Secrets of the Two Theodosias

Summary

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Podcast Summary: “Secrets of the Two Theodosias”

Podcast: Here’s Where It Gets Interesting
Host: Sharon McMahon
Episode Air Date: August 25, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sharon McMahon unravels the lesser-known histories of two women named Theodosia—one, Theodosia Bartow Prevost Burr (the wife of Aaron Burr), and the other, their daughter, Theodosia Burr Alston. Through engaging storytelling, Sharon explores their connections to early American political history, their intellectual and personal accomplishments, and uncovers fascinating details omitted from standard history textbooks and even popular retellings like the musical Hamilton. The episode also delves into Aaron Burr’s complex family life, including his secret descendants.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Who Were the Two Theodosias? [02:58–04:00]

• The First Theodosia:

  • Theodosia Bartow, born 1746, descended from a renowned beauty, orphaned before birth.
  • Married James Prevost, a British officer, and lived at the Hermitage in New Jersey.

• Navigating the Revolution:

  • Initially benefited from her husband’s British status, but shifted allegiances as war loomed.
  • Hosted American soldiers and George Washington after the Battle of Monmouth, with a four-day gathering including major political figures (Hamilton, Monroe, Lafayette).

• Her Affair with Aaron Burr:

  • Burr, recovering from injury, became Theodosia’s companion at the Hermitage, leading to a long-term affair.
  • They eventually married after James Prevost’s death.

2. Theodosia as Political Equal and Partner [07:45–10:10]

• Sharon emphasizes their intellectual partnership:

  “... what she did possess was a highly educated, razor sharp mind, a quality largely unknown, known in a society which placed little emphasis on the education of women.”
  – Sharon McMahon [09:20]

• Burr and Theodosia exchanged books, newspapers, and ideas; she critiqued his views openly in their letters.

• She was instrumental in Burr’s political ascent, valued for her keen observations and intellect.

3. The Complicated Household: Slavery in New Jersey [06:00–07:00]

• The Prevosts owned slaves, a reminder of northern colonial slavery.
• Sharon contextualizes Northern vs. Southern enslavement practices and living conditions.

4. Marriage, Family, and Tragedy [10:10–12:00; 15:11–17:00]

• Burr and Theodosia married in 1782; she was ten years older, with five children from her first marriage.

• Of their four children together, only daughter Theodosia survived.

• Theodosia insisted on advanced education for her daughter, who could read and write at three and mastered several languages by age ten.

• Theodosia (the mother) dies of probable stomach cancer in 1794.

  “Aaron later wrote that she was the best woman and finest lady he had ever known.”
  – Sharon McMahon [16:40]

5. Theodosia Burr Alston: Daughter’s Story [17:00–24:39]

• Theodosia Burr Alston married John Alston (later Governor of South Carolina) in 1801, with their Niagara Falls honeymoon starting a new American tradition.
• Birth of only child, Aaron Burr Alston, left her with life-altering injuries (uterine prolapse), causing chronic pain and difficulty adapting to plantation life.
• After Aaron Burr’s infamous duel with Hamilton and subsequent political downfall, he flees to Europe; Theodosia manages his affairs, but her own son dies of malaria in 1812.
• Grieving, she attempts to reunite with her father via ship (the Patriot)—and vanishes without trace.

6. The Mystery of Theodosia Burr Alston’s Vanishing [24:39–29:00]

• Multiple theories surround the Patriot’s disappearance:
  • Shipwreck during storms
  • Pirate capture and tragic legend (including a pirate’s deathbed confession about her calm, dignified fate walking the plank)
• A family portrait of Theodosia turned up years later, prompting speculation about her final days.
• Sharon admits:

  “Is that story true? I don't know. How would we know? I don't know.”
  – Sharon McMahon [28:13]

7. Aaron Burr’s Secret Family [29:00–36:19]

• Burr had two children (Louisa and Jean Pierre) with Mary Emmons, an Indian-born woman who worked in his household.

