Character guide

Grace Crawley

major

Also known as Miss Grace Crawley, Grace, poor Grace Crawley, Miss Crawley

Grace is the eldest surviving child of the impoverished Crawleys of Hogglestock, raised in a poverty her father feels as disgrace and her mother endures as daily fact. When Major Grantly's attentions make her the talk of Barsetshire, she refuses to accept him while her father stands accused, insisting she will not drag a gentleman's son into her family's shame. Her stubborn integrity—part inheritance, part self-defense—forces everyone around her to choose between social calculation and genuine worth.

Lily Dale

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Also known as Miss Lily Dale, Miss Dale, Lilian Dale, Lilian, dear Lily

Lily Dale is the niece of Squire Dale of Allington, admired throughout Barsetshire for her wit and her refusal to marry. Having been engaged and abandoned by Adolphus Crosbie, she has built her identity around that wound, telling herself and everyone else that she will never love again. When Mrs. Arabin arrives to plead Johnny Eames's cause, Lily must confront whether her famous constancy is principle or pride—and whether she has the right to keep refusing a man everyone else believes she should accept.

Johnny Eames

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Also known as John Eames, poor Johnny Eames, Eames, Poor Johnny

Johnny Eames is a young private secretary at the Income Tax Office, risen from humble origins through the patronage of his cousin Lord De Guest. He has loved Lily Dale since childhood and cannot stop, even though she has refused him repeatedly and made clear that her heart is closed. His willingness to risk his position by defying Sir Raffle Buffle to travel to Florence on family business reveals both his impulsive loyalty and his growing willingness to act like a man rather than a boy.

Mr. Crawley

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Also known as Josiah Crawley, the Rev. Josiah Crawley, poor Mr. Crawley, Crawley

Josiah Crawley has spent ten years in the miserable parish of Hogglestock, earning one hundred and thirty pounds a year and the reputation of a madman among the farmers, though the brickmakers of Hoggle End respect him for living as poorly as they do. He is moody, morose, sometimes barely sane, and utterly incapable of accepting charity or admitting weakness—even to his wife, who has learned to treat him as both patriarch and invalid. His refusal to explain himself when accused of theft sets the entire plot in motion and makes him both victim and author of his family's crisis.

Major Grantly

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Also known as Henry Grantly, Harry, Henry, young Major Grantly

Henry Grantly is the son of Archdeacon Grantly of Plumstead Episcopi, a man whose family pride is matched only by his dread of scandal. The major has fallen in love with Grace Crawley, the daughter of a clergyman accused of theft, and has decided that he will marry her regardless of the verdict—a decision that puts him at war with his father and makes him the subject of county gossip. His quiet determination to do what he thinks right, even at the cost of his inheritance and his father's respect, makes him the moral counterweight to the novel's many calculations of advantage.

Mrs. Proudie

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Also known as poor Mrs. Proudie, the late Mrs. Proudie, Luckily Mrs. Proudie

Mrs. Proudie is the undisputed mistress of the bishop's palace at Barchester, a woman whose energy and certainty make her husband's authority merely nominal. When Mr. Crawley insults her and is accused of theft, she demands that he be prosecuted to the full extent of ecclesiastical law, badgering the bishop into agreeing to a commission of inquiry headed by Dr. Tempest. Her implacable sense of propriety and her conviction that she speaks for the Church make her the novel's most formidable engine of judgment—and its most dangerous.

Archdeacon Grantly

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Also known as Archdeacon, the Grantly, Dr. Grantly

Dr. Grantly commands respect and obedience in equal measure, a man of wealth and ecclesiastical authority whose sense of propriety governs every judgment. When his son Major Grantly insists on marrying Grace Crawley—daughter of a clergyman accused of theft—the archdeacon draws a hard line, threatening disinheritance and refusing to receive her. His stubbornness forces a painful reckoning between paternal love and social ambition, making him both obstacle and emotional center of the novel's central conflict.

