The Mysterious Disappearance of Theodosia Burr Alston | Morbid: A True Crime Podcast | Forensic Files

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hey weirdos I'm Elena I'm Ash and this is morbid [Music] [Music] thank you foreign
[Music] I am back no this is just I'm sorry about my voice um it's Saucy and spicy again
um yeah it's it's a lot but I'm just still we're we're in that fun time of year where me and the kids are just
throwing back and forth illnesses it's a lot of fun it's really gross up in here
yeah it's one of the I saw a tick tock the other day where parents were like this household has gone how many days
without illness and I saw it it said two days and they were erasing the two to say zero and I was like that is the
realest thing I've ever seen yeah because people without kids are like people who haven't been around kids will
be like whining only sick and they don't believe you yeah they don't believe you
and they want to just be like you're gross and it's like no like this is reality is you just live in a Petri dish
for some parts of the year yeah and this is that part of the year for most parts
of the year really yeah this especially is the like Primo yeah flu season is when it gets it really gives it its all
that's why nobody really likes well like I don't know I'm generalizing but nobody
really likes this part of winter like January February March it's tough it's rough yeah I used to like it I don't
like it so much now though you used to yeah now that I'm like you know passing around germs with a fam but yeah we're
gonna see how far we can get into this before I have to cough again yay um which is right now
right now right now yep had to pause really quick uh you got that tail end of a cough
probably but you know we're gonna start right in because I don't know how far I can get and how long this will take to
get there so we're gonna talk today about something a little different there's mystery here there's a
disappearance here there's some spooky Tails here but it is The Disappearance of Theodosia Burr Alston ooh now in case
you don't know Theodosia Burr is in fact the daughter of Aaron Burr imagine that
of Hamilton Fame uh this is gonna be really hard for me not to sing Hamilton songs but I think I will be aided by the
fact that if I sing I Will cough so thank you Lord I was just gonna say so this is really just everybody someone up
there is looking over us guys they are so maybe I'll just speak some of the lines every once in a while spoken word
but this is a very interesting one because it is still unsolved we don't know what happened to Theodosia Burr oh
which is very interesting it's like um oh what was the one you did where it was like that and you went through all like
the ship manifestos and all that oh yeah Shenanigans um the ship manifests yeah yeah it's um
Dorothy Arnold oh yeah yeah that was fun that was that was a lot of fun and sad but we'll just have like similar Vibes a
little bit that that one was a little easier because there was actual like easier records to find but this is
like we're talking about you know the the birth of the nation time here so this is like a little harder we're gonna
get into more theories but with a little bit there is some stuff to back up some of the theories
okay so let's start at the beginning on or not even at the beginning let's start
at the the the act itself okay this happened on December 31st 1812. damn Theodosia Burr Alston who like I said is
the daughter of former vice president and relatively notorious Founding Father Aaron Burr boarded a schooner ship aptly
named Patriot ah um she was on her way to New York from um South Carolina uh she was going to
meet her father Aaron they had planned a meeting and that's why she was going to
New York because as we'll talk about Aaron had just come back from being um a little bit of a runaway in Europe a
little bit for some reason some little reason so he was back so she wanted to visit him but once the ship had left
port in South Carolina that was the last time anyone would see Theodosia Burr or
the Patriot again ship was gone yeah so Theodosia in case like I said in case you don't know who this is
um she was born into American aristocracy when this all began she lived a life young women could only
dream of she was an aristocat she was an aristocat she was the daughter of one of
our founding fathers America's founding fathers and she was literally there for the birth of our nation which is pretty
wild what do you think about it pretty much and what's even worse is that like so she's there for The Birth of a Nation
her father is like participating in all this and then she's there for the unprecedented scandal that followed her
father's trial for treason so but either way we're gonna see that there's like I as I was reading this I was like no
one's ever just good huh and I'm not talking about Theodosia I'm talking about Aaron Burr
like obviously we know if you know who Aaron Burr is you probably know the one thing about him which is he shot and
killed Alexander Hamilton yeah that's probably what you know about him and he was tried for treason but when you learn
about how he was as a father and how he was as a husband you're like for a minute you're like wow like you're just
such a good guy which like maybe he was but like then you get these Little Snips
that you're like God damn it no one's ever nice like you're like [ __ ] you it's
really wild it's just like damn it America but either way she was here for all of that but as an adult she married
Joseph Alston so she didn't fall stray far away from politics because she had a childhood of political importance or at
least very you know right next to political importance now she was the wife of a rising political star which at
this time would have given her at the very least a pretty subtle role in post-colonial politics right up until
her disappearance um because that was only a few months into the War of 1812 she disappeared so
for two full centuries we have no idea what has happened to Theodosia Burr like we are all still scratching our head for
answers to this day we don't know what happened all we can think of was she cat was she kidnapped by Pirates that's a
very real that's a very real possibility and they just like destroyed the ship yeah like
or they took the ship and we just didn't see it again they they took off the Patriot name and then we don't know that
it's there you know was the ship lost at sea Without a Trace was there some kind
of weather event we're going to talk about that what happened so let's go back to the beginning
Theodosia Burr was born to Aaron Burr and Theodosia prevober in Albany New York on June 21st 1783.