  • Their identities long unrecognized; modern genealogical research confirmed their descent.
  • Jean Pierre became a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

• Burr had other children during his exile in Europe and later years, with various women; some were included in his will.

  “Mary Emmons, the mother of these two children, Louisa and Jean Pierre, at some point moved to Philadelphia, which is where Aaron Burr did a lot of his work when he was senator. And so it's very possible that Aaron Burr had two households and two lives, one with Mary Emmons and the children that she bore and one with Theodosia.”
  – Sharon McMahon [33:45]

• Descendants of these children joined free Black communities in the North; one family requested a miniature portrait of Theodosia, showing some awareness of their blended lineage.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Theodosia’s intellect:

  “What she did possess was a highly educated, razor sharp mind, a quality largely unknown, known in a society which placed little emphasis on the education of women.”
  – Sharon McMahon [09:20]

• On the aftermath of scandal:

  “Okay, yada yada yada. Aaron Burr is not convicted, so he killed Alexander Hamilton, not even put on trial, tried to make his own country… I am completely ignoring the massive conspiracy that he engaged in to try to get this land to become his own country.”
  – Sharon McMahon [21:20]

• On Burr's family complexity:

  “It does not stop there, though, because Aaron Burr fathered two other children in Paris while he was away in Paris, and he later adopted them.”
  – Sharon McMahon [34:45]

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Important Timestamps

• [02:58] – Introduction to the two Theodosias
• [04:00–06:00] – Theodosia’s role during the Revolutionary War, affair with Aaron Burr
• [07:45–09:20] – Theodosia’s intellect and relationship with Burr
• [10:10–12:00] – Family, marriage, and the upbringing of their daughter
• [15:11–17:00] – Burr’s political ascent and Theodosia’s influence
• [17:00–24:39] – Theodosia Burr Alston’s life, marriage, tragedies, and disappearance
• [24:39–29:00] – Mystery of the Patriot and Theodosia’s fate
• [29:00–36:19] – Aaron Burr's secret descendants and their legacies

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Tone and Style

Sharon McMahon’s narration blends empathy, humor, and curiosity. She frequently draws connections to contemporary issues (education, women’s roles, race), and peppers the episode with moments of candid commentary (“yada yada yada” regarding Burr’s conspiracies), creating a conversational yet informative atmosphere.

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Conclusion

“Secrets of the Two Theodosias” takes listeners deep into the intertwined lives of Aaron Burr’s wife and daughter, seamlessly blending historical intrigue, personal drama, and the complexities of early American society. Sharon not only surfaces hidden stories but humanizes figures often reduced to footnotes, leaving listeners with probing questions and a vivid sense of these remarkable women’s lost legacies.

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Transcript

[Narrator]

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[Sharon McMahon]

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[Narrator]

Hello friends.

[Sharon McMahon]

Welcome to our series where we are.

[Narrator]

Examining untold aspects of popular stories or.

[Sharon McMahon]

Introducing you to people you might not.

[Narrator]

Know you are going to want to buckle up and hold on tight for this one.

[Sharon McMahon]

I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting.

[Narrator]

