SYMHC Classics: Theodosia Burr Alston

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class: SYMHC Classics - Theodosia Burr Alston

Release Date: June 21, 2025

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Introduction

In this special "SYMHC Classics" episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class, hosts Tracy V. Wilson and Holly Fry delve into the enigmatic life and mysterious disappearance of Theodosia Burr Alston. Released on June 21, 2025, this episode commemorates the 242nd anniversary of Theodosia's birth, providing a comprehensive exploration of her role in American history and her connection to prominent figures like Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.

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Early Life and Family Background

Theodosia Burr Alston was born on June 21, 1783, into a prominent family. Her father, Aaron Burr, was a significant political figure who later became the third Vice President of the United States. Her mother, Theodosia Bartow Burr, was married to Jacques Marcus Prevost, an officer in the British Army. Together, they resided at the Hermitage, a 250-acre estate in New Jersey, which became a hub for Patriot leaders during the Revolutionary War.

Key Insights:

• Theodosia's upbringing was marked by a blend of Loyalist and Patriot influences, as her husband fought for the British while she entertained American military leaders.
• Theodosia's mother managed the household and played a crucial role in balancing the family's precarious position during the war.

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Aaron Burr's Influence and Theodosia's Education

Aaron Burr was deeply invested in Theodosia's education, envisioning her as an intellectual equal and a future legacy. Tracy notes, "[Aaron] had an education that would have been expected for a young man from a prominent family, but it really goes way farther than that" (14:32). By the age of ten, Theodosia was not only assisting her older half-sister with mathematics but had also read extensive literature, including all six volumes of Edward Gibbon's The History and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Notable Quote:

"I hope yet by her to convince the world what neither sex appears to believe that that women have souls."
— Aaron Burr (15:46)

This quote underscores Burr's progressive views on women's education, inspired in part by Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Burr's commitment to Theodosia's education was revolutionary for the time, positioning her as one of the most educated women in the United States.

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Marriage to Joseph Alston and Personal Struggles

In 1801, Theodosia married Joseph Alston, a wealthy South Carolina planter. Despite her reservations about their young ages—she was 17 and he was 21—she agreed to the union after Joseph presented a compelling argument addressing her concerns about plantation life. Their marriage was marked by personal tragedies, including the birth of their son, Aaron Burr Alston, which left Theodosia with a severe uterine prolapse. This condition caused her lifelong pain and led to complications that ultimately affected her health and ability to bear more children.

Key Points:

• Theodosia's move to South Carolina exposed her to a vastly different environment from New York, challenging her accustomed life of diplomacy and intellectual engagement.
• Managing a large enslaved workforce on Joseph's plantation was a stark contrast to her previous household responsibilities in New York.

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Theodosia’s Disappearance: The Mysterious Voyage

In late 1812, devastated by the death of her son Aaron Burr Alston and driven by the hope of reuniting with her estranged father, Aaron Burr, Theodosia embarked on a perilous sea voyage aboard the pilot boat The Patriot. Despite concerns about her health and the dangers posed by the ongoing War of 1812, she sailed from Georgetown, South Carolina, on December 31, 1812. Tragically, The Patriot vanished without a trace, sparking immense speculation and numerous theories about her fate.

Notable Event:

"Once the Patriot slipped out of view, it was never seen again."
— Holly Fry (32:16)

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Speculations and Theories Surrounding Her Disappearance

Theodosia Burr Alston's disappearance gave rise to a multitude of theories, ranging from shipwrecks due to severe storms to more sensational claims involving piracy and foul play.

Notable Theories:

1. Shipwreck in a Storm: The most widely accepted theory suggests that The Patriot was lost at sea during a violent storm.
2. Pirate Capture: Some accounts propose that pirates boarded the ship, killed the passengers, and possibly forced Theodosia to walk the plank. However, these stories lack credible evidence and often originate from unreliable deathbed confessions.
3. The Female Stranger Grave: A grave at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia, known as the grave of the Female Stranger, has been suggested as Theodosia's final resting place. However, discrepancies in the age and lack of conclusive evidence make this theory dubious.

Notable Quote:

"What happened to Theodosia Burr Alston... Was she shipwrecked in a storm at sea? Was she kidnapped by pirates?... Was her life the absolution which washed the stain of Alexander Hamilton's blood from her father's hands?"
— Tracy V. Wilson (33:14)

These questions highlight the enduring mystery surrounding Theodosia's fate, a subject that has fascinated historians and enthusiasts alike for over two centuries.

