Peggy O’Neill

Peggy O’Neill, also known as Margaret Eaton (1796-1879), wife of John Henry Eaton, secretary of war in the cabinet of U.S. President Andrew Jackson. She was originally named Margaret O'Neale, or O'Neill, the daughter of a Washington, D.C., tavern keeper, and was noted for her beauty and wit. About 1823 she married a U.S. Navy purser named John B. Timberlake, who died in 1828, while on duty in the Mediterranean. In 1829 she married Eaton, who in the same year became secretary of war. Because of rumors regarding her relations with Eaton while she was still Mrs. Timberlake, Mrs. Eaton was ostracized by the wives of other cabinet members and by Washington society in general. President Jackson, an old friend of the Eatons, tried to break down the opposition to her, and it was partly for this reason that he replaced certain men in his cabinet. Among Mrs. Eaton's supporters was Martin Van Buren, who thereafter became more closely associated with Jackson; Van Buren was assured of the nomination for the presidency in 1836 in preference to the former vice president John C. Calhoun, whose wife had opposed Mrs. Eaton. In later years, while her husband was minister to Spain, Mrs. Eaton became popular in the society of Madrid. Some time after the death of Eaton, she married an Italian dancing master, then about 20 years of age, from whom she was subsequently divorced.