This is a tale of two women. Two women who share the same first name. Two women that had a deep and consequential connection to an important figure in early America. Two women named Theodosia. Theodosia Bartow was born in 1746, and she was the descendant of a woman who was renowned for her beauty. Her father died a few weeks before she was born, and when she was 17 years old, Theodosia Bartow married. She married a man named James Prevost. Together, Theodosia and James had five Sally, Anna, Louisa, Mary, Louisa, Augustine and John. James Prevost was a British officer, which at the time of their marriage, more than a decade before the Declaration of Independence, was sent as this sort of ultimate Dear John letter to a despotic king of England was not a particular problem, provided a good income and allowed the Prevosts to live in a lovely home on a large parcel of land in New Jersey. They called the property the Hermitage. Eventually, being a British officer did become problematic. However, as the colonies came closer and closer to rising up, Theodosia knew that she needed to do something. The property of British soldiers was often seized, and to keep that from happening, Theodosia became a patriot. James was often sent away on missions for the British army, and while he was gone, Theodosia opened the Hermitage as a gathering place for American soldiers. When she heard that George Washington was nearby after fighting the Battle of Monmouth, she sent word to him and offered him and his soldiers her home as a reprieve. Theodosia was well educated and well read. She spoke French fluently and her aristocratic manner provided good conversation to military officers in need of time off. Theodosia's home is now a museum, and in an interview, the director of the museum said the. For a long time, we've kind of perpetuated this idea that Theodosia was a patriot, and we now really view her as a politician. When George Washington accepted her invitation, he didn't just rest his weary head for a night and ride away. No. He arrived with Alexander Hamilton and James Monroe and the Marquis de Lafayette, and they partied for four days. They drank and ate and conversed with Theodosia and her female friends. Washington spent most of his time planning the army's next move. And to say thank you for the hospitality, Washington offered Theodosia a chance to visit New York City later that summer. And he even offered to provide her A chaperone and chaperone would have been needed because her husband James was away on military service and traveling alone as a woman was not something that was considered appropriate. Future President Washington chose a young lieutenant colonel as her chaperone. Someone who had just been injured after falling from his horse at the Battle of Monmouth. Someone named Aaron Burr. After the trip, Burr spent four months recuperating from his injuries at the hermitage. How convenient. Theodosia and Aaron Burr began having an affair. Theodosia and her husband James owned slaves. We know this because there are newspaper records of an advertisement that James placed offering a reward for the return of a married couple who had run away from the Prevost home. What we don't know is how many people the Prevosts enslaved or really many details about the people that lived on their property in New Jersey. We strongly associate slavery with the Southern United States, rightfully so. But at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, slavery was actually permitted in every one of the thirteen colonies. People enslaved in the north were often house servants or they were skilled tradespeople like shipbuilders and seamstresses. And unlike the slave quarters of the south, where most enslaved people resided in separate buildings apart from the people who owned them, enslaved people in the north often slept in the same house, often in attics or basement, sometimes just on a pallet in the corner of the kitchen. And within a few months of meeting Aaron, Burr wrote to his sister and mentioned Theodosia's honest and affectionate heart. Other friends mentioned in gossip that Theodosia was clearly the object of Burr's affections. And by 1780 they were openly together. Theodosia would sometimes go to stay with Burr's sister Sally, to get away from the prying eyes and the wagging tongues of people local to her that knew her husband James, who was still, by the way, away in the British military. In December of 1781, several years after meeting Aaron Burr for the first time, Theodosia received word that her husband James died in Jamaica of yellow fever. Burr, who was done with his military service, was studying for the bar exam to become an attorney. Eric Burr is widely known to history as a ladies man. You can even see it referenced in the show Hamilton, where Burr is trying to attract the attention of the Skyler sisters. And he's like, there's nothing like summer in the city. Someone in a rush next to someone looking pretty. You know what I'm talking about. Excuse me, miss. I know it's not funny, but your perfume smells like your daddy's Got money. And then one of the Skyler sisters says, spur, you disgust me. And he says, ah, so you've disgust me. I'm a trust fund baby, you can trust me. Like. It's a reference to the fact that Burr got a route. And I'm sure Burr found Theodosia attractive, but he did like her for more than her looks. One of Theodosia's biographers says that Theodosia lacked the beauty of some of Burr's many previous loves. But what she did possess was a highly educated, razor sharp mind, a quality largely unknown, known in a society which placed little emphasis on the education of women. In case you didn't know, Burr was a literal genius. That's not hyperbole. He was incredibly smart and so you could maybe understand why he found her intellect so attractive. Theodosia's biographer goes on to say that the few surviving letters give some insight into what increasingly bound them together. An interest in the ideas of leading thinkers and thoughts touching on the meaning of life, their happiness and their future, as well as how to react to the negative opinions of others concerning their relationship. Theodosia's husband died at the end of 1781, and in 1782, Burr, who was now an attorney, decided to marry Theodosia. They had a double wedding with Theodosia's half sister at her property, the Hermitage. Here is what the show Hamilton never tells you. Theodosia was 35 years old with five children and Aaron Burr was 25. That is not mentioned. Nowhere in the show does tell you that Theodosia was already married with five children and was 10 years older than him. Also, the show Hamilton, which I love, does not mention that Aaron Burr and Theodosia had four children together and only one of them lived. And the one that survived was a daughter that Aaron Burr insisted on naming Theodosia just to make this podcast confusing. That's the only reason their daughter Theodosia was born the year after they got married in 1783.