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Legacy and Conclusion

Theodosia Burr Alston remains a figure shrouded in mystery. Her disappearance not only impacted her immediate family but also left a lasting impression on American history. The intense bond between Theodosia and her father, Aaron Burr, was both a source of strength and controversy, especially in the wake of Burr's duel with Alexander Hamilton and subsequent political downfall.

Final Reflections:

• Theodosia's life and disappearance underscore the complexities of early American politics, society, and the precarious position of women in shaping their destinies.
• The multitude of theories surrounding her disappearance serves as a reminder of how history can be both well-documented and yet remain elusive, leaving room for speculation and myth.

Notable Conclusion:

"This was all over newspapers... her association with her father's killing of Alexander Hamilton and weird scheme to take over his own personal empire... the story of her disappearance was just this huge source for rumors and gossip for decades after it happened."
— Tracy V. Wilson (42:09)

The episode concludes by acknowledging that while Theodosia Burr Alston's fate may never be fully understood, her story continues to captivate and inspire curiosity about the untold chapters of American history.

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Timestamp References:

• 14:32
• 15:46
• 32:16
• 33:14
• 42:09

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Stay tuned to Stuff You Missed in History Class for more deep dives into the lives of historical figures who shaped our world in unexpected ways.

Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an I Heart podcast.

[Holly Fry]

Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the old gays are pulling back the curtain with their new podcast, Silver Linings with the Old Gays, brought to you in partnership with iHeart's Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare. Hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jesse serve their lifetime of wisdom when it comes to love, sex, community and whatever else they've got on the gay agenda. So check out Silver Linings with the old gays on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Holly Fry]

Happy Saturday Theodosia Bartow Burr Later Theodosia Burr Alston was born on June 21, 1783. That makes that 242 years ago today on the day this episode is coming out. Our episode on her and her mysterious disappearance came out on October 18, 2017 and it is today's Saturday classic. Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I am Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry, I have a.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Slight cold voice today, so apologies at the top of the episode for that.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, we both caught some crud while we were in New York.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yep. So, that apology aside, the last time we mentioned Hamilton on the podcast, I said it would be cool to do an episode about one of the ladies on the show, because Hamilton's men are becoming really well represented in our podcast archive already. So today, that is what we are doing. She's a figure who played a hugely important role in that show, despite not singing any songs or even ever being on stage. It's Theodosia Burr Alston. And in keeping with our Halloween theme, because it is October, we're going to be spending some time on her mysterious 1812 disappearance and all the stories surrounding it, some of which are quite macabre.

[Holly Fry]

Hooray. Macabre. It's almost impossible to separate Theodosia Burr Alston's life from her parents, Aaron Burr and and Theodosia Bartow. And when they met, the elder Theodosia was married to Jacques Marcus Prevost, or Prevost, depending on how you pronounce it, if you're French or American. He is also sometimes known as James Mark Prevost, who was an officer in the British Army.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Jacques and Theodosia had five children together, three daughters and two sons, none of whom are the subject of this episode. They all lived on a 250 acre estate in New Jersey known as the Hermitage, and they lived there along with Theodosia's widowed mother, mother and an enslaved household staff. When the Revolutionary War started, Jacques, who had risen to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in earlier wars, returned to service in the army. He became second in command to his brother Augustine, and Augustine is actually sometimes incorrectly named as Theodosia's husband.

[Holly Fry]

Jacques's role in the British army put Theodosia in a precarious position because the Hermitage was in territory controlled by the Patriots and she was entertaining a lot of their most prominent military and political leaders there. But somehow she managed to walk a very fine line in which her husband and most of her male relatives were fighting for the Loyalist cause while she was at home playing host to such prominent patriots as the Marquis de Lafayette, John Laurens, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Lee, James Monroe, and George Washington himself.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yes, basically, the elder Theodosia was hosting the entire cast of Hamilton at her estate. And of course, there was her future husband, Aaron Burr, who Theodosia met at the Hermitage while her husband was stationed in Jamaica. Aaron Burr was a notorious philanderer, but the first time he saw Theodosia he was totally convinced that she was, to use a slightly more recent term, his soulmate. This was in spite of the fact that she was married. She was a decade older than he was. He and she already had five children.

