Mr. Thorndyke is the Episcopalian pastor who appears at the Mallisons' house with three other (unnamed) pastors - a Methodist, a Baptist, and a Presbyterian - to ask Gavin about the plans for Eula's memorial service. Gavin accuses them of having been "sent by a lot of damned old women of both sexes, including none," people in the town who are anxious about burying Eula's story as well as her body; Gavin calls them all "Doctor" (359).
Along with the Episcopalian minister Mr. Thorndyke, these three "pastors" - identified as "the Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian" - call on Gavin Stevens at the request of their congregations to offer Gavin their assistance with Eula's memorial service. Gavin calls them all "Doctor" (359), but in the distribution of names Charles' narration clearly distinguishes between the Episcopalian and the other three; Charles calls Thorndyke as "our" pastor - i.e. his family goes to the Episcopal church, throughout Faulkner's fictions the church where the upper class worships (358).
An Oxford, Mississippi, lawyer with whom Linda consults while attending the University of Mississippi. At her request, he devises a "contingency" by which Linda stipulates that Flem Snopes should receive any inheritance she is left by her mother. "He was very nice," Linda says (342). Oxford resident Phil Stone, four years' senior to William Faulkner, served as the young writer's friend, mentor, and advocate as he began his career. Stone and Faulkner first developed "Snopes stories" to make fun of certain parvenu families of Lafayette County.
Along with Vladimir Kyrilytch Ratcliffe, "old Doctor Habersham . . . and Louis Grenier," Alexander Holston was one of the founders of Jefferson (338). In other texts he is identified as the founder of the Holston Hotel, a business which survives into the 20th century.
