quietly unsettle Lady Staveley's plans, making Madeline the still center of the novel's romantic weather.

Miriam Usbech

supporting

Also known as Poor Miriam, young Kenneby, Miriam, John Kenneby, John, that John Kenneby whom Miriam Usbech did not marry, Kenneby, XLIII John Kenneby, poor Miriam, poor John Kenneby, Usbech, Miriam Dockwrath

Miriam Usbech belongs to the Hamworth world of attorneys, servants, and old promises, the ordinary life against which the great lawsuit plays out. Her marriage to Dockwrath places her inside the household of the very man digging up evidence against Lady Mason, giving her a reluctant vantage on his schemes. She matters as a reminder that the case's tremors reach even the smallest domestic lives, and that old courtships leave long shadows.

Joseph Mason of Groby

major

Also known as Groby, Joseph Mason of Groby, Mr. Joseph Mason of Groby, Mrs. Mason, Mr. and Mrs. Mason, Mr. Mason, Mason, degrees Joseph Mason, Joseph, Mr. Mason of Groby Park, Mason of Groby Park

Joseph Mason of Groby is a Yorkshire landowner of forty-odd years, aggrieved that his father's late marriage and codicil stripped him of Orley Farm. His grievance hardens into a relentless legal campaign, and his willingness to believe the worst of his stepmother drives the case toward scandal. He is the engine of the plot's central conflict, the wronged-or-wronging heir whose claim forces every other character to take sides.

Augustus Staveley

supporting

Also known as Augustus, Staveley, Gus, Mr. Staveley, uncle Gus, Mr. Augustus Staveley, Mr. Augustus, Master Augustus, Mrs. Augustus Staveley, Mrs. Staveley

Augustus Staveley moves easily between Noningsby, the law courts, and the drawing rooms of eligible young women, embodying the confident, well-connected professional class. His friendship with Felix Graham and his flirtation with Sophia Furnival place him at the crossroads of the novel's romantic and legal threads. His mother's watchful anxiety over his intentions shows how marriage, money, and family ambition quietly shape the Staveley household.

Lady Staveley

supporting

Also known as young Staveley, Dear Lady Staveley, Poor Lady Staveley

Lady Staveley runs Noningsby with open-handed charm, morning prayers, and a keen eye for the niceties of rank and income. She welcomes Peregrine Orme as a prospective son-in-law and grows uneasy as Madeline lingers at Felix Graham's half-open door. Her blend of genuine kindness and worldly calculation makes her both sympathetic and comic, and her maneuvering shapes the romantic fortunes of the younger generation.

Mrs. Furnival

supporting

Also known as poor Mrs. Furnival, XI Mrs. Furnival, Poor Mrs. Furnival, dear Mrs. Furnival, XLIX Mrs. Furnival, LI Mrs. Furnival, Mrs. Furnival⁠—and, Mrs. ¬†Furnival

Mrs. Furnival presides over Cavendish Square as the neglected wife of a rising barrister, her dignity propped up by the sympathetic Miss Biggs. Convinced that Lady Mason's postmarks and private conferences with Tom Furnival mean something more than law, she resolves to leave her house rather than endure it. Her jealous vigilance turns the Orley Farm case into a domestic siege, giving the legal plot a wounded, very human shadow.

Judge Staveley

supporting

Also known as the judge, Staveley

Judge Staveley is a respected man of law whose country house at Noningsby becomes a stage where suitors, wards, and legal gossip all cross paths. His wife, Lady Staveley, manages the domestic diplomacy — receiving Peregrine Orme's abrupt proposal, weighing Felix Graham's odd prospects — while the judge himself embodies the professional world the Orley Farm trial will eventually command. His family's drawing room is where the novel's private hopes and public reputations first begin to tangle.

Mary Snow

supporting

Also known as Marian, Mary, poor Mary, Poor Mary, Poor Mary Snow, Snow, Snow père, Miss Mary

Mary Snow has been raised and promised to Felix Graham, who regards the engagement as an experiment in education and duty as much as affection. Jealous, unpolished, and painfully aware of her own dependence, she senses that his head and heart are being drawn elsewhere — toward Madeline Staveley and the fashionable world he moves in. Her precarious claim on Felix shadows the novel's courtship plot with the uncomfortable question of what a man owes to the woman he has made.

Mr. Moulder

supporting

Also known as Moulder, whereat Mr. Moulder, Whereupon Mr. Moulder, the great Moulder, LXVII Mr. Moulder, Moulder⁠, Mr. Moulder⁠

Mr. Moulder is a prosperous bagman whose dinners, brandy, and loud certainties make him a minor power among the men who move goods and gossip between London and the provinces. Fond of Dockwrath and contemptuous of anything he cannot chew or pay for, he treats the Orley Farm case as a fine story to be told over a chop. Through him Trollope shows how a legal quarrel becomes public property — retold, distorted, and relished far from any courtroom.

