# Gaffer Hexam — Our Mutual Friend character guide

> Gaffer Hexam in Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Gaffer Hexam, Gaffer, Jesse Hexam

**First appearance:** 0001-i-on-the-look-out

## Snapshot

A Thames waterman who fishes corpses from the river for a living, raising Lizzie and Charley on the profits of the drowned.

## Who they are

Gaffer works the river's dark economy, hauling bodies from the tide and treating the dead as a trade rather than a horror, which places him at the edge of the law and outside ordinary society. His fierce, possessive bond with Lizzie and his contempt for Charley's respectable ambitions create the family fracture that drives the opening of the book. He matters because the mystery of the river and the Hexams' fate begins in his boat.

## In the story

### [On the Look Out](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/our_mutual_friend_se/chapters/i-on-the-look-out)

A rough, bird-of-prey-like man who scavenges corpses from the Thames for money. He rebuffs Riderhood's claim of partnership, asserting a twisted moral code.

### [Another Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/our_mutual_friend_se/chapters/iii-another-man)

Father of Charley and Lizzie; the boatman who found John Harmon's body in the Thames.

### [Cut Adrift](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/our_mutual_friend_se/chapters/vi-cut-adrift)

Returns home to find Charley gone; reacts with anger and suspicion, calling his son 'unnatural' for wanting learning.

### [The Sweat of an Honest Man's Brow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/our_mutual_friend_se/chapters/xii-the-sweat-of-an-honest-man-s-brow)

Accused by Riderhood of murder and confession; not present in the chapter.

### [The Bird of Prey Brought Down](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/our_mutual_friend_se/chapters/xiv-the-bird-of-prey-brought-down)

Found dead, drowned and entangled in his own rope; his body is recovered and laid on the shore.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/our_mutual_friend_se/characters/gaffer_hexam
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/our_mutual_friend_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/our_mutual_friend_se/characters