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[Narrator]

Aaron Burr moves his new wife, two of his stepsons and their new baby to New York City where he is now a practicing attorney and his political aspirations carried him forward. He got elected as a state representative and then was appointed the Attorney General of New York State. It was this office though, and the connections that he made while Attorney General that allowed him to defeat Philip Schuyler in a race for U.S. senate in 1791. By the way, remember, at the time, senators were not elected by the citizens, they were elected by the state legislature. So all of the connections that Burr made helped him get elected. Burr was often away working as a senator in Philadelphia because the Capitol had not yet been formally moved to Washington, D.C. and while he was gone, Burr and Theodosia often wrote to each other. There's evidence in the letters that they sent to each other that she constantly disagreed with his views and was never shy to point out his flaws. He sent her things like political books and newspapers. He really treated her in many ways like an intellectual equal. And it was in part her intellect, her sense of observation, her adeptness at sizing up other people in Aaron Burr's sphere that helped propel his political career forward. Both Theodosia and Aaron Burr had a passionate commitment to the education of their daughter, Theodosia. They both insisted that she would be educated as well as any male would have been educated. She could read and write, reportedly at age 3, and by the age of 10, she reportedly was reading Latin, Greek and French. Theodosia, his wife, began to get sick, and as her health declined, Aaron took over more and more of their daughter's schooling. The doctors could do very little for Theodosia, and she lived her life in constant pain. Aaron offered to resign from the Senate so he could spend more time with her, but she refused to allow it because he had come too far. Theodosia Prevost Burr died in May of 1794 at the age of 47, most likely from stomach cancer. Aaron later wrote that she was the best woman and finest lady he had ever known. I won't tell you the whole story of how Aaron Burr was almost elected president in 1800, but was instead elected Vice president. I will tell you that Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr assumed their office in 1801, and that was the same year that Aaron Burr's daughter Theodosia got married. She got married to a man named John Alston, who would later become the governor of South Carolina. Theodosia Burr Alston and John Alston became the first recorded couple to ever take a honeymoon in Niagara Falls in New York, and they started the trend of Niagara Falls being a great place to honeymoon. Theodosia and John Alston had one child together who was born the year after they got married, and his name was Aaron Burr Alston. But the birth of her son took a very heavy toll on Theodosia. She was severely injured in a traumatic birth. She had A uterine prolapse left her in immense pain for the majority of her life. They never had any additional children. And she had a very difficult time adjusting to being the mistress of a plantation in South Carolina. She ended up spending considerable amounts of time, like almost half the year, living with her son and her dad in New York. And we all remember what happened in 1804, right? We all remember about how Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton and Alexander Hamilton died and then Burr got away with it and was never prosecuted, right? We all remember that. By the way, it was not a conflict about who would become president that led Aaron Burr to shoot Alexander Hamilton. It was the fact that Aaron Burr was trying to run for governor of New York and Alexander Hamilton dissed him in the press and he was mad. And it was that conflict that led to the duel of that killed Alexander Hamilton. Aaron Burton, again, never put on trial, never suffered any consequences other than the scorn of the public for killing Alexander Hamilton. But he was put on trial for something else. Treason. After serving out his term as Vice President, Aaron Burr decided, you know what? I Let me make my own country. Let me go ahead and make my own country. I'll be the emperor. My daughter Theodosia can be the empress after I'm gone. The territory that Aaron Burr wanted to use to make his own country is in what is now Texas and Louisiana. Some of the land belonged to the United States. It wasn't a state yet, but it was territory of the United States. And some of it belonged to Mexico. And there's actually records of Aaron Burr attempting to write to England, asking for assistance and taking over this territory so that he can start his own country that he is going to be in charge of. Well, let me tell you how much Thomas Jefferson was amused by that. And the answer is 0%, 0% amused by the fact that Aaron Burr is out there trying to make his own country. And Thomas Jefferson insisted that Aaron Burr be arrested and put on trial for treason. Okay, yada yada yada. Aaron Burr is not convicted, so he killed Alexander Hamilton, not even put on trial, tried to make his own country. By the way, I am completely ignoring the massive conspiracy that he engaged in to try to get this land to become his own country. I'm completely skipping over all of that. It's way more than I mentioned.

