Heritage

Lady Barker and Station Life in Canterbury

Lady BarkerMary Anne Barker

Born: between 1830 - 1832, in Spanish Town, Jamaica

Died: 6 March 1911 in London, England

Life and Achievements

  • Mary Anne Stewart was sent back to England from Jamaica aged 2.
  • About 1852 she married George Robert Barker, an officer who was knighted in 1859 for his military service in India.
  • Lady Barker went to Bengal with her husband in 1860 but in July 1861 he died.
  • She returned to England and married Frederick Napier Broome in June 1865.
  • Frederick Broome was 11 years younger than Lady Barker, and had immigrated to New Zealand when he was 15 years old. He met Lady Barker on a visit to England in 1864 and persuaded her to leave her two sons in England and travel with him to New Zealand.
  • They arrived at Lyttelton in October 1865, and Broome and his partner bought Steventon, a sheep run of 9,700 acres on the Selwyn River.
  • Mary Anne (or Lady Barker as she still called herself) spent her time writing in the morning and involving herself in the outdoor life of the station.
  • After the great snowstorm of 1867 when they lost 4,000 out of 7,000 sheep, Frederick sold his interest in Steventon and returned with Lady Barker to England in December 1868.
  • In 1870 Lady Barker published Station life in New Zealand, based on the letters she had sent home to her young sister, Jessie. It described life in Canterbury, from problems in housekeeping and entertaining visitors on the station, to travel on horseback and hunting wild cattle, and was a big success.
  • In 1873 she published a sequel, Station amusements in New Zealand, which provided would-be settlers with information on buying land, coping with servants, and other problems.
  • Lady Barker continued to write, including stories for children, and a cookery book based on her skills learnt in New Zealand.
  • She also continued to travel, spending time in South Africa, Mauritius, Western Australia (where her husband Frederick was Governor), and Trinidad, and writing books based on her experiences.
  • After Frederick was knighted in 1884, Lady Barker changed her name to Lady Broome.
  • After her husband's death in 1896 Lady Broome returned to England where she died on 6 March 1911, in London.
  • Lady Barker's writing told people of the time in England of life in New Zealand. It also left a record of the difficulties experienced by the early settlers in Canterbury.

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Further Reading