Mary Anne Barker, Lady Barker (29 January 1831 – 6 March 1911), later Mary Anne Broome, Lady Broome, was an English author. She wrote mainly about life in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Biography

Grave of Frederick Broome in Highgate Cemetery

Born Mary Anne Stewart in

Spanish Town Spanish Town (Jamaican Patois: Spain) is the capital and the largest town in the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of St. Catherine, Jamaica, St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica, Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and Briti ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

, she was the eldest daughter of Walter Steward, Island Secretary of

. She was educated in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, and in 1852 married Captain George Robert Barker of the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

, with whom she had two children. When Barker was knighted for his leadership at the

Siege of Lucknow The siege of Lucknow was the prolonged defence of the British The Residency, Lucknow, Residency within the city of Lucknow from rebel sepoys (Indian soldiers in the British East India Company's Army) during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. After ...

in 1857, Mary Anne became "Lady Barker". Eight months later Barker died. On 21 June 1865, Mary Anne Barker married Frederick Napier Broome. The couple then sailed for

, leaving her two children in England. The couple's first child was born in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

in February 1866, but died in May. By this time, they had moved to the

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

''Steventon'', which Broome had partnered with H. P. Hill to buy. They remained there for three years; they lost more than half their sheep in the winter of 1867, and in response Broome sold out and the couple returned to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Both Mary Anne and her husband then became journalists. Still calling herself "Lady Barker", Mary Anne Broome became a correspondent for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' and published two books of verse: ''Poems from New Zealand'' (1868) and ''The Stranger from Seriphos'' (1869). In 1870, she published ''Station Life in New Zealand'', a collection of her letters home. The book was successful, going through several editions and being translated into French and German. She commented that : ''The common saying in New Zealand is, that people only die from drowning and drunkenness. I am afraid that the former is generally the result of the latter.'' Over the next eight years, Lady Barker wrote ten more books, includin
''A Christmas Cake in Four Quarters''
(1871), a sequel to ''Station Life'' entitled ''Station Amusements in New Zealand'' (1873), and ''First Lessons in the Principles of Cooking'' (1874). This last title led to her being appointed Lady Superintendent of the National Training School of Cooking in

South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...

. When Frederick Broome was appointed Colonial Secretary of Natal in 1875, Lady Barker accompanied him there. Broome's subsequent colonial appointments had him travelling to

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

, and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

. Drawing on these experiences, Lady Barker published ''A Year's Housekeeping in South Africa'' (1877) and ''Letters to Guy'' (1885). Frederick Broome was knighted on 3 July 1884, and thereafter Mary Anne called herself "Lady Broome". She published the last of her 22 books, ''Colonial Memories'' under this name. After Sir Frederick Broome's death in 1896, Lady Broome returned to

, dying there on 6 March 1911. She is buried with her husband Frederick on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...

Works

*''Station Life in New Zealand'' (Whitcomb and Tombs, 1870, reprinted 1950)Jarndyce Catalogue CCXLIX, Travellers. Spring 2021. . *''Station Amusements in New Zealand'' (1873) *''A Year's Housekeeping in South Africa'' (Macmillan, 1877) *''The Bedroom and Boudoir'' (1878)

References

* * * * *
Lady Barker (as writer) on Canterbury Library websiteLady Barker (as pioneer) on Canterbury Library website

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Mary Anne 1831 births 1911 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Jamaican non-fiction writers Jamaican women writers 19th-century Australian diarists 19th-century Australian women writers 19th-century English writers English women diarists 19th-century New Zealand writers 19th-century New Zealand women writers 19th-century Jamaican writers

Biography

Works

References

Further reading

External links