she was actually born just six months before the end of the American Revolution holy [ __ ] quite a birth
um her father like we said was already pretty well known he had a lot of power a lot of influence
um and he had actually entered the war as a volunteer Soldier but he had quickly risen to the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel by the time that he was then forced to resign from the Continental Continental Army in 1776 but outside of
all the military stuff Aaron was known to be super hard-working really influential uh he he went after what he
wanted especially he had a successful law practice Yeah he maintained a really big social network that really had some
of the most powerful people in New England in it so he was living he was living one might say slithering there
you go one being who Paris Hilton is that of course you got to get a new mom yeah she like trademarked that right we
gotta like all anytime you say you have to be like TM para Sultan yes of course so I think she did anyway maybe she
might as well if so theodosia's parents had a somewhat um unconventional path to
marriage especially for colonial era people like first living so has anyone seen Hamilton raise your hands oh yes
raised now Aaron and his wife Theodosia senior met while Theodosia senior was still married to a man named Jacques
privo who was a British officer with the Royal American regiment that's number good remember that part of Hamilton
where bur sings Theodosia writes me a letter every day okay I'm keeping her bed warm while her husband is away oh
yes he's on the British side in Georgia he's trying to keep the colonies in line
but he can keep all of Georgia Theodosia She's mine oh sauce I kind of love their
love yeah it's like it's a it's a um what's the word when is it like star-crossed lovers is that
yeah is that what it is very Romeo and Juliet you're not supposed to be together I do love their love I have to
say that so after pravo's Unexpected death from yellow fever in 1871 which by the way throughout this entire thing
they very openly had an affair yeah like it was it was like happened like I mean
did you like you said those lyrics yeah like he's just keeping the bed warm all right yeah it's fine but like I I want
the girl but they ended up marrying after he died he kicked it they were like all right it's our time now Aaron
played the long game you know rip he did you know rip despite the couple carrying
again like I said an open Affair before he died you know what they really didn't really
get a ton of [ __ ] for it yeah which is pretty cool um you know they're they made a lot of
sacrifices like patriotic sacrifices during the war that I guess people kind of were like all right we can still
respect you okay we can still hang out with you they admired them their Social Circle really didn't fall apart at this
time good of course there was a little bit of Gossip it's not like people were like oh we don't give a [ __ ] at all yeah
well there also was like not that much to talk about anyway so like of course you're gonna talk about that so I think
it was one of those things where it was like everybody was just like oh [ __ ] like you had an affair with a [ __ ]
British officer's wife that's wild dude yeah but like do you want to come to this dinner party like it wasn't it was
like like hey Aaron's coming he has street cred he has street cred now now usually people back then were marrying
for very practical reasons that was why you got married it was first station it was for getting you in a better
situation but they legit married purely out of love oh which and like love mutual respect and just like their their
likes and dislikes were very aligned they had like very much an intellectual companionship like this was one of those
things where you look at it and you go yeah that was was like fate yeah you know what I mean if you believe in fate
of course or like these were soul mates so I feel like they they weren't meant to see each other
they both shared a real love of arts and culture that wasn't really common at the
time and for like a woman and a man to find each other right yeah and it was cool and I mean Burr
adored his wife and everyone knew that around them like after little theodosia's birth in 1783
he lost his mind like he in like a good way like he just and everybody was like the love he had for his wife just
trickled right down into his into his daughter um and historians have actually said it
was the so that she was the soul of her father's Soul oh that's how they were like how beautiful isn't that really
beautiful and like a man said that now unfortunately the birth of young Theodosia was very traumatic for both
mother and baby as was a lot of births back then yeah but this one was really bad they both did recover but Theodosia
senior dealt with a lot of After Effects um and when they did Burma like when they were you know both up and running
Burr moved his family from Albany to a rented house at number three Wall Street where his law practice could really grow
just exponentially faster and during that period Aaron Burr became one of the most sought after lawyers in New York he
earned a ton of money and the good news with this was in his case was that now he got to spend time with his family
right he didn't have to be away from them traveling all the time at the time and he could really invest in their
future make sure that they were set up beautiful at the time he was killing it he's operating his own legal practice
he's serving as a New York state assemblyman between 1784 and 85 and Theodosia senior like I said was
unfortunately dealing with a lot of uh after effects from the traumatic birth so at the time he was limiting himself
traveling and would just kind of remain at home and tend to his family which was
a little different and when they were apart Burr would just write love letters like fall to his wife and to his
daughter like these letters were just like them talking about how much they loved and missed each other all of them
like all three of them like the sweetest thing ever yeah that's beautiful so in 1785 Theodosia senior gave birth
to a second daughter who they named Sally cute now before Sally and after Theodosia the birds had dealt with two
