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"Peggy" Smith was born in Calvert County, Maryland, daughter of Ann Mackall and Walter Smith, a major in the American Revolutionary War according to family tradition. In 1809, visiting a sister in Kentucky, she met young Lieutenant Taylor. They were married the following June, and for a while the young wife stayed on the farm given them as a wedding present by Zachary's father. She bore her first baby there, but followed her husband from one remote garrison to another along the western frontier. An admiring civilian official cited her as one of the "delicate females...reared in tenderness" who had to educate "worthy and most interesting" children at a fort in Indian country.

Two small girls died in 1820 of what Taylor called "a violent bilious fever," which left their mother's health impaired; three girls and a boy grew up. Knowing the hardships of a military wife, Taylor opposed his daughters' marrying career soldiers–but each eventually married into the Army.

The second daughter, Knox, married Lt. Jefferson Davis in gentle defiance of her parents. In a loving letter home, she imagined her mother skimming milk in the cellar or going out to feed the chickens. Within three months of her wedding, Knox died of malariaMalaria ( Italian: bad air ; formerly called ague or marsh fever in English) is an infectious disease which causes about 500 million infections and 2 million deaths annually, mainly in the tropics and sub-Saharan Africa. The protozoan cause of malaria was. Taylor was not reconciled to Davis until they fought together in Mexico; in Washington the second Mrs. Davis became a good friend of Mrs. Taylor's, often calling on her at the White HouseThis page is about the official residence of the President of the USA. For other White Houses see White House (disambiguation). See also 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (musical . The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President.

Though Peggy Taylor welcomed friends and kinfolk in her upstairs sitting room, presided at the family table, met special groups at her husband's side, and worshiped regularly at St. John's Episcopal Church, she took no part in formal social functions. She relegated all the duties of official hostess to her youngest daughter, Mary ElizabethMary Elizabeth Taylor Bliss ( April 20, 1824 July 25, 1909) was the daughter of President Zachary Taylor and First Lady Margaret Taylor. She served as White House hostess due to her mother's ill health. On December 8, 1848, Mary married William Bliss, the, then 25 and recent bride of Lt. Col. William W.S. Bliss, adjutant and secretary to the President.