Character guide

Davy Llewellyn

major

Also known as David Llewellyn, old Davy, Fisherman Davy, Davy, Llewellyn, David

A poor, proud fisherman with a navy coat and a cottage he'd match against any castle, who hauls an orphan girl off the shore and talks himself into keeping her.

Bardie

major

Also known as little Bardie, Miss Bardie, poor Bardie, pretty Bardie, ickle Bardie

A tiny, imperious castaway whose lisping demands and highborn manners bewilder the fisherfolk who rescue her, and whose grey eyes carry more sorrow than any child's should.

Sir Philip Bampfylde

major

Also known as Sir Philip, Philip Bampfylde, poor Sir Philip, old Sir Philip, Squire Philip

A wealthy squire and magistrate whose family, lands, and name sit at the center of the county's tangled affairs, and whose interest in a certain foundling changes everything.

Parson Chowne

major

Also known as the Parson Chowne, Chowne, brother Chowne, vile Parson Chowne

A black-tempered clergyman who rides his horses to ruin, keeps a groom in terror, and schemes after money and beauty with a vengeance that never sleeps.

Bunny

supporting

Also known as little Bunny, poor Bunny, dear Bunny, The lowborn Bunny

Davy's warmhearted, simple daughter, who mothers the strange little castaway with a handkerchief and a lap, then learns to stand aside for higher breeding.

Captain Rodney Bluett

supporting

Also known as Rodney, young Rodney, the Honourable Rodney Bluett, Captain Bluett, Lieutenant Bluett

A young naval lieutenant of good family and easy manners, who dines at the captain's table and finds his future tangled with a girl from the shore.

Captain Drake Bampfylde

supporting

Also known as Drake, Captain Drake, young Drake, Drake Bampfylde, Commodore Sir Drake Bampfylde

Drake Bampfylde commands the seventy-four-gun Bellona, where he dines his officers on Christmas Day and runs a tight, cheerful ship. He is decisive but open to counsel, asking Davy's opinion only after settling his own, and he handles a cargo of awkward landsmen with salt-water cures and grim humor. His return from sea promises both prize-money and complications for the shore-bound world of Sker.

Hezekiah Perkins

supporting

Also known as brother Hezekiah, crafty Perkins, dirty Hezekiah, Perkins

Hezekiah Perkins serves as Parson Chowne's eyes and ears, a man whose nasty face and filthy dandling of children mark him as thoroughly untrustworthy. When he steals little Bardie out to show her the baby-corpse, Davy's fury nearly breaks him, yet he survives to inform on others. His petty cruelties and appetite for gain make him a persistent low-level menace throughout the early unraveling of the wreck.

Colonel Lougher

supporting

Also known as the Colonel, mild Colonel Lougher, the good Colonel Lougher, Lougher

Colonel Lougher is the mild, deliberate gentleman whose instinct is to see to the bottom of things before rushing in, unlike his quicker sister Lady Bluett. He initially takes Bardie for a Kenfig nobody, but her pretty manners and fluent toast to his birthday force him to confess his error and delight in her. His fairness and standing make him a natural protector for the child and a quiet counterweight to the rougher powers around Sker.

Watkin Thomas

supporting

Also known as Watkin, young Watkin, boy Watkin, poor Watkin, little Tom tailor

Watkin Thomas is the farmer's son who befriends little Bardie on the sands, carving the dolls that sit in her sand-chair and later plunging in to save her when she runs after Patty Green. He is poor, pale, and dutiful, left to mind five dead young men at the inquest while his father cannot bear to look. His small heroisms and steady kindness anchor Bardie's new life among the Thomases and earn him a shilling and a place in her story.

Miss Delushy

supporting

Also known as Delushy, delicious Delushy, This Delushy

Miss Delushy, whose name is a corruption of Andalusia, is the one woman of superior mind Davy has ever encountered, and she has taken good care never to acquire a husband. She attaches herself to Davy with jealous possessiveness, pouring out a flood of news about Patty Green, Watty, and the sheepdog Dutch. Her gossip and her written document give Davy leverage against Sker-house, making her a sly, self-interested ally in the tangle of village intrigue.

Parson Jack Rambone

supporting

Also known as Rambone, Parson Rambone, poor Parson Jack, the Reverend John Rambone

Parson Jack Rambone, the Reverend John Rambone, is a clergyman whose lineage may outrank Chowne's but whose conduct does not, keeping a spy at the back of the premises and haggling over guineas and dog-whistles. He employs Davy at three half-crowns a week and grants him a hayloft, all while assuming the worst of his motives. His shabby respectability and subservience to Chowne show how thoroughly the neighborhood's moral authority has been compromised.

Evan Thomas

supporting

Also known as Evan, black Evan, honest black Evan, poor black Evan, Evan Black

Evan Thomas belongs to the labouring community around Sker, a man whose presence in his own house is invoked by his wife as a guarantee of honesty when strangers knock at night. He is an 'outrageous man to eat' when drunk, and his household runs on his appetites and his wife's low spirits. The child Bardie is brought into his home, and his fireside becomes the first shelter she knows ashore.