Conway Dalrymple

supporting

Also known as Dalrymple, Mr. Conway Dalrymple, Conway

Conway Dalrymple has risen from drinking threepenny beer to painting duchesses and dining at fashionable Bayswater tables, his portraits celebrated for their narrative flair. His friendship with John Eames and his intimacy with the Broughton household place him at the center of a circle where art, money, and desire blur. When he becomes entangled with the beautiful but married Mrs. Dobbs Broughton, his easy charm threatens to curdle into something far more compromising.

Mrs. Dobbs Broughton

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Broughton, Dobbs Broughton, Mrs. Dobbs

Maria Dobbs Broughton presides over a fashionable Bayswater mansion funded by her husband's City speculations, her beauty immortalized in Conway Dalrymple's paintings. When Dobbs Broughton's finances collapse and he takes his own life, she is left exposed—financially dependent, socially precarious, and emotionally entangled with Dalrymple. Her plight reveals how quickly a woman's position can unravel when the men who sustain it fail.

Thomas Toogood

supporting

Also known as Mr. Toogood, Tommy Toogood, uncle Tom, Poor Mr. Toogood

Thomas Toogood is everything the proud, austere Crawley is not: genial, practical, and unbothered by social niceties. He throws himself into Crawley's defense with energy and good humor, tracking down the missing cheque and navigating the legal machinery of Barchester and London alike. His persistence embodies the novel's faith that ordinary decency, patiently applied, can untangle even the most stubborn injustice.

Adolphus Crosbie

supporting

Also known as Mr. Crosbie, this Crosbie, Crosbie

Adolphus Crosbie once chose ambition over love, abandoning Lily Dale for a match that promised social elevation—and found only misery. Now married into the cold De Courcy family and burdened by debt and regret, he writes to Lily in a desperate attempt to reopen what he closed. His letter forces Lily and her mother to confront whether forgiveness is possible, and whether the man who wronged them deserves a second chance.

Clara Van Siever

supporting

Also known as Miss Van Siever, Clara, Miss Clara Van Siever, Miss Van

Clara Van Siever possesses both money and independence of mind, qualities her mother Mrs. Van Siever regards as inconvenient obstacles to a profitable marriage with the oily Mr. Musselboro. Pressured relentlessly at home, Clara finds herself drawn into the Broughton circle, where Dalrymple's attentions offer both escape and danger. Her struggle to choose her own path—against her mother's threats and her own uncertainty—makes her a quiet but vital counterpoint to the novel's other embattled women.

Mrs. Thorne

supporting

Also known as Thorne, Miss Dunstable

Once the celebrated heiress Miss Dunstable, she now moves through Barsetshire society as Mrs. Thorne, wife to the doctor and intimate of the archdeacon's circle. Her money and independence give her a freedom few women in the county enjoy, and she spends it generously on those she judges worthy. When the Crawleys are threatened by scandal and poverty, her loyalty becomes one of the few reliable forces in their favor.

Lady Lufton

supporting

Also known as old Lady Lufton, Dear old Lady Lufton, the Dowager Lady Lufton

Lady Lufton rules Framley with a mother's love and a bishop's instinct for order, treating the parish as an extension of her own drawing-room. Her son Ludovic chafes under her ecclesiastical enthusiasms, while her daughter-in-law Lucy quietly tries to soften the dowager's grip. When Mr. Crawley's troubles divide the county, Lady Lufton's influence and her willingness to spend it on his behalf become a quiet hinge on which his fate turns.

Miss Demolines

supporting

Also known as Madalina Demolines, Madalina, the lovely Miss Demolines

In her mother's Porchester Terrace drawing-room, Madalina stages scenes of mystery and heartbreak, treating romance as a game she intends to win. Johnny Eames knows he is only amusing himself with her, yet her letters and her poses keep drawing him back. Her manufactured crises shadow the real ones unfolding elsewhere, and her grip on Johnny's attention complicates the loyalties he owes to Lily Dale and to the Crawleys.