[Holly Fry]

Eventually, Theodosia's husband was recalled to Georgia, and after defeating the Patriots forces there, he was installed as lieutenant governor under the British government. That delicate line that Theodosia had been walking back at the Hermitage started to falter. New Jersey law allowed the confiscation of land belonging to Loyalists, and Theodosia's husband was no longer just an officer in the British Army. He was a prominent part of the British government in North America.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So an organized effort got underway to try to have Theodosia and her family evicted from the Hermitage. And among those who defended her, in part due to her connection to so many on the patriot side, was Aaron Burr. Theodosia did eventually leave the Hermitage because the war in the area became way too precarious for her to be safe there. But the organized effort to force her off the property was ultimately dropped.

[Holly Fry]

In addition to advocating for her to remain at the Hermitage, Aaron Burr spent much of the Revolutionary War preparing for what he saw as a foregone conclusion that one day he would marry Theodosia Prevost as long as he was stationed anywhere nearby. He visited her as often as he could. In 1779, at the age of 23, he resigned from the army because of his failing health, and he resumed his study of law, hoping that that would allow him to support her. He also developed a relationship with her two sons and paid for a tutor to see to their educations.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In December of 1781, Theodosia Prevost learned that her first husband had died. So Aaron Burr had successfully waited out their relationship. This information actually came to her second hand from a Loyalist newspaper. She never got official word on it from the British Army. Aaron Burr at the time was in the middle of applying for admission to the New York Bar, which he earned on April 17, 1782. And then on July 2 of that year, he and Theodosia married at the Hermitage, which she had returned to earlier in the year, once it was safe for her to be back there. From there, they moved to Albany, where Aaron Burr set up a profitable law practice.

[Holly Fry]

And their early marriage was, by all accounts, a very happy one. Theodosia was extremely intelligent, she was very well read, and she and her husband shared a keen interest in culture and art. Aaron Burr saw his wife as an intellectual equal, and he trusted her to handle aspects of his business for him. Their marriage also raised some eyebrows, since, in addition to the part where he'd visited so much before her husband died, she wasn't wealthy, and she also was not considered to be particularly attractive. And it was assumed that Aaron Burr would marry someone rich or beautiful or both.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

They made their Albany residence into a place that was home to French literature and fine art, and on June 21, 1783, their daughter, who was christened Theodosia Barto Burr. The following July, they nicknamed her Ms. Pris. And in their letters to each other, and eventually to her, they called her Theo.

[Holly Fry]

Although the Burrs occupied a prominent place in Albany society and his law practice was successful, Aaron Burr wanted to pursue even greater opportunities. He was, as was the case through much of his life, short on liquid funds, so he borrowed money from an uncle to relocate the family to New York City.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Theodosia wound up being nearly the entire focus of her parents, and especially her father's ambitions. Her three half sisters aren't really mentioned much in the historical record, and they disappear from it altogether. By 1791, her two half brothers were already old enough to work as clerks in their father's law office. By the time she was born, they both had to swear allegiance to the United States, since they had been sent to fight with the British when they were little. Her sister Sally was born on June 20th of 1785, but she died at the age of only three. And the younger Theodosia also had two brothers who were both stillborn. So it was really Theodosia who Aaron Burr started grooming for some future greatness as part of his own personal legacy.

[Holly Fry]

And we're gonna talk about how we did that. But first, we're gonna pause for a quick little sponsor break.

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[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

Both of her parents absolutely adored the young Theodosia Burr, and they raised her in a home that was nurturing and loving. And if they had not, if they had been distant and cruel people, she could have easily buckled under her father's demands because his plan for her education was intense. Aaron Burr is often described as giving his daughter an education that would have been expected for a young man from a prominent family, but it really goes way farther than that. His expectations for her were incredibly high and he got to work on shaping her into a person who could meet those expectations. Basically, as soon as she was born.

[Holly Fry]

She had multiple tutors dedicated to different subjects with multi hour blocks every day devoted to practicing them. It was a wide ranging education with its only notable omission being religion, something people were still commenting on the oddity of 100 years later.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Theodosia was a brilliant student even as a young child. She was writing her father letters by the age of three and writing them well by the age of five. At the age of eight, she was assisting her half sister Louisa, who was more than a decade older, with her math. At 10, she spoke both French and Latin and her penmanship looked like it belonged to a professional calligrapher. And also at that age, she had reportedly read all six volumes of Edward Gibbon's the History and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. She was widely regarded as a prodigy.