stillbirths tragically yeah so Sally was celebrated immensely just like little children yeah and although Burr was
traveling a lot during this time he really did try to spend as much time as he could with his family and just kind
of keeping up what was happening with in New York but unfortunately in 1788 Sally
ended up dying of an unknown illness oh [ __ ] yeah and it was only what three years after I think she was only three
or four she was young yeah so after Sally's death young Theodosia became even more the apple of her parents house
of course more lavish with attention and praise than ever and Burr just exploded
all over her whenever he could in a good way and her parents like he didn't just
like scream at her yeah um her parents were just so thankful to still have her and the birds put a lot of attention on
her education as well which was different for girls of them 100 Burr was actually the main teacher for Theodosia
but Theodosia senior took over when he had to travel and she took classes in Reading dance music
that's very much what young girls would be learning back then but much unlike young girls of her age at the time Aaron
insisted that she also have classes in math writing and language good he wanted his daughter to have everything she
needed or wanted in this life and he knew that she needed to be prepared and she also needed to carry on then a
legacy of him being a very well educated man so it was like a double-sided tipping here but his letters while he
was away would often just be him being like how is her education progressing do you need any help he would offer to like
hire tutors at like twice the amount just to make sure she could like keep up with everything yeah and she was
actually able to read and write pretty fluently by five years old holy [ __ ] like like not like oh I'm starting to
learn how to read at five it's like no I can literally read anything you give me
pop off Theo yeah and again it like I said this was kind of a double thing like he loved his daughter he wanted his
daughter to be you whatever she wanted to be but again according to Richard Cody who is a historian he said quote
theodosia's education was a direct extension of her father's so the drive for her to succeed was definitely also I
it was one I want you to be a well-educated free thinker on your own but it was also you need to uphold my
reputation yeah which I guess but you know he also had a lot of instruction for her like this is how you
are a good person which is good this is how you teach your kid to be a good person you don't lie you don't cheat you
don't steal it didn't always extend to his own life yeah no because which could be a problem
yeah um because while he was away as much as he loved his wife he had several extramarital affairs
uh not great Aaron and that's what I mean when I say like you were doing so good right why do you have to cheat on
your wife that's never never a good choice why do you have cheated on your sick wife worse like come on man like
why can't you all why can't you just be good like Bully like fully good but I guess no one can but like bummer so
great father loved Theodosia senior but like he was a founding father so they would
tell her like you know like in that room oh yeah so there's that so in 1789 Aaron
Burr became the third Attorney General of New York which luckily meant he was gonna have to travel less so that's
great in his background in law and his huge network of super powerful politically
political friends made him an instant success in the political realm um but there was a lot of pressure and
it was taking a huge toll on his health like he was exhausted he was stressed and then at home Theodosia senior's
health is still declining she's not doing great everything so he's stress coming from like all angles yeah exactly
and she had struggled obviously since the birth of Theodosia yeah there you go and she had struggled since the birth
which was at this point about 10 years earlier she was still struggling from that and by 1793
um it was kind of apparent that she was really going to continue to decline she was apparently quote in a um an almost
constant choke and she would she would just be coughing like constantly and she would have like daily she was dealing
with nausea and vomiting a lot of stomach pain Burr's friend Dr Benjamin Rush actually recommended that she takes
small doses of Hemlock to treat this which uh I'm here to tell you that that's probably what killed her
yeah one more thing at least hastened mightily the death yeah it's like how George Washington they were like let's
just bleed you for this cold it's fine and continue to bleed you yeah and then they just killed him from trying to fix
him it's like guys I know you weren't like up on it in the 1700s but like my God but you just like really weren't at
all yeah you really weren't on it now in the months leading up to her death they
actually prescribed her so like I said Hemlock at one point they prescribed her Chocolate and Wine [ __ ] prescribe me
chocolate and wine at any time you need to which of like was that just to make her comfortable 100 but no matter what
they did even Mercury at one point they prescribed which probably wasn't great strangely none of it did anything to
relieve her pain unfortunately Theodosia senior died in the family's New York home on May 18
1794. what is believed now to have been either stomach or uterine cancer you know when you were describing her
symptoms I was wondering if it was some kind of cancer yeah it was really sad now at the time Aaron Burr was away in
Philadelphia oh man so as she was in this final stages in pain and suffering alone
theodoria no she had her daughter who was only 11 at the time though and was in the like caring for her mother and
she was the one who was there oh my God and I don't even think she had turned 11
at this point she was still 10. oh man so she was there at the end and she was there when it happened so that's a lot
for a 10 year old now in the wake of Theodosia seniors passing this is when um or excuse me don't yeah Theodosia
seniors passing young Theodosia had to step into the role as woman of the house now
