Eleanor Howard Hawkins Haywood was born in Virginia on June 23, 1776. The daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, she married Sherwood Haywood, the clerk of the North Carolina Senate and an owner of three plantations in the Raleigh area. The couple had at least eight children, and the Haywoods involved themselves in Raleigh's elite social scene. She died in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina on December 23, 1855.