[Holly Fry]

Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is often credited as having inspired Aaron Burr to secure this education for his daughter. And he definitely did read that work in 1793, after which he called it a work of genius. But by that time, Theodosia's education was already well underway. All of those accomplishments that Tracy spoke of just a moment ago had already happened.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

What A Vindication of the Rights of Woman did do was make Aaron Burr consider thinking about the education of other girls in the way he thought about his own daughters. He became one of the very few men who was outspokenly supportive of Wollstonecraft's work, especially as it related to the education of girls and young women. He imagined that Theodosia could provide a living example that girls could and should be educated and could excel in school. He wrote of his daughter, quote, I hope yet by her to convince the world what neither sex appears to believe that that women have souls.

[Holly Fry]

Even though Theodosia excelled at her studies and grew into a lively, accomplished young woman, this wasn't without its problems. Aaron Burr spent as much time at home as he could, but his work did keep him away for long stretches. This was especially true when he started his political career, which began with a term in the New York assembly the year after Theodosia was born. And whenever he was gone, it was up to Theodosia's mother to carry out the exacting educational plans that he had created.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So just overseeing her daughter's education might not have been too much for the elder Theodosia to handle. But simultaneously, she also had to oversee the management of their various New York City households, including the enslaved staff. She was also entrusted with carrying out various business matters on her husband's behalf. At the same time, her health had already been really poor even before her second marriage.

[Holly Fry]

Toward the end of 1793, the Elder Theodosia's health really started to fail, and she was given a wide range of treatments, from hemlock to laudanum to wine to mercury. And none of this worked and she died at home on May 18 of 1794. The actual cause of death was most likely stomach cancer.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The young Theodosia was only 10 when her mother died. She had been the person most responsible for her mother's care in the last months of her life. Her father, by then a senator, returned to work almost immediately. Theodosia threw herself into her studies and she gradually started taking on additional duties that had formerly been handled by her mother.

[Holly Fry]

The Burrs had multiple residences in and around New York, but following the death of his wife, Aaron and Theodosia made a mansion known as Richmond Hill their primary home. And that is the younger Theodosia we're speaking of. An enslaved staff of approximately 10 people saw to the day to day care and management of the property, including cooks, maids, coachmen, a valet and a doorman. By her early teens, Theodosia was officially the mistress of the house. And by running the household and acting as hostess, Theodosia met and interacted with an incredibly posh list of guests, including politicians, statesmen and war heroes.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Her Education was also still ongoing, even as she was basically running the household. Around the time of her mother's death, she acquired a new teacher from France, known as Madame de Senat, who was governess to Natalie Delage de Volude. The two of them, along with Sennat's own daughter, had fled the French Revolution, and upon arriving in New York, Madame de Senat had set to work establishing a school to cater to the children of prominent families. There, she lived and worked from a residence that Burr also used as an office, and Natalie and Theodosia, who were about the same age, became best friends.

[Holly Fry]

In 1800, two things happened that would radically change Theodosia's life. One was an incredibly convoluted presidential election, which would ultimately wind up with her father becoming the third vice president of the United States. The other is that she met South Carolina planter Joseph Alston. Joseph was wealthy and educated, and he had practiced law before turning his attention to agriculture. His rice plantation on the Waccamaw river covered more than 6,000 acres, which were worked by more than 200 enslaved Africans.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Theodosia was definitely attracted to Joseph, but one of the hallmarks of her education had been rational thought. She believed they were much too young to get married. Since she was only 17 and he was 21, she thought a way more appropriate age for a man to get married was 30. She told Joseph she would only agree to marry him if he made an argument strong enough to convince her that it was the best thing to do, along with easing her concerns about what life would be like as the wife of a planner in South Carolina.

[Holly Fry]

He returned with a letter that was clearly influenced by his time in law, in which he suggested that the negative things she'd heard about plantation life were just rumors spread by northern abolitionists that Charleston was a beautiful and cosmopolitan city, that there were other educated and intelligent women in South Carolina, and that the primary arguments against marrying young were discretion and fortune. The two of them, he reasoned, had plenty of both.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Theodosia finally agreed with him, and they got married in Albany on February 2nd of 1801. In spite of her youth, Theodosia was probably the most educated woman in the United States at the time.

