Jane Means Pierce (née Appleton; March 12, 1806 – December 2, 1863) was the first lady of the United States from 1853 to 1857, being married to Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States. Born in Hampton, New Hampshire, she married Pierce, then a congressman, in 1834 despite her family's misgivings. She refused to live in Washington, D.C., and in 1842, she convinced her husband to retire from politics. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination without her knowledge in 1852 and was elected president later that year. Their only surviving son, Benjamin, was killed in a train accident before Franklin's inauguration, sending Jane into a deep depression that afflicted her for the rest of her life. Pierce was a reclusive first lady, spending the first two years of her husband's presidency mourning her son. Her duties at this time were often fulfilled by Abby Kent-Means. After Franklin's presidency, they traveled abroad for two years before settling in Massachusetts. She died of tuberculosis in 1863.

Pierce disliked political life and was unhappy in the role of first lady. She took interest in abolitionism, and attempted to influence her husband's decisions on the subject. A Puritan, Pierce was strictly religious and believed the tragedies she suffered were divine retribution for her and her husband's sins. Jane has been described as the opposite of her husband, who was outgoing, political, and a heavy drinker. She was reclusive, averse to politics, and a teetotaler.

Jane Means Appleton was born in Hampton, New Hampshire, on March 12, 1806, to Congregationalist minister Jesse Appleton and his wife Elizabeth Means Appleton. The Appletons had six children: three elder daughters, of which Jane was the third, and three younger sons. Their father became president of Bowdoin College in 1807, and the family settled in Brunswick, Maine (then part of Massachusetts). Her father's religious practices included a strict fasting diet that caused his health to decline, leading to his death in 1819. After his death, the family lived with Elizabeth's mother in Amherst, New Hampshire. In her childhood, Appleton acquired a devotion to Puritan, evangelical Calvinism.

Appleton came from a well-off and well-connected New England family. Jane's education was of a high quality, consisting of both public schooling and homeschooling. She attended the prestigious Miss Catherine Fiske's Young Ladies Seminary in Keene, New Hampshire, where she received an education of a higher quality than women could typically access. She was talented in music and enthusiastic about literature, but declined to pursue these further in favor of Bible study. As she approached young adulthood, Appleton was shy, devoutly religious, and pro-temperance. Even in her youth, her health was poor; she regularly contracted severe winter colds.

Appleton met Franklin Pierce after he moved to Amherst to study law at Bowdoin. One anecdote suggests that they met during a thunderstorm when he implored her not to sit under a tree for risk of lightning strikes. Another suggests that they were introduced by Alpheus Packard, Jane's brother-in-law and one of Franklin's professors. She may also have met him while he was visiting her mother's home. Appleton's family opposed the relationship for a number of reasons, including their difference in class, his poor manners, his drinking, his tolerance of slavery, his Episcopalian beliefs, and his political aspirations. They courted for seven years, including a period in which Franklin moved to Hillsborough, New Hampshire, to practice law and serve in the New Hampshire General Court. Franklin and Jane married in a small ceremony on November 19, 1834, by which time Franklin was a member of the House of Representatives. They were seen as opposites, Jane's reclusiveness and depression contrasting with Franklin's gregariousness and public aspirations.

The Pierces went together to Washington, D.C., after their marriage, but Jane found the city unpleasant. In 1835, she attended the White House New Year's Day reception with her husband and met President Andrew Jackson. She decided to leave the city later that year, returning to her mother's home in Amherst while her husband remained in Washington. The Pierces later purchased a home in Hillsborough where Jane chose to live while Franklin was away. They moved to Concord, New Hampshire, in 1838 while Franklin was a senator, and Jane encouraged him to resign and retire from politics in 1842. Jane abhorred politics, and her distaste for the subject created a tension that continued throughout her husband's political ascent. Though politics was often a point of debate or argument between the two, they were otherwise warm with one another and wrote each other regularly when apart.

Franklin and Jane had three sons, all of whom died in childhood. Franklin Jr. was born in 1836 and died three days after his birth. Frank Robert was born in 1839 and died in 1843 at age four of epidemic typhus. Benjamin was born in 1841 and died in 1853 at age 11 in a train accident. Following the end of her husband's term in the Senate, Pierce was able to live a domestic life with her family together at home. Franklin provided for the family with his law practice, though he briefly went away to serve as a brigadier general in the Mexican–American War. This period of Jane's life is often regarded as her happiest, as her husband was out of politics and she still had two surviving sons. Their house was sold during the war, and the family made various living arrangements over the following months. President James K. Polk offered Franklin an appointment as United States Attorney General, but he turned it down due to Jane's objection. After the death of their second son, Pierce focused on raising their only surviving son, Benjamin, in a strict religious manner while her husband operated his law practice. She wholly dedicated herself to Benjamin and avoided any obligations beyond her family and her religion. Pierce did not carry out housework due to her health, so it was carried out by a married couple that Franklin hired to care for Jane and Benjamin while he was away.

In 1852, Pierce's husband received the Democratic Party nomination for president. She is said to have fainted upon hearing the news. He had deceived her about his presidential aspirations, denying the extent to which he was seeking the office. He sought to persuade her that if he became president, their son Benjamin would be more likely to become successful. Despite this, she regularly prayed that her husband would lose the presidential election. Her prayers went unanswered, as he was elected by a large margin on November 2, 1852.