Departures of note

Mary English, born Mary Courthope Ballard in Faversham, Kent, in 1789, became a leading figure in the British community in Colombia during the 1820s. Known as the Belle of Bogotá, she was celebrated for her charisma and connections, which gave her significant financial and political agency in both Colombia and Britain. She was a devoted supporter of Simón Bolívar and became a central social and cultural figure in the Colombian capital from 1822 to 1826.

Her path to this position was unconventional. After a first marriage to James Delaney, she married General James Towers English in 1819 and traveled with him to South America, where he served under Bolívar. Following his death in September 1819, she worked for the financial firm Herring and Richardson from 1819 to 1822, earning £2000. She later married Colonel John Low in a marriage of convenience in 1822, though the union was annulled by December 1826. Her letters to England provided news for the London Weekly Dispatch and The Morning Chronicle.

In 1827, she married landowner William M. Greenup in Bogotá, and together they purchased a large estate in San José de Cúcuta to grow cacao for export. While Greenup was in England from 1828 to 1838, Mary successfully managed the plantation, despite being legally unable to own land as a woman under Colombian law. She retreated from society life to focus on her estate, but her letters continued to offer sharp insights into Colombian politics, such as her 1828 prediction that Bolívar would be declared dictator.

Mary died on 30 September 1846 from ill health at her estate at El Pescadero near Cúcuta. Because she was not Catholic, she was buried on her neighbor's hacienda, La Victoria, now part of modern Cúcuta. Throughout her life, successive South American governments denied her citizenship, as she could not meet legal standards due to her gender.