[Holly Fry]

Just over two weeks later, the House of Representatives, having voted on the matter 36 times, finally elected Thomas Jefferson to be the third president of the United States, making Burr his vice president. Almost immediately, Burr nominated Joseph Alston as charge d' affaires to the US Minister to France, imagining that Theodosia might continue her education there. But Joseph decided to stick with his Plantation.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We will get to Theodosia's married life and her eventual disappearance after another quick sponsor break.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

Hi Zoe Saldana. Welcome to T Mobile. Here's your new iPhone 16 Pro on us. Thanks. And here's my old phone to trade in. You don't need a trade in. When you switch to T Mobile, we'll give you a new iPhone 16 Pro. Plus we'll help you pay off your old phone. Up to 800 bucks and you still get to keep it. There's always a trade in. Not right now is T Mobile. I feel like I have to give you something in return for karma. That's okay. I don't really have much in my purse. Oh, let's see. Hand sanitizer. It's lavender. I'm good.

[Holly Fry]

Seriously.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

Let me check this pocket. Oh, mints. Really, I'm fine. Oh, I have raisins. I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec. I've got cupcakes in the car.

[Ryan Seacrest]

It's our best iPhone offer ever. Switch to T Mobile. Get a new iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence on us. No trade in needed. Even pay off your phone up to.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits. New line 100 plus a month on experience beyond Finance Agreement 999.99 and qualifying ported for well qualified plus tax and $10 connection charge. Pay off via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days credits end in balance due if you pay off early or cancel. See t mobile.com this July 4th celebrate freedom from spills, stains and overpriced furniture with Anabe, the only machine washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget friendly pricing. Sofas start at just $699, making it the perfect time to upgrade your space. Annabe's Pet Friendly Stain resistant and interchangeable slipcovers are made with high performance fabric that's built for real life. You'll love the cloud like comfort of hypoallergenic, high resilience foam that never needs fluffing and a durable steel frame that stands the test of time with modular pieces you can rearrange anytime. It's a sofa that adapts to your Life. Now through July 4th, get up to 60% off site [e-mail] Every order comes with a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping, no restocking fees. Every penny back. Declare independence from dirty outdated furniture. Shop [e-mail] Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

[Holly Fry]

Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the old Gays pull back the curtain on their new podcast, Silver Linings with the Old Gays, brought to you in partnership with iHeart's Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare. With over 300 years of experience between them, hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jesse serve four lifetimes of wisdom when it comes to love, sex, community and whatever else they've got on the gay agenda. Listen in to these fabulous friends, swap stories exploring how queer life has evolved over the decades and the silver linings they've collected along the way. Each episode dives into hot topics from safe sex and online dating to untangling Gen Z lingo, as well as insights on how music, art and fashion show up in queer culture. So check out Silver Linings, a show about how pride ages like fine wine. Available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway, now through June 24. Score hot summer savings and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags on items like Kraft Mac and Cheese, Celsius energy drinks, Quaker Chewy bars and Sparkling ice flavored water. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online. For easy drive up and go pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1701, Theodosia and Joseph departed on a bridal tour, simultaneously starting a trend by being the first prominent couple to visit Niagara Falls on their honeymoon. By the time they got home again, Theodosia was pregnant and a son, Aaron Burr Alston, was born around May 22 of 1802. His grandfather wanted so badly to be present for the birth of his grandson that he actually left the Capitol while Congress was still in session so he could get there in time.

[Holly Fry]

The young Aaron's birth was long and difficult, and the delivery caused a uterine prolapse. A minor prolapse often doesn't require much medical treatment, but Theodosia's case was severe. It caused her extreme pain for the rest of her life, along with irregular and very painful periods, and it also made her unable to have any more children and led to recovery infections. Since there was no reliable way to treat these infections, they threatened her life on more than one occasion.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The field of gynecology really didn't exist yet, and no one fully understood what was going on or how to treat it. Plus, the symptoms that she was experiencing were so taboo and they caused her so much embarrassment that when she wrote to a doctor to describe what was happening to her, she did it all in third person.

