---
type: Person
title: George Wickham
description: A charming militia officer at Meryton whose account of his history with
  Mr. Darcy turns Elizabeth Bennet against him.
resource: raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt
tags:
- militia
- meryton
- hertfordshire
timestamp: '2026-07-16T18:15:29Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

George Wickham arrives in Meryton with his friend Mr. Denny and accepts a lieutenant's commission
in the militia regiment quartered there.[^s1] The narration describes him as having "all the best
parts of beauty, a fine countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing address."[^s1]
[Caroline Bingley](../persons/caroline-bingley.md) tells [Elizabeth Bennet](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md)
that Wickham is the son of the late Mr. Darcy's steward.[^s2]

**The following is Wickham's own account, told to Elizabeth; see the CONTRADICTION below for
[Fitzwilliam Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md)'s conflicting version, received later in this
segment.** Wickham says he and Darcy were raised together at [Pemberley](../misc/pemberley.md),
where his father managed the estate for the late Mr. Darcy and was "a most intimate, confidential
friend" of his; the late Mr. Darcy was Wickham's godfather and, shortly before his own death,
promised to provide for Wickham with a valuable church living.[^s3] Wickham claims that when the
living fell vacant, the present Mr. Darcy treated the bequest as merely conditional and gave it to
another man, which Wickham attributes to Darcy's jealousy of the late Mr. Darcy's fondness for him;
Wickham says he holds no ill will toward the elder Darcy's memory and will not expose the present
Darcy himself.[^s4] Wickham also says Darcy, though genuinely proud, is capable of liberality and
generosity, and is "a very kind and careful guardian" to his sister [Georgiana Darcy](../persons/georgiana-darcy.md),
of whom he says he was once very fond as a child.[^s5]

Elizabeth credits Wickham's account and tells Darcy directly that Wickham "has been so unlucky as
to lose your friendship."[^s6]

> [!CONTRADICTION]
> Wickham tells Elizabeth that Darcy denied him the promised living out of jealousy, leaving him
> uncompensated.[^s4] Darcy's letter to Elizabeth instead states that Wickham himself asked to
> exchange his claim to the living for money, "as he had finally resolved against taking orders,"
> and was paid three thousand pounds, formally resigning "all claim to assistance in the church";
> three years later, having spent the money, Wickham applied for the living anyway and Darcy
> refused him.[^s7]
>
> Resolution: Darcy's account is correct. He names Colonel Fitzwilliam — joint guardian of
> Georgiana Darcy and an executor of the elder Mr. Darcy's will — as a witness who can corroborate
> every particular;[^s8] and the rest of this segment bears out a consistent pattern of behaviour
> from Wickham rather than from Darcy — an attempted elopement with the underage, fortune-heavy
> Georgiana Darcy at Ramsgate,[^s9] an abrupt transfer of Wickham's attentions to the newly wealthy
> Mary King followed by retreat once she leaves the neighbourhood,[^s10] his evasive unease when
> asking Elizabeth about Darcy at their last meeting,[^s11] and, within days, his elopement with
> Lydia Bennet with no intention of marrying her.[^llm1]

## Elopement with Lydia Bennet

The ----shire militia relocates from Meryton to a camp near Brighton for the summer, and Wickham
goes with it.[^s12] There he and [Lydia Bennet](../persons/lydia-bennet.md), a guest of Colonel and
Mrs. Forster, elope together by night. Lydia's note to Mrs. Forster names their destination as
Gretna Green, but Mr. Denny — a fellow officer — tells Colonel Forster he believes Wickham never
meant to go there or to marry Lydia at all; Colonel Forster traces the pair only as far as Clapham,
where they leave their chaise for a hackney coach and vanish into London.[^s13] Wickham is
afterward found to have left considerable gaming debts in Brighton, which Colonel Forster reckons
at over a thousand pounds, on top of debts to Meryton tradesmen.[^s14] Meryton opinion, which three
months earlier had held him "almost an angel of light," now declares him "the wickedest young man
in the world."[^s15]

