Did You Know? Pioneering Victorian Writer Mary Anne Barker Was Born in Jamaica

On January 29, 1831, in Spanish Town, Jamaica, a future globetrotter, storyteller, and literary trailblazer was born. Her name was Mary Anne Barker, and although her fame would be forged far from the Caribbean, her story begins on Jamaican soil. Born Mary Anne Stewart into a British colonial family where her father Walter George Stewart was a senior colonial official at a time when Spanish Town was still the capital of Jamaica. Barker left Jamaica as a small child to be educated in England. Photograph of Mary Anne Barker and second husband Frederick Broome circa 1836.