Margaret Truax

Margaret Truax, daughter of John Truax and Margaret Mount, was born at Monmouth Co., New Jersey, 19 February 1757.¹ She died at Gibson Co., Indiana, about September 1844.^2,3

Margaret married James Andrew Smith, whose ancestry is unknown (or not traced here), at Shelburne Parish, Loudoun Co., Virginia, 28 January 1783. Although some have said the marriage was in 1773, the copy of the marriage bond (in the pension file) clearly shows 1783, and the court affidavit includes the statement, "She was not married to him prior to his Leaving the Service..." A transcript dated 2 Feb 1841 of a marriage bond from Loudoun Co., Virginia, for "a marriage shortly intended to be held and solemnized between James Smith & Margaret Truax spinster of Shelburne Parish." James Smith and John Means were co-bondsmen. The bond was dated 25 Jan 1783 and another pension document shows the actual marriage date as the 28th. Printed volumes of Loudoun Co. marriages & bonds do not include this record and it is presumed lost.

The first two children, James & Polly, are either misplaced as to birth dates, are children of an earlier, unknown marriage, or belong to another Smith family entirely.⁴

In 1842 she is described as "...aged and suffering with an attack of the palsy which disenables her to go about and is not able in fact to go out of her room without help."

Margaret is sometimes given a first name of "Alice" but this stems from a misreading of "Alias" for "Alice" in a letter found in James Smith's pension file which reads in part, "…concerning obtaining a pension for Peggy Alias Margaret Smith formerly Peggy Alias Margaret Truax…."⁵