Barnaby Rudge
Barnaby seems like an unlikely protagonist, and an equally unlikely choice to be the eponymous character of a novel. He is intellectually challenged, a simpleton; in the literal sense he is the village idiot, wandering through the background of the story and taken advantage of by others who sees his gullibility as a way to achieve their own ends. He is a hard working young man who makes up for his lack of brainpower with brawn. He is offered a job working on the farm at the Maypole Inn at the end of the novel.
Barnaby experiences some traumatic events; he is captured and locked up at Newgate Gaol. He is freed, but his life is in danger when the rioters burn Newgate to the ground. He is tried, found guilty and subsequently pardoned.
Mary Rudge
A very protective mother, Mrs Rudge makes her son her priority. She takes him to the country when a stranger seems to be stalking them, and brings him back to Chigwell again when the man catches up with them. She tries to prevent him from getting involved with the rioters but is unable to. She is loyal and always willing to see the best in her son.
Old John Willet
John Willet is the owner and proprietor of the Maypole Inn. He is the popular host of many an evening of revelry and likes to be involved with everything that goes on in the village. He is an overbearing father and treats his son, Joe, as a child, even though he is a grown man. This only serves to drive him away.
Joe Willets
A kindly man, Joe is extremely frustrated by the way in which he is treated by his father. He does not feel respected as an equal, and because of this leaves home to go into the military. He returns five years later and emerges the hero.
Gabriel Varden
A locksmith is a handy friend to have when trying to bust someone out of jail. Varden, not being a friend to any of the rioters, nonetheless finds himself in demand, and he is "kidnapped" and taken prisoner by them because they want him to use his talents as a locksmith to break into Newgate so that they can free the imprisoned rioters. He refuses to do so. Varden is father to one of the most beautiful young women in the village, Dolly.
Geoffrey Haredale
Haredale is the owner of The Warren, a large stately home that was previously owned by his older brother, Reuben, who was murdered. He is also the guardian of his niece, Emma Haredale, and takes his responsibilities to her very seriously. Haredale is a Catholic, and therefore the object of the ire of the rioters, and much of the village. He disapproves of the union of Edward Chester and his niece because of his religious differences between himself and Edward's father. The two men never put their differences aside, and ultimately Haredale kills Chester in a duel.
Haredale manages to find and unmask the mysterious stranger stalking the Rudges and in doing so inadvertently manages to solve the murder of his older brother.
Reuben Haredale
Although he is only mentioned in the novel by other characters, Reuben is an important character because the anniversary of his murder is noted twice in the novel as the reference point of all of the other events. He is murdered by his steward, who turns out to be Barnaby Rudge Senior.
Emma Haredale
Emma is Reuben's daughter, and Geoffrey's niece. She is in love with Edward Chester but the union is prevented by Edward's manipulative father. The two ultimately end up marrying and making a new life for themselves in the West Indies.
John Chester
Chester is a manipulative and conniving man; no surprise, then, that he goes into politics, and between the first chapters of the book, and those set five years later, he has become a Member of Parliament. He disapproves of his son's relationship with Emma Haredale, ostensibly because the Haredales are Catholics, for whom he has great loathing, but the real reason for his putting a stop to the relationship is that he wants his son to marry an heiress so that he can support him, and pay off his debts. He is killed at the end of the novel in a duel with Geoffrey Haredale.
Edward Chester
Edward is in love with Emma Haredale. He is nothing like his father; in fact they could not be more opposite in personality and in moral standards. Edward is an upstanding, gentle and kindly man. At the end of the book he and Emma marry and begin a new life in the West Indies.
Barnaby Rudge Senior
Many characters in the book- mysterious stranger, steward, gardener - Rudge Senior turns out to be the man following the Rudges about London, the one-time steward at the Haredale home, and the murderer of Reuben Haredale. After murdering Reuben he killed the gardener and then switched clothing with his body so that everyone would believe him to be dead, and the gardener to be the perpetrator. He is convicted of murder at the end of the book.
