Taylor, Margaret Smith (1788-1852), was the wife of Zachary Taylor, who served as president of the United States in 1849 and 1850. She disliked her husband’s plan to run for president because the presidency would deprive her of his company much of the time. But Taylor was elected president in 1848. Margaret Taylor disliked official social functions. She sometimes entertained friends and relatives in her private White House rooms. But she turned over the role of hosting official functions to one of her daughters, Mary Elizabeth Bliss.
Mrs. Taylor was born in Calvert County, Maryland, on Sept. 21, 1788. Her maiden name was Margaret Mackall Smith. Her father was a well-to-do planter. Little is known about her early life.
In 1809, Margaret went to Kentucky to visit one of her sisters. There, she met Zachary Taylor, then a United States Army officer. The couple married on June 21, 1810. They had six children. The children were, in order of birth, Ann Mackall, Sarah Knox, Octavia Pannel, Margaret Smith, Mary Elizabeth, and Richard. Sarah married Jefferson Davis, the future president of the Confederacy, in 1835. She died three months after the wedding. Richard became a general in the Confederate Army.
Zachary Taylor served in the Army until late in 1847. For much of her adult life, Mrs. Taylor lived on frontier military posts where her husband was stationed. Zachary Taylor died in 1850, while still serving as president. Mrs. Taylor died on Aug. 14, 1852.
See also Taylor, Zachary .