Mr. Round

supporting

Also known as Mr. Round junior, The Mr. Round, Mr. Matthew, Mr. Round senior, Mr. Matthew Round, the Mr. Round, Round, Mat, this Mat, old Round, old Mr. Round, Old Mr. Round

Mr. Matthew Round is the working brain of a firm that has carried the Groby Park side of the Orley Farm dispute for twenty years, while his father grows peaches at Isleworth and Mr. Crook handles the dirtier business. Cool, ceremonious, and unimpressed by Dockwrath's eagerness, he weighs the codicil's chances with professional caution rather than passion. His negotiations with Dockwrath and the Mason heirs set the legal machinery of the novel in motion — and his judgment about what is provable will shape everything that follows.

Mr. Chaffanbrass

supporting

Also known as Chaffanbrass, the great Chaffanbrass, Mr. Chaffanbrass⁠—either

Mr. Chaffanbrass is the advocate whom solicitors call when a case must be won by shredding reputations rather than proving facts. His fame rests on the wreckage of witnesses — a reputation Trollope treats with grim, half-admiring humor. When he is retained for the defense of Lady Mason, his presence signals that the Orley Farm trial will be fought not on documents alone but on the nerves and characters of everyone who takes the stand.

Sophia Furnival

supporting

Also known as Sophia, Sophy, Even Sophia Furnival, Dearest Sophia

Sophia moves through drawing-rooms with the poise of someone who has already calculated the room. She is angling for Augustus Staveley's hand, but her letters to him are written with one eye on the door, and her wit is a tool for testing rather than pleasing. Her cool appraisal of Felix Graham's broken bones as a happy accident reveals a mind that reads romance as tactics, and her presence sharpens the social stakes of the marriage market that shadows the novel's legal drama.

Mrs. Moulder

minor

Also known as Moulder

Mr. Moulder's wife, a practical and outspoken woman.

Mr. Kantwise

minor

Also known as Kantwise, this Mr. Kantwise

A traveling salesman of patent furniture, associate of Moulder.

Martha Biggs

minor

Also known as Miss Biggs, Martha Biggs, Miss Martha Biggs, Martha, Whereupon Miss Biggs, the anxious Martha, Biggs, Poor Martha Biggs, Martha Biggs⁠

Mrs. Furnival's nosy and devoted friend.

Miss Furnival

minor

Also known as Furnival, old Furnival, Miss. Furnival

Mr. Furnival's unmarried sister, a sharp-tongued woman.

Mr. Crabwitz

minor

Also known as Crabwitz

Mr. Furnival's clerk, often caught in the middle of domestic strife.

Solomon Aram

minor

Also known as old Solomon Aram, Solomon Aram, Mr. Solomon Aram, Mr.  Solomon Aram, Mr. Aram, Aram, Mr. Solomon

An attorney for the defense, working with Chaffanbrass.

Bridget Bolster

minor

Also known as Bolster, Bridget, The woman Bolster, That woman Bolster, Mrs. Bolster

A key witness in the Orley Farm trial, a former servant.

Young Peregrine

supporting

Also known as Peregrine Orme, Young Orme, Peregrine, Young Peregrine Orme, Poor Peregrine, Mr. Peregrine, Peregrine

Peregrine Orme rides home from the trial beside a mother worn out by loyalty to Lady Mason, his own thoughts already drifting back to Noningsby and the woman he cannot have. He is generous, impulsive, and quietly miserable, watching his grandfather age under a weight he cannot name. His unrequited devotion and his helplessness before the family's crisis make him the novel's tenderest study in young disappointment.

Sir Joseph Mason

minor

Also known as Sir Joseph, Joseph junior, Joseph senior, Joseph Mason, Joseph, poor Sir Joseph, Joe, old Sir Joseph Mason, old Sir Joseph

The deceased owner of Orley Farm, whose will is contested.

Lord Alston

minor

Also known as Alston, old Lord Alston, Lord Alston, Thus Alston

A local nobleman and neighbor to the Ormes.

Mrs. Baker

minor

Also known as Baker, poor Mrs. Baker

Lady Mason's faithful housekeeper at Orley Farm.

Mr. Kenneby

minor

Also known as Kenneby

John Kenneby's father, a minor character in the subplot.

Mr. Snengkeld

minor

Also known as Snengkeld

A barrister involved in the trial.

Mrs. Dockwrath

minor

Also known as young Dockwrath, Dockwrath, Whereupon Mrs. Dockwrath

Samuel Dockwrath's wife, Miriam Usbech.

Mrs. Green

minor

Also known as Mrs. Adolphus Green, Dear Mrs. Green, Mr. Green

A friend of Mrs. Furnival.

Mr. Fitzallen

minor

Also known as Fitzallen, Albert Fitzallen, Albert, Mrs. Fitzallen, Mrs. Albert Fitzallen

A young man who courts Sophia Furnival.

Martock

minor

Also known as old Mason, Mason

A former partner of Sir Joseph Mason.

