Margaret Bayard Smith
| Margaret Bayard Smith | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Smith, by Charles Bird King
|
|
| Born |
Margaret Bayard February 20, 1778 Pennsylvania |
| Died | June 7, 1844 (aged 66) |
| Spouse(s) | Samuel Harrison Smith (m. 1800; her death 1844) |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent(s) |
John Bubenheim Bayard Margaret Hodge |
| Relatives |
James Asheton Bayard II (cousin) Charles Hodge (cousin) |
Margaret Bayard Smith (20 February 1778 – 7 June 1844) was a successful author and politician in a time when women lived under strict gender roles. Her writings and relationships shaped both politics and society in early Washington. Mrs. Smith began writing books in the 1820s: a two-volume novel in 1824 called A Winter in Washington, or Memoirs of the Seymour Family, another novel in 1825, What is Gentility? She also wrote several biographies including Dolley Madison. Her literary reputation, however, comes primarily from a collection of her letters and notebooks written from 1800 to 1841 and published in 1906 by Gaillard Hunt as The First Forty Years of Washington Society.
Margaret Bayard was born on 20 February 1778 in Pennsylvania, the seventh of eight children born to Colonel John Bubenheim Bayard (1738–1807) and Margaret Hodge (1740–1780). At the time of her birth, her father was with George Washington at Valley Forge. Her first cousin was Rev. Charles Hodge (1797–1878).
Also included in her immediate family were three orphaned children of Col. Bayard's twin brother, Dr. James Asheton Bayard, who had married Margaret Hodge's sister, Ann Hodge. One of the orphaned children was James A. Bayard, who later became a lawyer and politician.
Smith was a well known editor and publisher who befriended Thomas Jefferson when they both acted as officers of the American Philosophical Society. In 1809, Smith and her husband moved to Washington where he became president of the Bank of the United States. Almost immediately, they became a political power couple. Smith establish the first newspaper in Washington City, the Daily Intelligencer, when the government moved from Philadelphia to Washington. When Jefferson took office, he granted Smith a government contract printing The House of Representatives Journal. Margaret’s ability to write about her observations made her an ideal partner for Samuel. She often wrote for the paper and other publications, sometimes under her own name, but most often anonymously.
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