Mary Seacole’s was born in Kingston, Jamaica. Her mother, Mrs Grant was of African heritage and her father was a Scottish army officer. Mrs Grant was a respected 'doctress' who like many Jamaican women practiced Creole or Afro-Caribbean medicine. Mary learnt with enthusiasm from her mother and by the age of twelve she was helping her mother to look after patients. Among her patients were many British Army and Navy officers and their families.

In 1836, Mary married Horatio Edwin Seacole and settled at Black River in Jamaica. She soon established herself as a ‘doctress’ to the local British garrison. In 1850 cholera swept Jamaica. In her autobiography Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, Mary describes having “too many opportunities of watching its nature, and from a Dr B, who was then lodging in my house, received many hints as to its treatment which I afterwards found invaluable.”