Mother Smiley

minor

Also known as Smiley, Mrs. Smiley, the Smiley, Mother

A woman who runs a boarding house.

Miss Penelope

minor

Also known as Penelope, Penelope . John, John

A woman courted by John Kenneby.

Creusa Mason

minor

Also known as Creusa, Miss Mason, Miss Creusa Mason, Miss Creusa

Joseph Mason's daughter.

Mr. Orme

minor

Also known as Orme, young Orme, Dear Mr. Orme, young Mr. Orme, Poor Mr. Orme, Young Mr. Orme, poor young Mr. Orme, Mr. Orme⁠, poor young Mr. Orme⁠

Sir Peregrine's deceased son, often remembered fondly.

Mr. Usbech

minor

Also known as Usbech, old Mr. Usbech, old Usbech, old Jonathan Usbech, Jonathan Usbech

Miriam's father, a former attorney involved in the original will.

Miss Staveley

minor

Also known as Staveley

Augustus Staveley's wife, a quiet and sensible woman.

Sir Richard Leatherham

minor

Also known as Sir Richard, Sir Richard Leatherham, Leatherham

A barrister and Solicitor-General in the trial.

Edith

minor

Also known as Dearest Edith

A young woman briefly mentioned in relation to Felix Graham.

Von Bauhr

minor

Also known as von Bauhr

A German legal expert consulted on the case.

Julia Tristram

minor

Also known as Miss Tristram, Miss Tristam, Julia, Miss Julia Tristram, Julia Tristram

A young lady courted by Augustus Staveley.

Tom Furnival

minor

Also known as Tom, Thomas Furnival

Mr. Furnival's son, a young man at Oxford.

Mr. Crump

minor

Also known as Crump

A clerk in Mr. Round's office.

Harriet Tristram

minor

Also known as Harriet, Harriet Tristram

Julia Tristram's sister.

Mrs. Arkwright

minor

Also known as Dear Mrs. Arkwright

A friend of Mrs. Orme.

Mrs. Arbuthnot

minor

Also known as Mrs. В Arbuthnot, Arbuthnot

A friend of the Staveley family.

Marian Arbuthnot

minor

Also known as Marian, Dear Marian

A young woman and friend of Madeline Staveley.

Kitty

minor

Also known as Dear Kitty, Kitty Blacker

A friend of Mary Snow.

Mr. Cooke

minor

A witness in the trial.

Mr. Snow

minor

Also known as Snow the, Snow

Mary Snow's father.

Rachel

minor

A servant at Orley Farm.

Mary Mason

minor

Also known as Mason, Molly

Joseph Mason's daughter.

Mr. Torrington

minor

Also known as one Mr. Torrington, this Mr. Torrington, this Torrington, This Torrington, Torrington, one Torrington

A London attorney involved in the original partnership.

Mr. Gape

minor

Also known as Gape

A witness in the trial.

Spooner

minor

Also known as the astonished Spooner

A witness in the trial.

Mr. Johnson

minor

Also known as Johnson

A clerk in Mr. Furnival's chambers.

Miss Snow

minor

Mary Snow's sister.

Sir Jacob

minor

Also known as Jacob

A baronet mentioned in passing.

Lord Boanerges

minor

Also known as Boanerges

A nobleman mentioned in conversation.

Rebecca

minor

Also known as Rebekah

A biblical reference used as a character analogy.

Isabella

minor

A servant at Orley Farm.

Mr. Arbuthnot

minor

Marian Arbuthnot's father.

Mr. Pottinger

minor

Also known as Pottinger

A witness in the trial.

Mrs. Trump

minor

A woman who keeps a lodging house.

Grease of Houndsditch

minor

Also known as Grease

A merchant mentioned in the commercial room.

Mr. Steelyard

minor

Also known as one Mr. Steelyard

A barrister in the trial.

Greenwood

minor

Also known as Mr. Greenwood, old Mr. Greenwood, farmer Greenwood

A farmer and neighbor of the Ormes.

Sarah

minor

A servant at Orley Farm.

Old Balsam

minor

Also known as Mr. Balsam

An elderly man mentioned in the commercial room.

Bob

minor

Also known as Carroty Bob

A boy in the commercial room.

Mr. Brown

minor

Also known as the great Mr. Brown, Brown

A merchant mentioned in the commercial room.

Mr. Crook

minor

Also known as Crook, Round and Crook, Messrs. Round and Crook, Round and, Round, Messrs. Round, young Round

A partner in the firm of Round and Crook.

Mr. Busby

minor

Also known as Busby

A witness in the trial.

Mrs. Round

minor

Mr. Round's wife.

Farmer Griggs

minor

Also known as Griggs

A farmer and neighbor of the Ormes.

Mr. Slow

minor

Also known as Slow, Messrs. Slow, Bideawhile, Slow, Messrs. Slow and Bideawhile, Slow and Bideawhile

A partner in a law firm.

Mr. Crabfield

minor

A barrister mentioned in the trial.

Baron Maltby

minor

A judge in the trial.