[Holly Fry]

About three weeks after her son's birth, Theodosia and the baby boarded a ship to go to New York to stay with her father father for several months, which became an annual event. This was as much about trying to recover from the birth of her son as it was about trying to recover from culture shock. The south was, as a whole, deeply religious, and Theodosia was not. She was also just not what anyone expected of a planter's wife. Although Charleston society might have been more welcoming of an exceptionally educated woman, a swampy rice plantation on the Waccamaw river was far, far from there.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Plus, although Aaron Burr enslaved people at his New York estates, and Theodosia had been responsible in some, to some extent in their management while she was running the household, he had also allowed them all to learn to read and write. And he had argued in favor of New York's Gradual Emancipation act, which went into effect in 1799. So people who owned lots of slaves. Not necessarily the biggest fan of Aaron Burr and his politics, but as Joseph's wife, it was Theodosia's responsibility to manage and monitor the domestic life and health of the whole enslaved workforce and essentially to act as its quartermaster in accordance with Southern expectations. This was a world away from New York, where running her father's household had meant arranging dinners and soirees for presidents and diplomats. It had not meant things like distributing annual cloth allotments to hundreds of enslaved people. Theodosia and her husband definitely missed each other in these annual stretches of months and months when she was away. But South Carolina just did not feel like home to her, and New York did.

[Holly Fry]

Then on July 11, 1804, when she was 21, Theodosia's father shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel. And Hamilton, of course, later died of that wound. Aaron Burr was charged with murder, but he was never tried. There is a whole podcast about this in the archives, so we're not going to go into deep detail on that.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

As a note only because people have written in to ask us about it. You will sometimes hear that Aaron Burr's real motive for this duel was that Alexander Hamilton knew he was committing incest with Theodosia and had been spreading that around. But this really comes from Gore Vidal's 1973 novel Burr. And his logic as a writer was basically that it was the one thing he could think of that would make Aaron Burr angry enough to kill Alexander Hamilton. There's really no evidence that there was physical incest going on, but it is absolutely true that Burr's relationship with his daughter did not have anything like what we would call healthy emotional boundaries today at all. Like, she became an. Definitely became an emotional surrogate for her mother after her mother's death. And their relationship was intense in a way that would not strike people as normal.

[Holly Fry]

The duel with Alexander Hamilton was not Burr's only crime. He also embarked on a weird scheme to invade Mexico, separate off the western part of the US Territory and secede, setting all of that up as his personal empire, with Theodosia succeeding him as Empress after his death. There is a whole episode about that in the archive as well, and that is actually going to be our Saturday classic this week.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, that seems like a bizarre story to bring up and not really get into it, but this episode is not about Aaron Burr, so we will leave that to past hosts to cover on Saturday. Long story short, Aaron Burr was arrested for treason on February 19, 1807, and he faced trial in Richmond, Virginia. In spite of her health, Theodosia and her husband traveled there to be with him throughout the proceedings. Even though he was acquitted on September 1, his reputation was ruined and he became the target of public outrage even more than he already had had for killing Alexander Hamilton. Theodosia's reputation was tarnished by association as well.

[Holly Fry]

Aaron Burr fled to Europe, hoping to make a brief escape while the outrage blew over. But when he tried to return, he was refused a passport and he was barred from reentering the country for more than four years. Theodosia went from supporting her father while on trial to trying to convince his adversaries to let him back into the country. He was finally allowed to return in 1812, and he arrived on May 4th.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

His homecoming was soon marred by tragedy. Aaron Burr Alston died on June 30, 1812, of a summer fever or possibly malaria. And Theodosia was absolutely distraught at the death of her son. The only thing that motivated her to go on living was the idea of being reunited with her father.

[Holly Fry]

Of course, this was during the War of 1812. Theodosia's husband had been elected governor of South Carolina and was Brigadier General of the state militia, so he could not accompany her on this trip. An overland voyage would have been far too long and uncomfortable for someone with her physical condition, so the only way she could get to her father was by sea. It would take less than a week, but it was an already uncertain means of travel through an active war zone that was un also infested with pirates.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Theodosia's husband thought this was an incredibly dangerous idea, but she was so devastated and so sick that he couldn't even consider trying to stop her from going. So she departed from Georgetown, South Carolina aboard a small pilot boat called The Patriot on December 31, 1812. Some accounts list this as the 30th. Dr. Timothy Ruggles Green went with her because of her illness and her health, and she probably had a maid and maybe a cook with her as well. Joseph boarded the boat with them. He kissed Theodosia goodbye, and then he rowed himself back to shore alone.

