Mary Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant in Kingston, Jamaica,[12] the daughter of a Scottish[13] soldier[14] in the British Army and a free Jamaican woman. Her mother was a "doctress", a healer who used traditional Caribbean and African herbal remedies. She ran Blundell Hall, a boarding house at 7 East Street, considered one of the best hotels in all Kingston.[15] Here Seacole acquired her nursing skills. Seacole's autobiography states that her early experiments in medicine were based on what she learned from her mother while ministering to a doll, then progressing to pets, before helping her mother treat humans.[16]