Mr Scarborough's Family is a novel by Anthony Trollope. It was published in volume form in 1883.
One Mr Scarborough,
is a wealthy owner of Tretton Park in Staffordshire. The trouble is he is dying, and his irresponsible eldest son,
Mountjoy, has squandered almost all his inheritance to the tune of their estate.
Mr Scarborough expresses his disappointment with Mountjoy and to avoid debt-claims, he declares to Mountjoy's creditors that Mountjoy is his illegitimate son, since he only married his wife before the birth of Augustus, th e second son, making the callous Agustus the heir apparent. Obviously Mr Scarborough and his family has no respect for the law and would go through lengths to manipulate anything and anyone, to their ends.
Harry Annesley, son of a Hertfordshire clergyman and heir to his uncle Peter Prosper, is in love with Florence, Mr Scarborough's niece. The mother of Florence wants her to marry Mountjoy but Florence loves Harry and tells Mountjoy about it. Mountjoy and Harry had a drunken brawl that leaves Mountjoy sprawled on the street. Mysteriously he disappears the next day. When the
police inquires, Harry fails to help when the police inquires. Augustus, taking advantage of the situation, tell the men of law that Harry is lying and was the last person to see mountjoy alive. Mr Prosper promptly disinherits Harry.
The novel is enlivened by the characters of Mr. Grey, Mr Scarborough's gentle, long-suffering attorney, and his daughter, Dolly, who dotes on her father and refuses to marry because the men she meets cannot compare to her father.