[Holly Fry]

Once the Patriot slipped out of view, it was never seen again.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

For weeks, both Aaron Burr and Joseph Alston held out hope that Theodosia was still somehow alive. The two men wrote each other increasingly frantic letters, especially after they heard that in spite of the fine weather in Georgetown when the ship set sail, a heavy storm had struck the coast of North Carolina not long after she left.

[Holly Fry]

They clung to hope for weeks, but when it eventually became clear that Theodosia was gone, they were both broken men. Joseph Alston completed his term as governor in 1814. After weathering a number of scandals and blackmail attempts related to that Mexico invasion plot which he had contributed money to. He died on September 10, 1816 at the age of 37. Aaron Burr died 20 years later. And in the years after Theodosia's disappearance, he had put everything that reminded him of her out of sight.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Speculation about what happened started immediately after the disappearance of the Patriot, and it continued for decades. To quote a New York Times piece written for the hundredth anniversary of the disappearance, summing up what all that speculation had been for all those decades, quote, what happened to Theodosia Burr Alston, the beautiful daughter of Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States and the reigning bell of diplomatic society? Was she shipwrecked in a storm at sea? Was she kidnapped by pirates? Was she forced to walk the plank into the ocean? Was she held a prisoner? Was she abandoned on an island? Was she the ill fated victim of her father's political enemies? Was her life the absolution which washed the stain of Alexander Hamilton's blood from her father's hands?

[Holly Fry]

The only thing that we know for sure is that they were not stopped by the British Navy. In 1998, James L. Michie scoured the logs of all British ships that had been patrolling off the Carolina coast and none of them had any record of an encounter with the Patriot.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There are naturally a slew of eerie and sometimes macabre stories about what happened to the Patriot and everyone aboard. And some of them emerged while Theodosia's husband and father were still alive. Theodosia's best friend, Natalie, had a series of premonitions that made her fear for Theodosia's life in October of 1813. So this was well after the Patriots set sail. But before she had heard anything about what had happened, she ended a letter to a friend, quote, I think she must be dead.

[Holly Fry]

A series of pirates also gave multiple contradictory deathbed confessions about having captured the Patriot and killed everyone aboard, including Theodosia. A June 23, 1820 article in the Mercantile Advisor reported that Jean Defarge and Robert Johnson, privateers aboard the Patriot, had confessed to taking over the ship two or three days into the journey, trapping everyone in the hold, stealing all of the valuables, and sinking the boat on their way out. Although they were tried, convicted and executed for this crime, they also said the Patriot left from Charleston when it really left from Georgetown. And they also said that the weather had been good the whole time. So there were a lot of contradictions in their account.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It seems maybe weird that somebody would make up a confession to a crime that would get them executed, but like they were on trial for other stuff as well. So if this is a whole made up story, it was made up to bring them personal infamy because they already knew that regardless of what all they testified to, they were going to be executed. Another confession made by James Burdick, who was known as Old Frank, was reported from Michigan in 1850. He had made an agreement with some neighbors that they could have his house after he died if they looked after him in his old age. So in his final years, as they were taking care of him, he told them all kinds of stories about his time as a pirate, including that he had captured the Patriot and given Theodosia a choice of becoming his concubine or walking the plank. According to Burdick, she chose the latter, saying, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay on her way down. There's no substantiation on this story. And walking the Plank is also way more associated with sensational fiction than with anything actual pirates did. Plus, as we've said before, Theodosia was not really a religious woman.

[Holly Fry]

This I captured the Patriot and made Theodosia walk the plank story became a common theme, appearing not only in the deathbed confessions of other purported pirates, but also the plot of several sensational novels. Not every novel Ended with a plank walk, though, in Blennerhassett, or the Decrees of a Romance Founded Upon Events in American History, which was a book published in 1901. The Pirate Captain falls in love with Theodosia and she is accidentally shot by someone in the Navy who was aiming for him.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, the guy who wrote this book wrote another book that was also a fictionalization of her life, and he used all his research for this to make one of the. To write one of the first biographies of her, which you can find.

