Lady Dedlock

Lady Honoria Dedlock nee Honoria Barbery is a fictional character in Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House.

In her youth, Honoria was involved with a Captain James Hawdon, and engaged to him. But, after the sinking of one of his ships, Honoria believes him dead and marries Sir Leicester Dedlock. It is not until many years later, after reading a law document written in his handwriting that she realises he survived, only to discover that shortly after he wrote it, he died after smoking a large quantity of opium. And then, when Bleak House pays host to two new wards of Jarndyce, Honoria discovers that the child she had by him still lives. For one of the wards, Ada Clare, has a companion by the name of Esther Summerson. Esther is the lady's daughter. Honoria later finds that Esther has contracted smallpox and is on the verge of death, only to later find that she has lived. She meets her later at Chesney Wold, her own country home, where she finally tells Esther the truth. That she is her mother, and a dead sea captain by the nickname of Nemo, is her father. After that, Honoria forbids Esther to see her again, knowing that if Sir Leicester finds out about her, it will destroy him.

Mr. Tulkinghorn, Sir Leicester's lawyer, has now uncovered her secret, and tells her that if she leaves Chesney Wold, or dismisses her maid to despair her her shame, then he will think of a far worse punishment for her. She does anyway, and he warns her, but then, he is murdered, and after a man named Smallweed recovers her love letters, and is admitted to her house without her knowledge, she believes she is disgraced and her life is over. She leaves Sir Leicester, and travels to the pauper's graveyard where James is buried, dying at the gates, and later found by her daughter.

In the 2005 BBC adaptation of Bleak House, Lady Dedlock is played by Gillian Anderson.