# The Perpetual Curate — Character guide

> Key figures in The Perpetual Curate by Margaret Oliphant.

- [Frank Wentworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/frank_wentworth.md): Frank Wentworth is a young clergyman whose missionary work in Wharfside — technically another man's parish — makes him enemies among Carlingford's Evangelicals and his own formidable aunts. He loves Lucy Wodehouse, but a
- [Lucy Wodehouse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/lucy_wodehouse.md): Lucy Wodehouse is the sister of the Wodehouse household and the Curate's unacknowledged partner in the Wharfside district, so familiar to its people that they treat her as his stand-in. When Frank's absence leaves her to
- [Leonora Wentworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/leonora_wentworth.md): Miss Leonora Wentworth presides over the family's Evangelical conscience from Skelmersdale Park, disapproving of Frank's ritualist tendencies yet coveting the credit of his missionary success in Wharfside. She wants him 
- [Dora Wentworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/dora_wentworth.md): Miss Dora Wentworth lives in her sister Leonora's shadow, a timid lady who regards walking alone down a quiet street as an invitation to unheard-of perils. Her clandestine visit to Frank's lodgings — the only adventure o
- [Jack Wentworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/jack_wentworth.md): Jack Wentworth arrives in Carlingford with the suavity of a man who has never had to answer for anything, breakfasting well and declining to inquire too closely into the business that concerns his brother. He is the shad
- [Rosa Elsworthy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/rosa_elsworthy.md): Rosa Elsworthy is the daughter of St. Roque's clerk, a child whose beauty and heedlessness have drawn the Curate's warnings and her father's furious, wounded pride. Her name becomes a weapon in Elsworthy's hands when he 
- [Mrs. Morgan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/mrs_morgan.md): The wife of Mr. Morgan, a troubled woman in the parish.
- [Mr. Proctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/mr_proctor.md): A parishioner and friend of Frank, often in financial difficulty.
- [Mr. Morgan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/mr_morgan.md): A local man involved in parish affairs, husband to Mrs. Morgan.
- [Gerald Wentworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/gerald_wentworth.md): Gerald Wentworth is the elder son who chose the safe path — a wife, a living, a respectable clerical career — while his younger brother Frank scrapes by as a Perpetual Curate. Imaginative and warm, he has a gift for shak
- [Mr. Wodehouse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/mr_wodehouse.md): Mr. Wodehouse hovers at the edge of Wharfside society as Lucy's father — feckless, shabby, and easy to patronise, kept in breakfasts and small kindnesses by a Curate who cannot quite despise him. When a mystery threatens
- [Mr. Elsworthy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/elsworthy.md): Rosa's father, a tradesman concerned with his daughter's reputation.
- [Louisa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/louisa.md): A servant or dependent in the Wentworth household, often pitied.
- [Mrs. Hadwin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/mrs_hadwin.md): Frank's landlady, a kindly but anxious woman.
- [Tom Wodehouse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/tom_wodehouse.md): Lucy's brother, a young man with his own romantic entanglements.
- [Sarah](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/sarah.md): A maid in the Wodehouse household, often flustered.
- [Sophia Hemmings](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/sophia_hemmings.md): One of the Miss Hemmings, a local spinster with opinions.
- [Mr. Leeson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/mr_lesson.md): A curate and rival to Frank, often unhappy in his position.
- [Mr. Waters](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/mr_waters.md): A local clergyman or parish figure.
- [John Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/john_brown.md): A stern figure, possibly a tradesman or official.
- [Mrs. Elsworthy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/mrs_elsworthy.md): Rosa's mother, concerned with family honor.
- [Cecilia Wentworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/cecilia_wentworth.md): Another Wentworth aunt, less prominent than Leonora and Dora.
- [Dr. Marjoribanks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/dr_marjoribanks.md): A local physician, attending to various characters.
- [Tom Burrows](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_perpetual_curate_se/characters/tom_burrows.md): A young man, possibly a suitor or laborer.

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