[Holly Fry]

On.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The [e-mail], it'll be linked in the show notes, but in a way it's frustrating to read because it has chapters and chapters and chapters that are about her ancestors before it actually gets to her. And then it's very clear that there is some bias involved in how he tells the story of her life. Anyway, outside the world of piracy, we're leaving pirates behind. There is a grave at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia, that is known as the grave of the Female Stranger. So, according to the lore, a man and a woman arrived in Alexandria in 1816, and the woman was very sick. When a doctor was summoned, the couple would permit no questions about who they were. The woman died on October 14th of 1816 and was buried in a grave under an inscription that begins, quote, to the memory of a female stranger whose mortal sufferings terminated on the 14th day of October, 1816, aged 23 years and 8 months. One theory, even though this was a couple of years after she disappeared and she would have been older than 23, is that the identity of the woman buried in this grave is Theodosia Burr Alston.

[Holly Fry]

57 years after the disappearance of the Patriot, a doctor named W.G. poole was summering at Nags Head, North Carolina, when he was called on to see an elderly woman known as Mrs. Mann. As a gesture of thanks and in lieu of cash payment, she gave him an oil portrait of a lady which he had admired while he was attending to her in her home.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Dr. Pool tried to get Mrs. Mann to tell him where this picture had come from, and she finally told him that her husband had been a wrecker. Basically somebody who made a living by salvaging wrecked ships off of the Outer Banks. And sometimes these Outer Banks wreckers are known as bankers. He and some others had found a ship completely abandoned, and in some versions of the story, nothing seemed amiss, and a meal was even laid out on the table. In other accounts, everything was in disarray. But regardless, this painting was purportedly from one of the cabins on the boat, which clearly belonged to a woman, somebody eventually suggested that this painting was of Theodosia Burr Alston.

[Holly Fry]

It's hard to determine whether this painting, known as the Nag's Head portrait, really is Theodosia. The two authenticated portraits of her don't look anything alike, and the Nag's Head portrait doesn't look like either of them, either. Members of the Burr family insisted that it was her, but several of the Allstons disagreed.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

At this point, it's not, not really possible to determine if this is really a painting of Theodosia Burr Alston, but it's one of the most talked about theories for not even really a theory for her disappearance. Like if she did, if she was on the boat and that was a picture of her, that part makes sense because maybe she was carrying this painting of herself to her father, who she was going to visit. But it raises lots of questions about when she would have sat for the painting. And then of course, what happened to everyone on the boat when they either abandoned it or were taken off of it, leaving the painting behind. And we're going to end on what's probably the creepiest story and also the most recent. J. A. Elliott of Norfolk, Virginia reported a story in 1910 that he had heard earlier from people living in the area. A woman's body in fine clothing had washed up on the coast in January of 1813. And then a gentleman who found the body had buried it on his farm, but before doing so, he had cut three of its fingers off so he could remove rings that she was wearing when he later had a daughter. She was born with the same three fingers missing. Elliot said that the reason that it was almost a hundred years before anybody had suggested that maybe this was Theodosia was that nobody written the area knew about Theodosia's disappearance, but as soon as he heard about it, he made that connection. Those are most of the weird theories about what maybe happened. The most logical theory is probably that the boat sank in a storm. Like that seems like the most straightforward one. But having so many weird stories about other people's claiming that they captured it as pirates or that they saw her somewhere afterwards. There's a bunch of other weird rumors that we didn't really get it to of like, oh, I definitely saw her somewhere, she was definitely alive.

[Holly Fry]

There's that way that when any mystery exists in the public consciousness, people step in to fill in the blanks, even when those are not accurate at all.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, well, this was all over newspapers and I read a whole bunch of things from like hundred year old copies of like the New York Times and the Boston Globe, obviously scanned and on the Internet. I didn't go dig them physically up, but there kept being all these reports about her, like she really was a famous person when she died, although at that point, like her association with her father's killing of Alexander Hamilton and weird scheme to take over his own personal empire like that had people didn't have maybe quite as much of a glowing perception of her, but she and her husband were definitely famous figures when she vanished, and the story of her disappearance was just this huge source for rumors and gossip for decades after it happened. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If you'd like to send us a note, our email address is historypodcastheartradio.com and you can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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