[Mr. Gardiner](../persons/mr-gardiner.md) locates the couple in London; Wickham and Lydia are not
married, but Mr. Gardiner reports that Wickham's circumstances "are not so hopeless as they are
generally believed to be."[^s16] Wickham agrees to marry Lydia for a settlement of one hundred
pounds a year during Mr. Bennet's life, plus an equal share, with the other Bennet daughters, of
the five thousand pounds settled on the family.[^s17] He resolves to quit the militia and obtains
an ensigncy in the Regulars, in a regiment quartered in the north.[^s18] Visiting Longbourn after
the wedding, Wickham shows no embarrassment: "his manners were always so pleasing, that, had his
character and his marriage been exactly what they ought,... [they] would have delighted them all,"
and he asks after his Meryton acquaintance with easy good humour.[^s19]

A letter from [Mrs. Gardiner](../persons/mrs-gardiner.md) to Elizabeth, received after the wedding,
reveals the true source of the settlement: it was [Fitzwilliam Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md),
not [Mr. Gardiner](../persons/mr-gardiner.md), who found the couple (through a Mrs. Younge, a former
governess of Georgiana's whom he had to bribe for the address), paid Wickham's debts — "considerably
more than a thousand pounds" — settled a further thousand pounds on Lydia besides her own share, and
purchased his commission.[^s20] Some days later, walking with Elizabeth near Longbourn, Wickham
still asks after [Pemberley](../misc/pemberley.md), the housekeeper Mrs. Reynolds, and the Kympton
living he "ought to have had," probing whether Elizabeth now knows the true history of the disputed
living; satisfied by her composed, evasive answers, "Mr. Wickham was so perfectly satisfied with
this conversation, that he never again distressed himself" on the subject.[^s21]

## See also

- [Fitzwilliam Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md)
- [Elizabeth Bennet](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md)
- [Meryton](../misc/meryton.md)
- [Pemberley](../misc/pemberley.md)
- [Georgiana Darcy](../persons/georgiana-darcy.md)
- [Lydia Bennet](../persons/lydia-bennet.md)
- [Mr. Gardiner](../persons/mr-gardiner.md)
- [Colonel Forster](../persons/colonel-forster.md)
- [Brighton](../misc/brighton.md)
- [Mrs. Gardiner](../persons/mrs-gardiner.md)

## Sources

[^s1]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 3350-3356 — Wickham's arrival and commission (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s2]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 4185-4189 — Caroline Bingley on Wickham's parentage (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s3]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 3673-3682; 3606-3612 — Wickham's account of his father and the late Mr. Darcy's promise, attributed to Wickham (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s4]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 3617-3630; 3641-3646; 3632-3634 — Wickham's account of the denied living, attributed to Wickham (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s5]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 3697-3705; 3709-3712 — Wickham's account of Darcy's pride and guardianship of Georgiana, attributed to Wickham (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s6]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 4082-4084 — Elizabeth tells Darcy he has lost Wickham's friendship (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s7]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 7883-7886; 7899-7901 — Darcy's letter on the £3,000 settlement and his refusal of Wickham's renewed claim (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s8]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 7940-7944 — Darcy offers Colonel Fitzwilliam's corroboration (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s9]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 7908-7930 — Darcy's letter on the Ramsgate elopement plot against Georgiana (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s10]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 8523-8524 — Lydia reports Wickham is no longer courting Mary King (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s11]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 9042-9049 — Wickham's uneasy questioning of Elizabeth about Darcy at their last meeting (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^llm1]: LLM - the letter's account is corroborated by an independent witness and matches Wickham's demonstrated pattern of fortune-seeking and evasion elsewhere in the text, while Wickham's account is contradicted by his own later conduct (added 2026-07-16)
[^s12]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), line 8500 — the ----shire militia's move to a camp near Brighton (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s13]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 10900-10909; 10299-10306 — Lydia's note naming Gretna Green and Colonel Forster's trace to Clapham (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s14]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 11133-11138 — Wickham's gaming debts in Brighton (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s15]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 11021-11024 — Meryton's reversed opinion of Wickham (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s16]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 11311-11313; 11324-11327 — Mr. Gardiner's letter on finding the couple unmarried (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s17]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 11316-11319 — the marriage settlement terms (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s18]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 11679-11681; 11688-11690 — Wickham quits the militia for an ensigncy in the Regulars (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s19]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 11786-11791; 11798-11799 — Wickham's easy manner visiting Longbourn as a married man (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s20]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 12013-12047; 12104-12107 — Mrs. Gardiner's letter revealing Darcy as the true source of the settlement (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s21]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 12219-12220; 12255-12292; 12313-12316 — Wickham's continued questions on the walk and his satisfaction with Elizabeth's answers (ingested 2026-07-16)
