the enigma of an English “spy”

Although she was born in London, many called her Doña Clara. She was a beautiful woman, owner of the inn that was on Fuerte Street. When she was young, Mary Clarke was accused in 1797 of having stolen some fabrics from a London shop.

They sent her to the feared English prisons. The court sentenced her to death by hanging. Her charms convinced a judge, who took pity on her and changed the death penalty to a conviction in Australia. She was embarked on the frigate Lady Shore along with other inmates.

The legend says that Mary fell in love with the captain and at the height of Rio de Janeiro he participated in a mutiny. which ended the captain’s life and imposed a new destiny on the ship. The Lady Shore was now sailing towards Montevideo.

When they disembarked, Mary claimed to be married to a certain Lochar, a Swiss of German origin who was accused of being the material author of the murder of the ship’s captain and of throwing him overboard.

The Spanish authorities in Montevideo distrusted his story. It is not known what happened to Lochar, but it is known that all inmates, including Mary Clarke, were sent to Buenos Aires and confined to the Residence, where women accused of crimes were held.

Mary was released and nursing of English soldiers during the invasions. She later married an Asturian named Del Campo, a shoemaker of some fortune who died around 1808 and left her a store and several slaves.

A woman taking arms

María Clara Jonson, as she called herself then, became a lady socially respected by the people of Buenos Aires, a skilled woman, who He invested his inheritance in the inn he ran on the current 25 de Mayo Street. between Bartolomé Miter and Perón, and it went very well.

Shortly before the Revolution she married the American sailor Thomas Taylor. Some said that he was an adventurer who had married her for her moneyothers that both dedicated themselves to smuggling.

In its inn and inn, the British Commercial Room was established in 1811, which It became the privileged meeting place for the English community of Buenos Aires.

They say that Mary freed her slaves and took care of the daughter of one of the condemned women who had traveled with her on the Lady Shore. She was also a friend of María Josefa and Encarnación Ezcurra and the “girl” Manuelita Rosas.

In 1832 the scientist Charles Darwin, visiting Buenos Aires, He wanted to meet the already famous compatriot. He did it in the company of Captain Robert Fitz Roy and recorded that meeting in his diary:

“This woman’s story is extraordinary. She once she was beautiful. So great was her work as a nurse to our soldiers, after our disastrous attempt to occupy this city, that everyone seems to have forgotten her misdeeds.

Today she is an old, decrepit woman, with a masculine accent and a fierce disposition. The most common expressions of her are ‘I would kill them sir’, ‘I would cut off their fingers’. “This dignified old woman has all the kind of doing these things.” (1)

Others They venture that Miss Clarke was a spybut so many things have been said about intelligent women who learned to defend themselves, it’s best to take it with a grain of salt.

Mary died in Buenos Aires in July 1844 and after a crowded mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral She was buried with honors in the Recoleta cemetery.

1. Charles Darwin, Diary of a naturalist’s trip around the world, Madrid, Espasa, 1986.

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