Margaret Bayard Smith

Margaret Bayard Smith (1778-1844) was a friend of Thomas Jefferson and chronicler of early life in Washington, D.C. She met Jefferson through her husband, Samuel Harrison Smith, a Republican newspaperman and founder of the National Intelligencer.

Mrs. Smith's recollections of Washington society life in the early nineteenth century constitute one of the major sources of information on Jefferson's social life as President.¹ After Jefferson's retirement from political life, Smith visited him at Monticello. Her account of this visit is another fruitful source of information on Jefferson's daily life and family.²

Monticello Library Staff, 2008; video added 2017; podcast added 2024.

Further Sources

• Hunt, Gaillard S., ed. The First Forty Years of Washington Society: Portrayed by the Family Letters of Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith (Margaret Bayard) from the Collection of Her Grandson, J. Henley Smith. New York: Scribner, 1906.
• Papers of Margaret Bayard Smith, 1789-1874. Library of Congress.
• Smith, Margaret Bayard. A Winter in Washington, or, Memoirs of the Seymour Family. New York: E. Bliss & E. White, 1824.