Master Roger Berkrolles

supporting

Also known as Roger, Berkrolles, Master Berkrolles, old Mr. Berkrolles, That good old Roger

Master Berkrolles is a man of too much mind for joking, trusted enough to hold Davy Llewellyn's saved wages and to speak plainly about what the child Bunny will need if her protector is lost at sea. He answers her piercing question about charity with a kindness that reconciles her to her pride, even as she insists she would rather have a home. His steady moral presence gives the story its conscience and gives Bardie her first taste of being treated as an equal.

Lady Bluett

supporting

Also known as the Lady Bluett

Lady Bluett moves easily among children and knows exactly how to unlock the heart of innocence, inviting dolls to tea and listening to their histories until the castaway dines in good society for the first time. She orders a bottle of the choicest wine for the Colonel's birthday and tips a drop into the child's glass, drawing out the little one's fluent opinions. Her easy condescension marks the social distance Bardie must navigate, and her approval helps the child's worth register among her betters.

Moxy Thomas

supporting

Also known as Moxy, Poor Moxy, darling Moxy

Moxy Thomas keeps a house frayed with cobwebs and corners a navy man would be rope-ended for, yet she is shaped by nature for a thoroughly good and lively woman, and her slow step and sharp Welsh challenge at the latch give way at once to tenderness. She snatches the sea-child from Davy's arms, guesses its origin, and talks full gallop while feeding it bread and butter by the fire. Her warmth makes the Thomas household the child's first real home, and her old understanding with Davy gives their shared care of Bardie its quiet emotional weight.

Sandy Macraw

supporting

Also known as Sandy, Mr. Macraw, Macraw, old Sandy, Alexander Macraw

Sandy Macraw is a seafaring companion of Davy Llewellyn, a man whose past gives his silent judgements unusual force. When he fixes Davy with a gaze of pity mingled with contempt, the narrator finds himself all abroad about everything, unable to read what the Scot knows or means. His presence shadows the story's middle stretch, a reminder that the sea and its men carry histories that landbound folk cannot guess.

Miss Isabel Carey

supporting

Also known as that fine Miss Carey, Isabel, the fair Isabel, Bell, the Honourable Isabel Carey

Miss Isabel Carey is the Honourable Isabel, a woman of superior mind whom the narrator claims to have carefully kept clear of, and whose thrice-disappointed history makes her a wary judge of men. She is courted by Captain Drake Bampfylde, and her beauty and reserve make her a figure of both desire and caution in the society around Sker. Her presence sharpens the story's questions about who is worthy of trust, and her choices ripple through the fortunes of those who watch her.

Dyo

supporting

Also known as dear Dyo, honest Dyo, old Dyo

Dyo is the steady friend Evan Llewellyn calls on when thieves from Kenfig threaten the shore, trusted to fetch the loaded gun from the clock-case and rally the boys. He loves a keg of rum, as his master teases him, yet only within the bounds of honesty and sobriety, and he knows when a drunken squire's wagging gun means it is time to step out of range. His quiet reliability anchors the wreck-and-salvage world of Sker, and his errands carry the reader into the dangers of the warren.

Master Heaviside

supporting

Also known as Heaviside, Mr. Heaviside, poor Heaviside, Naval Instructor Heaviside

Heaviside is a seaman-schoolmaster who has set up a snug cabin in Davy's old ferryboat on the Tawe's brink, a retreat from the bosom of his family. Seduced into rapid matrimony with the sharp Nanette, he has six children and fears a seventh, and his old shipmates Jerry and Davy can only sigh over his luck. As Bardie's instructor he ties the salt-water world of the novel to the drawing-room, and his rueful marriage is a running caution against the temptations of shore.

Justice Anthony Stew

supporting

Also known as Anthony Stew, Stew, Justice Stew, Pen Coed, Squire Stew

Squire Stew arrives at Davy's own house with Sir Philip, seated on the best chairs, and reopens the fish-selling and poaching questions Davy thought settled. He distrusts truth unless it comes out to his own corkscrew, and his contempt for the fisherman is personal, studied, and relentless. His presence turns a peaceful errand into a test of Davy's wit and temper, and his feud with the narrator colors every local encounter in the early chapters.

Captain Fuzzy

supporting

Also known as Fuzzy, old Fuzzy, alias Fuzzy

Captain Fuzzy moves through the coves and sandhills where wreckers, smugglers, and revenue men trade favors and suspicions. He aids Davy in the tangled business of the shore, and his alias suggests a man who has learned to keep his true name, like his cargo, out of sight. His presence keeps the novel's coastal economy of risk and loyalty alive, and his help is the kind a fisherman accepts without asking too many questions.

Marly Mary

supporting

Also known as Polly, poor Polly, Mary

Marly Mary, called Polly by the household, is one of the women who tends Bardie in the lonely house at Sker, and she clings to the child with a fierce, unthanked devotion. Thrice disappointed and careful never to have a husband, she is the only woman of superior mind Davy claims to have met, and her plain truths cut through the talk around her. Her care for Bardie, and Bardie's for her, gives the novel its warmest thread of makeshift family.