Mr. Harding

supporting

Also known as old Mr. Harding, Septimus Harding, poor old Mr. Harding

Septimus Harding has spent his long life in the cathedral close, a man so unassuming that no one called him popular until the day he was gone. His two daughters, the archdeacon's wife and the dean's, walk together behind his coffin, and even the broken bishop comes out of the palace to follow. His death in the novel's opening movement sets the tone of loss and moral reckoning against which the Crawley scandal plays out.

Mr. Robarts

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Also known as Robarts, Mr. Robarts of Framley, the Rev. Mark Robarts

Mark Robarts moves between the magistrates, the lawyers, and the clerical gossips of Barsetshire, trying to serve a friend whose guilt or innocence he cannot determine. Bound to Mr. Crawley by an old obligation, he presses Mr. Walker and Mr. Winthrop for honest answers and receives only ambiguity. His quiet persistence keeps the Crawley case from being quietly buried, and his divided conscience mirrors the county's own unease.

Mrs. Grantly

supporting

Also known as Poor Mrs. Grantly, the archdeacon and Mrs. Grantly

Mrs. Grantly lives between a husband who vows never to receive Grace Crawley and a son who threatens to leave England rather than give her up. She will not pretend to wish the match, yet she will not turn her back on her boy, and her careful manoeuvring buys time the archdeacon's temper would otherwise have burned away. Her steady diplomacy holds the Grantly family together while the Crawley trial threatens to tear it apart.

Mrs. Arabin

supporting

Also known as Arabin, the Arabin, Light of Heart Mrs. Arabin

Mrs. Arabin moves through Barsetshire drawing rooms with a quiet purpose that belies her easy manners, seeking out Lily Dale at Chaldicotes to plead the case of the devoted Johnny Eames. She is a woman who repays her debts in kindness, having given Crawley the cheque that now threatens to destroy him, and who understands that a good name can be restored by those willing to vouch for it. Her willingness to champion both a lovesick clerk and a clergyman's accused daughter makes her the novel's quiet engine of reconciliation.

Dr. Tempest

supporting

Also known as Dr. Tempest of Silverbridge, old Tempest

Dr. Tempest is the kind of clergyman whose good sense makes him valuable to bishops and dangerous to their wives, a man who agrees to dine at the palace while privately resolving to keep his visit short. He knows that Crawley's obstinacy in claiming his own pulpit has forced the bishop's hand, and he means to see the case handled with fairness rather than spectacle. His presence at the Proudie dinner table signals that the Crawley affair has become a matter for the diocese's most respected minds, not merely a local scandal.

Miss Prettyman

supporting

Also known as Miss Anne Prettyman, Anne, the elder Miss Prettyman

Miss Anne Prettyman governs her school with the same confidence she brings to correcting her sister's grasp of criminal law, certain that a committed man is not a convicted one. She tries to console Grace with careful truths, but the girl's grief and the servants' gossip outrun her efforts, and she must watch her pupil slip away to a home shadowed by shame and poverty. Her helpless kindness toward Grace makes the Crawley scandal feel intimate rather than abstract, a blow struck at a young woman's daily life.

Augustus Musselboro

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Also known as Mr. Musselboro, Musselboro, Gus

Musselboro keeps a dark closet of an office for appearances but works mostly in Broughton's room, lending money and trading on account in schemes whose real partner is a woman whose name never appears on the doorpost. He warns Broughton not to smoke because 'she' is coming, revealing a hierarchy in which the flashy stockbroker is not the one in charge. His quiet, calculating presence introduces the novel's financial underworld, where Clara Van Siever's fate and the Broughton household's stability are quietly being gambled away.

Mrs. Dale

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Also known as Dear Mrs. Dale

Mrs. Dale is the quiet center of Allington's domestic life, a mother whose affection for Johnny Eames is genuine but whose first loyalty is to a daughter still scarred by Crosbie's desertion. She is spoken of as one whose good opinion matters, and her fondness for Johnny is weighed by others as a possible path to Lily's consent. Her steady, protective presence makes the question of Lily's future a family matter rather than a private romance, and gives the novel's marriage plot its moral gravity.

