Margaret O'Neale was born on December 3, 1799, in Washington, D. C. , District of Columbia. Her father, William O'Neale, was a tavern-keeper of Washington, D. C. , from the founding of the city. Peggy was a pretty child and was spoiled by guests at her father's inn. Her mother, Rhoda Howell, was apparently a woman of refinement and, according to her daughter, a sister of Richard Howell, governor of New Jersey.
Margaret attended Mrs. Hayward's Seminary in Washington and for a little while Madame Day's school in New York.
At an early age Margaret was married to John B. Timberlake, a purser in the navy, and by him had a son and two daughters. When John H. Eaton first came to Washington in 1818 as senator from Tennessee, he took lodgings at the O'Neale tavern and became acquainted with the vivacious daughter of his host. When Andrew Jackson also came to Washington in 1823 as senator, he took up his quarters with his friend Eaton and wrote home to Mrs. Jackson of the "amiable" O'Neale family, and particularly of Mrs. Timberlake, who "plays on the Piano Delightfully, and every Sunday evening entertains her pious mother with Sacred music to which we are invited". Presently rumors began to circulate to the effect that Eaton had become too familiar with Mrs. Timberlake. Then in 1828 her husband died while on duty in the Mediterranean. It was rumored that he had committed suicide.
Within the year Eaton proposed to marry the fetching widow and consulted his friend Jackson, who had just been elected President, as to the propriety of his intentions. Jackson, who had always been fond of Peggy, advised the match as a means of discrediting the rumors, and the wedding accordingly took place on January 1, 1829. It was now time for the new President to select his cabinet and Eaton was docketed for the secretaryship of war. Other prominent Tennesseeans had reason to expect the place, but Eaton was one of those personal followers in whom Jackson gloried. A great clamor was raised by the élite of Washington because of Eaton's wife; but Jackson, whose beloved wife had just died under the sting of unjust imputations, would not heed it. He was enough of a gentleman to be chivalrous and enough of a frontiersman to be simple, direct, and stubborn. He would stand by his friend and his own prerogatives. His family broke up and his cabinet dissolved in the heat of the social war.
Eaton resigned from the cabinet in 1831 and in 1834 he was appointed governor of Florida. In 1836 he was sent to Madrid as minister to the court of His Catholic Majesty. Here his wife basked for four years in the brilliance of a society which had no prejudice against her. In 1840, the Eatons returned to the United States and settled down again in Washington. There Eaton died in 1856.
Peggy, a wealthy widow, devoted herself to the rearing of her grandchildren but soon succumbed to the charms of an Italian dancing master, Antonio Buchignani, and married him. After a few years of married life her husband defrauded her of her property and eloped with her grand-daughter. It was a desolate old woman who dragged out her existence until 1879 in the city which had seen her fortunes rise and sink so strikingly.
Margaret O'Neale was famous due to her marriage to United States Senator John Henry Eaton, which caused some controversy, as she had been recently widowed only a few months earlier. After Eaton was appointed as Secretary of War, rumors continued, Peggy was snubbed by other cabinet wives. And, as a result, Margaret became the subject of the Petticoat affair, when relations among the president's Cabinet became so strained, that he replaced most of the members.
In 1816 Margaret married John B. Timberlake, a 39-year-old purser in the Navy. They had two children. A third died in infancy. In 1828 her husband died and, within a year, she married John Henry Eaton. He died in 1856. In 1859, she married Antonio Buchignani, an Italian music teacher and dancing master. At that time, she was 59 and he was in his mid 20s. They divorced in 1869.
