Mary E. Balfour was born on 24 January in
Limavady, with some sources giving the year as 1755. Others believe this date seems unlikely given that the marriage of her parents, John Balfour and a daughter of Dr Samuel Moore of Derry, took place in January 1778. This could make her year of birth 1789, which better aligns with the dates of birth of her younger sisters and the characters in her poems. Her father was appointed rector of Errigal,
County Londonderry. After the death of her father, Balfour and her sisters had to support themselves by teaching, initially in Newtown Limavady, then in Belfast. With McCracken's activist sister,
Mary Ann McCracken, Balfour was a founding member of the committee of the Harp Society in 1808. ==References==