Sir Raffle Buffle

supporting

Also known as Sir Raffle, old Buffle

Sir Raffle Buffle cannot mention his private secretary without explaining that Johnny's Continental journey was made with, and could not have been made without, his sanction, and he spars with Harold Smith over who truly understands the Treasury. He is the kind of man who claims to despise humbug while practicing it fluently, and whose self-importance makes him both comic and a genuine obstacle in Johnny's working life. His presence grounds the novel's London scenes in the petty vanities of office, a world away from Barsetshire's graver troubles.

Mr. Thumble

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Also known as Thumble, the Reverend Mr. Thumble, Reverend

Thumble is Mrs. Proudie's instrument, a poor curate who borrows authority from the bishop's letter he carries and the fact that, unlike Crawley, he owes no man money. Ordered to be firm, he arrives at Hogglestock parsonage expecting deference and instead meets Crawley's cold, erect courtesy and Mrs. Crawley's quiet readiness for battle. His awkward errand matters because it forces the Crawleys' private disgrace into a public contest over who may lawfully preach in that pulpit.

Mrs. Van Siever

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Also known as old Mrs. Van Siever, Mrs. Van, Van Siever

Mrs. Van Siever conducts her affairs in scraps of paper without greeting or signature, and expects Clara to marry the pliant Musselboro whether she likes it or not. Her weapon is not argument but menace: she promises to make Clara's life a burden, and she means it, while coolly managing the widow Broughton's money and mourning alike. Her grip on Clara's future sets the marriage plot in motion and links the drawing-room world of art and courtship to the grim counting-house where fortunes are made and lost.

Jane Crawley

supporting

Also known as Jane, Poor Jane

Jane lives inside the family's relentless scarcity, watching her mother beg for necessities her father forbids and bearing the disgrace of poverty that shames him far more than it shames her. She belongs to the parsonage household whose ruin by a stolen cheque becomes the novel's central scandal, and she shares in the humiliation that follows. Her patient presence sharpens the contrast between Crawley's agonized conscience and the women who absorb the cost of his principles.

Mr. Dobbs Broughton

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Also known as Dobbs Broughton, Mr. Broughton, poor Dobbs Broughton

Broughton presides over a household shadowed by debt and a wife, Maria, whose confidences to Mrs. Van Siever reveal how little she understood the man she married. His affairs in Hook Court entangle him with Musselboro and the Van Siever money, and the news of what happens there travels fast enough to reach drawing-rooms across Barsetshire. His collapse matters because it drags the commercial underworld of the novel into the open and forces those around him to reckon with the consequences of his fall.

John Walker

supporting

Also known as Mr. Walker, Walker, Mr. John Walker

Walker is the professional conscience of the scandal, consulted on the stolen cheque and the tangled evidence surrounding Dan Stringer and Jem Scuttle. He is cautious where others are eager, advising that the case against Stringer cannot be made to stick even when everyone knows the man lied. His measured counsel shapes how the Crawley affair moves through magistrates and grand juries, and his presence keeps the novel's legal machinery grounded in a world of practical, imperfect justice.

Mr. Soames

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Also known as Soames

Soames is a working man of the diocese, respected in his small sphere, whose cheque for twenty pounds goes astray and is traced to Mr. Crawley. He is not a villain, but the loss he reports becomes the instrument of a poor clergyman's persecution, and his name is spoken in every account of the alleged theft. His role matters because the entire plot turns on what happened to that cheque, and on whether a hardworking, half-broken pastor can be believed against the plain evidence of a piece of paper.

