Bathsheba Everdene, fictional character, heroine of the pastoral novel Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) by Thomas Hardy. Bathsheba, the owner of a small farm, has several suitors: the abusive ne’er-do-well Sergeant Francis Troy, whom she marries; William Boldwood, a neighbouring farmer who kills Troy; and Gabriel Oak, a shepherd who truly loves her and becomes her second husband.