Mary Boucher Clarke, was from a family of early English settlers (sugar cane farmers) in the West Indies. She was born in Soufriere, St Lucia. Her father, Thomas, worked as a customs official in Barbados. Thomas' mother, Ann Walcott Pile, was from one of the main land owning families in Barbados where the main industry was sugar growing.

They were known to be on St Lucia in 1837 for the birth of their youngest child, were recorded in London for the 1841 census, and arrived in Sydney NSW at the end of that year. 5 generations of Thomas Clarke's ancestral line are recorded on Barbados back to the marriage in 1684 of John Clarke to Mary Glascock in the parish of St Philip.

[Source: personal communication from Bill Connolly, a descendant.]