Emily Dunstable

supporting

Also known as Miss Emily Dunstable, Miss Dunstable, Emily

Emily Dunstable enters the Barsetshire world as the wealthy young woman Bernard Dale is expected to marry, her money as welcome to the Allington estate as her photograph is pleasing to the squire. She is eager to meet Lily Dale and becomes the occasion for Lily's first London visit in years, a trip that puts Lily uncomfortably near both Crosbie and John Eames. Cheerful and well-liked, Emily matters less for what she does than for the social machinery she sets in motion.

Lady Julia De Guest

supporting

Also known as Lady Julia, Julia

Lady Julia De Guest belongs to the older generation of Barsetshire gentry, a woman accustomed to having her way in family matters and genuinely generous in the causes she adopts. She classifies young women into sheep and goats with absolute confidence, and once she has decided someone is a sheep, her favour is not withdrawn. Her protective interest in Johnny Eames and her eagerness to manage other people's romances make her a persistent, well-meaning force in the novel's social manoeuvring.

Fowler Pratt

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Also known as Pratt, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Fowler Pratt

A friend of Johnny Eames and a fellow clerk in London, often involved in social scenes.

Mrs. Robarts

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Also known as Robarts, dear Mrs. Robarts

The wife of Mr. Robarts, a gentle and hospitable woman at Framley Parsonage.

Bernard Dale

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Also known as Bernard, Dale

Lily Dale's cousin, a captain in the army who courts Emily Dunstable.

Bishop Proudie

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Also known as Bishop

Bishop Proudie is a prudent, sagacious man in his own right, but at home he is teased and overborne by Mrs. Proudie, who treats the palace as her own and the clergy as her subjects. When Crawley's alleged theft gives her a cause, the bishop finds himself caught between his instinct to let the civil law take its course and his wife's demand for an immediate ecclesiastical commission. His misery and indecision expose how much of the diocese's real government runs through the drawing-room rather than the throne.

Mr. Chadwick

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Also known as Mr. John Chadwick, Chadwick

The bishop's steward and legal advisor in Barchester.

Lord Lufton

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Also known as Lufton

The son of Lady Lufton, a young nobleman who appears briefly in the story.

Mr. Cradell

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Also known as Cradell

A clerk and friend of Johnny Eames in London, often involved in comic scenes.

Mary Eames

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Also known as Mary Walker, Mary, Polly

Johnny Eames's sister, married to John Walker, living in Silverbridge.

Mr. Butterwell

minor

Also known as Butterwell

A colleague of Sir Raffle Buffle in the government office.

Mr. Snapper

minor

Also known as Snapper, the unfortunate Mr. Snapper

A curate sent to Hogglestock who suffers from Mr. Crawley's wrath.

Old Lady Demolines

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Also known as Lady Demolines

Madalina Demolines's mother, an eccentric and manipulative old woman.

Posy

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Also known as Miss Posy, cousin Posy

The young daughter of Major Grantly, a sweet child who endears herself to Grace Crawley.

Edith

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Also known as dear little Edith, Miss Edith

Major Grantly's younger daughter, a charming little girl.

Mr. Dale

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The uncle of Lily Dale and Bernard Dale, a squire living at Allington.

Dan Stringer

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Also known as Mr. Dan Stringer, Dan, Daniel Stringer

A disreputable man suspected of stealing the cheque that Mr. Crawley is accused of taking.

Dean Arabin

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Also known as Arabin

The Dean of Barchester, husband of Mrs. Arabin, a scholarly and kind clergyman.

Dr. Thorne

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Also known as Thorne, Chaldicotes

A doctor and landowner, husband of the former Miss Dunstable, living at Chaldicotes.

Flurry

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Also known as old Flurry

A horse owned by Major Grantly, mentioned in hunting scenes.

Griselda Grantly

minor

The daughter of Archdeacon Grantly, married to Lord Dumbello, mentioned briefly.

Giles Hoggett

minor

Also known as Giles, Hoggett

A labourer who gives Johnny Eames the motto 'It's dogged as does it'.

Siph Dunn

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Also known as Siph, Dunn

A young man from Guestwick who works as a clerk and is a friend of Johnny Eames.

