Peggy Eaton

Margaret O'Neill (or O'Neale) Eaton (December 3, 1799 – November 8, 1879), better known as Peggy Eaton, was the daughter of Rhoda Howell and William O'Neale, the owner of Franklin House, a popular Washington, D.C. hotel. Peggy was noted for her beauty, wit and vivacity. Her marriage as a widow to United States Senator John Henry Eaton, some months after her husband's death at sea, aroused controversy.

After Eaton was appointed as Secretary of War, rumors continued and Peggy Eaton was snubbed by other cabinet wives. Her honor was defended by President Andrew Jackson and she became the subject of the Petticoat affair. Relations among the president's Cabinet became so strained that he replaced most of the members.

About 1816, at age 17, Margaret O'Neale married John B. Timberlake, a 39-year-old purser in the Navy. Her parents gave them a house across from the hotel, and they met many politicians who stayed there. In 1818 they met and befriended John Henry Eaton, a 28-year-old widower and newly elected senator from Tennessee. Margaret and John Timberlake had three children together, one of whom died in infancy.

John Timberlake died in 1828 while at sea in the Mediterranean, in service on a four-year voyage. When the widow Margaret Timberlake married Senator John Henry Eaton (1790–1856) shortly after the turn of the year, rumors circulated that Timberlake had committed suicide because of despair at an alleged affair between the two.

Senator Eaton was a close friend of President Andrew Jackson, who in 1829 appointed him Secretary of War. The sudden elevation of Mrs. Eaton into the Cabinet social circle was resented by the wives of several of Jackson's appointees. They criticized Mrs. Eaton for allegedly having had an affair with Eaton prior to her marriage.

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