Mr. Jack Wildman

supporting

Also known as Jack Wildman, poor Jack, Jack

Jack Wildman lies on his deathbed off Egypt, gasping out his last words between draughts of brandy and water, with Cannibals Dick and Joe nodding confirmation. Taken from a race of naked people living in holes at Nympton, he was clothed, taught to kill, and haunted ever since by an evil thing he witnessed as a boy at a masked ball by the river. His dying deposition plants a mystery that reaches back into the English countryside and forward into the novel's central secrets.

Jerry Toms

minor

Also known as old Jerry Toms, Jerry, Coxswain Toms

A coxswain and sailor acquaintance.

Bang

minor

A dog owned by Davy.

Mother Jones

minor

Also known as mother Jones, Mrs. Jones

An elderly woman who helps care for Bardie.

Nanette

minor

Also known as Nanny Gotobed, that Nanette

A nursemaid to Bardie.

Crowner Bowles

minor

The local coroner.

Isaac Hutchings

minor

Also known as old Ike, Ike, Ikey

An old fisherman and friend of Davy.

Mr. Crumpy

minor

Also known as Crumpy, Old Crumpy

A local tradesman.

Snap

minor

Also known as poor Snap, little Snap

A dog owned by Davy.

Captain Foley

minor

Also known as Foley, our noble Captain Foley

A naval captain under whom Drake serves.

Harry Savage

minor

Also known as Harry, young Harry Savage, poor Harry, Henry

A young man and acquaintance of the Bampfyldes.

Master Stoyle Chowne

minor

Also known as Master Chowne, Stoyle, the Reverend Stoyle Chowne

Parson Chowne's son.

Captain Bethel Jose

minor

Also known as Bethel Jose, Captain Jose

A sea captain and acquaintance.

Polly Cockhanterbury

minor

Also known as Polly, sweet Polly

A young woman and acquaintance.

Captain Vellacott

minor

Also known as Vellacott

A sea captain.

Felix Farley

minor

Also known as the celebrated Felix Farley

A newspaper editor mentioned in the story.

Dick

minor

Also known as Cannibals Dick, Cannibal Dick, Darling Dick

A sailor and cannibal encountered during voyages.

Patty Geen

minor

Also known as Patty, poor Patty

A local woman and acquaintance of Davy.

Hepzibah

minor

Also known as greasy Hepzibah

A servant in the Bampfylde household.

Susan Shapland

minor

Also known as Susan, poor Susan

A young woman and friend of Bardie.

Watty

minor

Also known as poor Watty

A young boy and friend to Davy.

Jack Ketch

minor

Also known as Ketch

The hangman, mentioned in a legal context.

Master Charles Morgan

minor

Also known as Charles, Charley

A young man and acquaintance of the Bampfyldes.

Cannibal Jack

minor

Also known as Jack

A cannibal encountered during sea voyages.

Parson Chouane

minor

Also known as Chouane

An alternate spelling or variant of Parson Chowne.

Joe Thorne

minor

Also known as young Joe Thorne

A young man involved in local events.

Lady Bampfylde

minor

Sir Philip's wife.

Eleanor

minor

A woman mentioned in passing.

Lord Pomeroy

minor

A nobleman mentioned in the story.

Captain Wells

minor

A naval captain.

Yatkin

minor

A minor character, possibly a variant of Watkin.

Miss Bertha

minor

Also known as Bertha

A young woman.

Martha ap Rees

minor

Also known as Rees, Martha, Little Martha

A child and acquaintance.

Father David

minor

Also known as poor Father Davy

A priest mentioned in the story.

Mrs. Shapland

minor

Also known as Mr. and Mrs. Shapland

Susan Shapland's mother.

Mr. Lewis

minor

Also known as Lewis

A local man.

Dolly

minor

Also known as the Dolly

A boat or ship mentioned in the story.

Mrs. Chowne

minor

Also known as no Mrs. Chowne

Parson Chowne's wife, mentioned but not appearing.

Mr. Jehoshaphat

minor

Also known as Jehoshaphat

A minor character.

Churchwarden Morgan

minor

Also known as Churchwarden

A churchwarden.

Ben Bower

minor

Also known as old Ben Bower, Ben

An old man.

Ness

minor

A place name used as a character reference.

Mrs. Stew

minor

Justice Stew's wife.

Parson Lougher

minor

A clergyman, possibly related to Colonel Lougher.

Griffy

minor

A minor character.

Stradling Williams

minor

A minor character.

Simon Edwards

minor

Also known as Simon

A minor character.

Pincher

minor

A dog.

Tush

minor

An exclamation used as a character name.

Mrs. Morgan

minor

A minor character.

Miss Andalusia

minor

Also known as Andalusia

A young woman.

Tom Faggus

minor

A minor character, possibly a historical reference.