Mrs. Baxter

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Also known as Baxter

The housekeeper at Mrs. Dobbs Broughton's London home.

Mrs. Draper

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A servant in the Crawley household at Hogglestock.

Mrs. Walker

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Also known as Walker

The wife of John Walker, a social figure in Silverbridge.

Maria Clutterbuck

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Also known as Maria, Polly

A young woman from the country who becomes involved with the Toogood family.

John Stringer

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Also known as Mr. Stringer, Stringer, Mr. John Stringer

A lawyer in London consulted by Mr. Toogood in the Crawley case.

Miss Annabella Prettyman

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Also known as Annabella, Miss Annabella

The younger Miss Prettyman who helps run the school in Silverbridge.

Mr. Thorne of Ullathorne

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Also known as Mr. Thorne, old Mr. Thorne

A country gentleman and relative of Mrs. Thorne, living at Ullathorne.

Mr. Oriel

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Also known as Mr. Oriel of Greshamsbury

A clergyman from Greshamsbury who appears briefly in the story.

Mrs. Boyce

minor

The wife of a clergyman in the Barchester area.

Jael

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Also known as Miss Van Jael

The Van Sievers' maid, a sharp-tongued servant who plays a role in the Hook Court tragedy.

Mr. Quiverful

minor

A poor clergyman with a large family, briefly mentioned in the Barchester context.

Dan Morris

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Also known as Morris, Dan

A man involved in the cheque theft subplot, associated with Dan Stringer.

Eleanor

minor

Also known as Aunt Nelly, aunt Nelly, Nelly

A relative of the Crawleys, mentioned in correspondence and family matters.

Fanny

minor

A servant or minor character in the household of Mrs. Dale.

Sisera

minor

Also known as Captain Sisera

A biblical reference used as a nickname for a character in the Hook Court subplot.

Dr. Filgrave

minor

Also known as Filgrave

A doctor in Barchester who attends to Mrs. Proudie in her final illness.

Polly Toogood

minor

Also known as Polly, Maria

A daughter of Mr. Toogood, a lively young woman in the Toogood household.

Mrs. Quiverful

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Also known as Quiverful

The wife of Mr. Quiverful, a poor clergyman with many children.

Mrs. Toogood

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Also known as Toogood

The wife of Thomas Toogood, a warm-hearted woman in London.

Mr. Fothergill

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Also known as Fothergill

A land agent associated with the Duke of Omnium's estates.

Mrs. Harold Smith

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Also known as Smith, Mrs. Smith, Harold Smith

A society lady in London, briefly appearing in social scenes.

Lady Amelia Gazebee

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Also known as Amelia

A daughter of the De Courcy family, married to Mr. Gazebee.

Jem Scuttle

minor

Also known as Jemima, poor Scuttle, Scuttle, Jem

A servant or labourer in the Hogglestock area.

Mr. Green

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Also known as Green

A minor character, possibly a tradesman or clerk in London.

Lady Hartletop

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Also known as Hartletop

A society figure mentioned in the London social circle.

Mr. Boyce

minor

A clergyman in the Barchester diocese, husband of Mrs. Boyce.

Mr. Sowerby

minor

Also known as poor old Sowerby, Sowerby, Mr. Sowerby of Chaldicotes

A former MP and landowner from Chaldicotes, now fallen on hard times.

Lucy Robarts

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Also known as Lucy

The sister of Mr. Robarts, married to Lord Lufton, mentioned briefly.

Mr. Summerkin

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Also known as Summerkin

A clerk in Sir Raffle Buffle's office, a colleague of Johnny Eames.

Farmer Mangle

minor

Also known as farmer Mangle

A farmer in the Hogglestock area who interacts with Mr. Crawley.

Mr. Mortimer Gazebee

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Also known as Mr. Gazebee, Mortimer Gazebee, Gazebee

A lawyer and husband of Lady Amelia, involved in the Crosbie subplot.