The wealthy bachelor who rents Netherfield Park is Mr. Bingley, whose surname is Bingley.
Charles Bingley arrives in Hertfordshire after taking Netherfield Park, a rented estate near the Bennet family home at Longbourn. His arrival immediately excites Mrs. Bennet, who sees an eligible, wealthy bachelor as a possible husband for one of her five daughters. At the local assembly, Bingley is friendly and sociable, and he quickly develops an attachment to Jane Bennet, the eldest sister.
Bingley’s rented home also highlights an important contrast with his close friend Mr. Darcy. Bingley possesses considerable wealth, but his fortune comes from trade and he does not yet own a family estate. Darcy, by contrast, owns Pemberley, a long-established estate in Derbyshire. Austen uses this difference to explore the unstable boundary between money, inherited status, and the social idea of being a gentleman.
Readers sometimes confuse Bingley with Darcy because both men arrive together and are wealthy bachelors. Bingley is the cheerful, easily influenced friend; Darcy is the reserved landowner whose relationship with Elizabeth Bennet drives the main romance. Bingley eventually marries Jane.