# The Black Arrow — Character guide

> Key figures in The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson.

- [Dick Shelton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/dick_shelton.md): Dick Shelton begins as Sir Daniel Brackley's ward, loyal to a guardian whose treachery he has not yet learned to see. When he weeps over a dead comrade and begs a priest for a dying archer, his raw decency collides with 
- [Sir Daniel Brackley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/sir_daniel_brackley.md): Sir Daniel Brackley rules his corner of the Wars of the Roses by shifting allegiances and writing letters full of promises he has no intention of keeping. He needs a messenger sly enough and fast enough to slip past the 
- [Joanna Sedley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/joanna_sedley.md): Joanna Sedley travels as the boy Matcham, hiding from a forced marriage to a man she has never met — who turns out to be the very companion beside her. In the dark of Dick's chamber she confesses her identity and her lov
- [Matcham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/matcham.md): Matcham is the name Joanna Sedley wears when she flees Sir Daniel's household, and as Jack Matcham she teases Dick about his impending wedding to a girl neither of them has met. Her fear of capture is real, but so is her
- [Will Lawless](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/lawless.md): Will Lawless is a man who has survived so long by hardship that he can curl up and snore in a cell the night before his hanging. He offers Dick a string to his bow — the outlaw Ellis Duckworth — and pledges to swear for 
- [Bennet Hatch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/bennet_hatch.md): Bennet Hatch serves Sir Daniel with a soldier's blunt loyalty, but old Appleyard's warning that every man in Tunstall Forest would rather shoot him than not has clearly gotten under his skin. He is the practical arm of S
- [Ellis Duckworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/ellis_duckworth.md): Ellis Duckworth commands the outlaw band that turns the greenwood into a hunting ground for Sir Daniel Brackley, and he draws young Dick Shelton into that feud. His pursuit of revenge has curdled into something like a si
- [Lord Foxham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/lord_foxham.md): Lord Foxham is a nobleman of the old style, rich, proud, and accustomed to comfort, who finds himself bleeding in a foul ship among churls and broken men. Facing death, he worries less for his soul than for his secular i
- [Sir Oliver Oates](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/sir_oliver_oates.md): Sir Oliver Oates is the household priest at Tunstall, a discreet, soft-stepping man who has grown comfortable in Sir Daniel's shadow and profited by his crimes. When Dick presses him about the dying Carter and about old 
- [Richard of Gloucester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/richard_of_gloucester.md): Richard of Gloucester appears in the wars as a small, dark, ambitious leader who demands that all things be done exact to his commandment and kills those who fail. Yet his men follow him gladly, for he is as liberal of h
- [Alicia Risingham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/alicia_risingham.md): Alicia Risingham is Joanna's friend and companion in Sir Daniel's house, a girl who can mimic a paladin's boasts one moment and offer bold counsel the next. She teases Dick about driving lions like mice, yet she is the o
- [Earl Risingham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/earl_risingham.md): Earl Risingham belongs to the great Lancastrian party that shelters Sir Daniel and Lord Shoreby, and his household becomes a fortress of sentinels and posted men as the outlaws close in. He is a man of rank and consequen
- [Selden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/selden.md): A loyal servant of Lord Foxham who accompanies Dick on missions.
- [Gossip Arblaster](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/gossip_arblaster.md): A shipmaster whose vessel Dick commandeers; later seeks revenge.
- [Hugh Ferryman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/hugh_ferryman.md): The ferryman who transports Dick and Matcham across the fen.
- [Tom Cuckow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/tom_cuckow.md): A sailor on the Good Hope who is killed during the skirmish.
- [Appleyard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/appleyard.md): An old archer killed by a black arrow early in the story.
- [John Carter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/john_carter.md): A servant of Sir Daniel who is killed by a black arrow.
- [Greensheve](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/greensheve.md): One of Ellis Duckworth's outlaws who aids Dick.
- [Clipsby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/clipsby.md): A man who gives Dick information about Sir Daniel's plans.
- [Catesby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/catesby.md): A retainer of Richard of Gloucester who delivers messages.
- [John Amend-All](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/john_amend_all.md): An alias used by Ellis Duckworth for his outlaw band.
- [Lord Shoreby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/lord_shoreby.md): A Lancastrian nobleman who is killed by Dick.
- [Master Pirret](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/master_pirret.md): A servant of Sir Daniel who guards the Moat House.
- [Hawksley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/hawksley.md): One of Ellis Duckworth's outlaws.
- [Lady Brackley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_arrow_se/characters/lady_brackley.md): Sir Daniel's mother, a harsh old woman.

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