Anne Maria Pratt was born in Melbourne in 1837. She was the daughter of the Commander of the British forces in Australia and New Zealand.
In 1860, Anne Maria Pratt married Sir Henry Barkly, the Governor of Victoria and was conferred the title of Lady Anne Maria Barkly.
In 1863, Lady Barkly accompanied her husband to Mauritius to assume the position of Governor of the colony.
Lady Barkly had a shade house built at the Governors Estate at Le Reduit to gather different specimens of ferns and orchids including exotic species that both her and her husband were avid of.
Lady Barkly corresponded with Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker at Kew Gardens about the botanical specimens she was collecting. She mentioned in 1869, of specimens that had been sent to her from Singapore.
Lady Barkly along with her stepdaughter Emily Blanche Barkly had made drawings of the plants that Sir Henry collected. Copies of their drawings of Stapelia were sent with Sir Henry’s descriptions of the living plants to Kew Gardens. Lady Barkly also collected plants herself, mainly Pteridophyta.
In 1870, Lady Barkly journeyed to South Africa to join her husband in his newly appointed position as the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope.
In 1875, Lady Barkly published A Revised List of the Ferns of South Africa, which she had compiled during their five years stay on the Cape. Lady Barkly along with her stepdaughter Emily Blanche Barkly had made drawings of the plants that Sir Henry collected.
Lady Barkly as well as her stepdaughter are listed in the Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists.