# The Rector and The Doctor’s Family — Character guide

> Key figures in The Rector and The Doctor’s Family by Margaret Oliphant.

- [Nettie Underwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/nettie_underwood.md): Nettie Underwood storms into Carlingford as the sister-in-law nobody knew Fred Rider had, managing her feckless brother-in-law's household with sharp words and her own purse. Her alert, uncompromising spirit chafes again
- [Dr. Edward Rider](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/dr_edward_rider.md): Edward Rider is the hardworking physician whose bachelor house is invaded by the wife and children of his disreputable brother Fred, upending the careful respectability he has built. Pricked by wounded love and mortifica
- [Fred Rider](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/fred_rider.md): Fred Rider is the shameful shadow in Dr. Edward's house—a man for whom hope and life are dead, lying abed while his brother's practice and patience fray around him. His abandoned wife Susan and her formidable sister Nett
- [The Rector](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/the_rector.md): The Rector, Morley, has returned to Carlingford from the learned Elysium of All Souls to find his parish expecting a shepherd he no longer knows how to be. He is honest to a fault, so free from vanity that he cannot even
- [Susan Rider](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/susan_rider.md): Susan Rider arrives in Carlingford faded and anxious, leaning on her forceful sister Nettie even as she clings to the hope of her husband Fred. She is the passive, fretful counterweight to Nettie's energy—fanned and peev
- [Miss Wodehouse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/miss_wodehouse.md): Miss Wodehouse has drifted through a soft life in Grange Lane, content to love her sister Lucy and never take a decided part in anything, so that when action is required she is inexpert and deeply embarrassed. Nettie's s
- [Lucy Wodehouse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/lucy_wodehouse.md): Lucy belongs to the Wodehouse family circle that orbits the rector's parish, and her brisk capability is constantly measured against her sister's flustered goodness. Where the rector once fretted over imagined matrimonia
- [Mr. Wodehouse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/mr_wodehouse.md): A gentleman of Carlingford, father of Lucy and Miss Wodehouse.
- [Mr. Proctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/mr_proctor.md): A local clergyman and colleague of the rector.
- [Mrs. Proctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/old_mrs_proctor.md): The elderly mother of Mr. Proctor, living in Carlingford.
- [Morley Proctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/morley_proctor.md): A young clergyman, son of Mr. Proctor.
- [Mr. Wentworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/mr_wentworth.md): Wentworth is the young minister whose active presence in Carlingford unsettles the rector's comfortable tenure and provokes Mrs. Proctor's lively indignation. He is not presumptuous so much as genuinely useful, and that 
- [Richard Chatham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/richard_chatham.md): A local man whose sudden appearance stirs up the community.
- [Bessie Christian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/bessie_christian.md): A young woman connected to the Rider family circle.
- [Mrs. Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/mrs_smith.md): A local woman, often mentioned in the community's gossip.
- [Dr. Marjoribanks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/dr_marjoribanks.md): A senior doctor in Carlingford, a colleague of young Dr. Rider.
- [The Bushman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/the_bushman.md): A mysterious figure from abroad who appears briefly.

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