[Sharon McMahon]

I.

[Narrator]

The bottom line is that Aaron Burr was put on trial and he was acquitted, but he was so wildly unpopular at that point, he was being burned in effigy in cities all over the United States that he felt he had no choice but to flee to Europe. And while he was in Europe, he went to France. Lived most of his time in exile in France. He decided he would try to talk to Napoleon and try to entice Napoleon to help him conquer Florida. That also turns out didn't work out for him. And his daughter Theodosia stayed behind in the United States, taking care of his business, sending him money, writing letters on his behalf. But her health continued to deteriorate. She even wrote to a doctor or and said. The most violent affections have tormented me during the whole of the last 18 months. Hysteric fits, various colors and flashes of light before my eyes, figures passing around my bed, strange noises, low spirits and worse. That sounds absolutely terrible, but unfortunately it gets worse. Because at the end Of June of 1812, the War of 1812 is going on. Theodosia's son, her only child, died of malaria and she was so grief stricken that she could not travel to New York to meet her father's ship that returned from Europe in July of 1812. She spends months in a severe depression with severe pain. And finally at the end of December, she decides she can't wait anymore. She needs to go to New York and see her dad. And they made arrangements for her to travel via ship on a small ship called the Patriot. She departed on December 31st of 1812. And one week went by, two weeks went by, three weeks went by. And after three weeks, when there was no word from the Patriot, her husband was losing his mind. He said, my mind is tortured. After 30 days, my wife is either captured or lost. And again, he had just lost his only child. By February 24, he wrote another letter and September said, my boy and my wife gone both.

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[Narrator]

So what happened to the Patriot? Aaron Burr believed she was lost in a shipwreck and in fact there had been a number of bad storms in the area at that time. But more than 50 years later, a doctor who was on vacation was called to assist an ill, elderly woman named Polly Mann. This doctor's name was William Poole, and while he was attending to his patient, he saw a portrait on the wall. His daughter, who was with him at the time, described this portrait as being of a beautiful young woman about 25 years old. Dr. Pool was looking at a portrait of the long vanished Theodosia Burr Alston. So how did Polly Mann get her portrait? Did it wash ashore? Was it sold by a pirate? Did Theodosia survive a shipwreck and give it to her? Some deathbed confessions from pirates claimed they had slaughtered everyone aboard the Patriot. There was one deathbed confession that was widely repeated, and it was from a pirate who said there was one lady on board the Patriot who was beautiful and appeared intelligent and cultivated, who said her name was Theodosia Alston. And when her turn came to walk the plank, she asked for a few extra minutes. And the pirate said, said she then went down to her room, changed into all white and appeared on the deck with a Bible in hand and said, I'm ready. And the pirate said she appeared calm and composed, as if she were at home. He said not a tremor crept over her frame as she walked towards her fate. And he said that as she was taking her fatal last steps, she folded her hand over her bosom, raised her eyes to heaven, and sank without a murmur. Is that story true? I don't know. How would we know? I don't know. But it is interesting that so many pirates claimed to have captured the Patriot. Other people said that the ship washed ashore on the barrier islands of South Carolina and that Theodosia lived on. Pauline Mann, the woman with her portrait, said that her father and husband were wreckers, and a wrecker was somebody who scavenged ships that washed ashore on the Outer Banks. She said that decades before, her husband and his friend had come upon an empty ship. In one cabin they found many fine items, including that portrait of Theodosia, dresses that Polly was now in possession of, and some other things like a shell carved in the shape of a nautilus and a vase of wax flowers under a glass globe. Also noteworthy is that Theodosia reportedly had a trunk of full of Aaron Burr's papers and letters, and that has been lost to history. And if you think that is where the story ends, you would be wrong, because Aaron Burr had a secret family. He had two children with a woman who worked as a servant or perhaps was enslaved in the home that he shared with his wife, Theodosia. There aren't sufficient records to know exactly what her status was in the home, but we do know that she arrived to the United States as a very young woman. Some records say she was as young as 10 from India. And she mothered two of Aaron Burr's children, a daughter named Louisa and a son named Jean Pierre. And here's something that I found interesting was that we know that she worked in the home of Theodosia before Theodosia and Aaron Burr got married. And so she undoubtedly knew that Theodosia had two daughters, one named Anna Louisa and one named Mary Louisa. And the daughter that she had with Aaron Burr was named Louisa. Her name was changed to Mary Emmons when she arrived in the United States. And it took many decades. But Louisa and Jean Pierre have now been officially recognized as the descendants of Aaron Burr. In fact, a professor from New Mexico was somebody who uncovered this connection between her and other descendants of Aaron Burr. Jean Pierre was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. I have a podcast on the Underground Railroad, if you're interested in that. And his headstone was changed to read, champion of justice and Freedom, conductor on the Underground Railroad, son of Vice President Aaron Burr. Both of these children, Louisa and Jean Pierre, married into the free black communities in the northern part of the United States. And so their descendants are people of color. And it seems pretty certain that Louisa and Jean Pierre knew about their half siblings, that they knew that Aaron Burr was their father. Because Sherry Burr, the professor who unearthed this connection, found a letter that Louisa Charlotte sent to Aaron Burr that said, will you have the goodness to lend me the miniature of my beloved Theodosia? And then she kind of concluded this letter with kind remembrance from all the family. Believe me, always sincere and affectionate. And we also know that Mary Emmons, the mother of these two children, Louisa and Jean Pierre, at some point moved to Philadelphia, which is where Aaron Burr did a lot of his work when he was senator. And so it's very possible that Aaron Burr had two households and two lives, one with Mary Emmons and the children that she bore and one with Theodosia. It does not stop there, though, because Aaron Burr fathered two other children in Paris while he was away in Paris, and he later adopted them. Their names were Aaron Columbus Burr and Charles Burdett. They were reported to be his biological sons. They came to the United States, and he adopted them. And he also fathered two daughters while he was in his 70s with two different women. And their names were Francis Ann and Elizabeth. He made provisions for Frances, Ann, Elizabeth, Aaron Columbus Burr, Charles Burdett. He made provisions for all of them. In his will, he did not leave money to Louisa and Jean Pierre, but descendants of Jean Pierre did track down a deed in which he gave Jean Pierre a parcel of land. And that is the story of two Theodore Doshas, and at least for other women who bore Aaron Burr children. I'll see you soon.

[Sharon McMahon]

Thank you so much for listening to here's where it gets interesting.

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[Sharon McMahon]

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