um so now Not only was she taking on new responsibilities but she was also now the full Center of Aaron Burr's world so
I guess this was it um and he had a lot of influence over her but he was but it was like pretty
good influence I would say I don't think she turned out really great so um he was very much pushing her to be
the best she could be continuing her education giving her a lot of moral instruction despite no not adhering to
it himself but she was killing it she was doing amazingly she was achieving far more than her peers were so prefer
good for her and although she was like the center of his world this was a good thing and a bad thing because she was
also lonely yeah she was she was kind of there to take on all the role of her mother so she was there just kind of
walking through this like sprawling mansion by herself when he was gone that's awful and also just she had to
when she got old enough she had to like host the dinner parties and the social events and manage the staff and you know
by the way they were also enslaved people on this property so that's what I mean when like you can look at like all
these things like oh he's such a good dad you know and if there's a where you're like oh and [ __ ] I forgot we're
in the 1700s yeah but she took on all of that and by the time she reached the age of 18 in 1801
she had received more and better of an education than men twice her age had received back to the yeah oh wow doing
the things I just told you she's doing managing a household managing the social stuff like doing all of that stuff on
top of grieving her mother yeah at like 10 years old like she's a she's a badass
she really is a testament to the whole the whole upgrade bringing she had um [Music]
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today [Music] and this is when in 1801 this is when she was finally 18 so she was finally
able to move into another part of life which is married life especially back then you were expected to enter into
that life so she her marriage was you know she liked her husband they got along like because it's a good start you
know that's but it definitely had a lot more to do with like Legacy political strategy but I think it was one of those
things where love and and respect and adoration formed out of that okay so it wasn't
like it all went bad you know like he was just a [ __ ] and they hated each other and that was it they made do she
married Joseph Alston in 1801 um and again like I said they definitely turned into they more than tolerated
each other I love that for them so that was a good thing and in the end when you hear how
Joseph speaks about her he loved her okay very much it's like I said began definitely with the cold the where
Legacy political strategy we this is what we do and it ended up with being like wow I think he really looked at her
as like this extraordinary woman because in the end he basically says like I felt
worthy of being in her presence like I I didn't feel worthy for so long and then
I finally felt worthy like so he really looked at her as like she's a badass yeah and like I should be respected her
yeah like I'm lucky to have entered into this so Theodosia met Joseph Alston during the
presidential campaign of 18 1800 actually Burr was using Alston as kind of a middleman to convey information
from the north to the Republicans in the South uh and you know like many men that
came into theodosia's presence he was immediately very much enamored with how smart she was she had a very she was
quiet but she was like quietly confident like she had this error about her that like I know how great I am but like not
annoying um and she and also I love this because he blatantly says that she he was never
put off by her lack of skill in the women womanly Arts which wasn't gonna like makeup and stuff how good of you
and I think it was like in like folding laundry oh and like [ __ ] cooking dinner
you know like the ones really Arts she was doing better [ __ ] those are the womanly arts and she she was too busy
getting an education to really yeah you know she learned that stuff but it wasn't what she was into and he he
wasn't put off by that kind of folding either Thea you know now once the election was finally you know over
Jefferson was President bur was his vice president Alston proposed to Theodosia but she said no
she says I love this this was in a this is in a letter she said Aristotle judged
a man to a mature for marriage before age 36. hell yeah I feel like disagree Theodosia I love it and they had these
letters back and forth that are very like sassy like she's just like you're too immature sorry about it call me when
you're 33 36 is like such a random name she was like that's what Aristotle said so I'm gonna listen to him because I am
educated a lot of people think that you shouldn't get married until after you're
30 because that's when you have your return to Saturn which is like when the next thing is supposed to kind of like
it's also like a really shitty period in your life it can't be like because everything gets like mismatched and then
falls into place you know I'm doing it I'm gonna go ahead and get rid of it before I got married before 30. I didn't
have kids until 30. so yeah I think my goal is kids at 30. but either way Joseph traveled from South Carolina
where he was living to Upstate New York in February of 1801 and that's when he convinced Theodosia to marry him was he
36 he was not 36 but he he did a lot of convincing he did the leg work yeah he traveled so you know that traveling was
not easy back then so shortly after they got married Theo and Joseph went on what
was called a bridal tour what the [ __ ] is that uh they traveled around with this Entourage of servants into the more
rural parts of the New York State and they reached their destination which was Niagara Falls this trip was
apparently kind of a celebration of the marriage so it was almost like a honeymoon kind of thing okay
um but it also gave Theodosia kind of a break from running the house in New York
and like doing all the things this was like a vacation yeah and back then vacations were not a thing you didn't go
on vacation goodbye like you didn't it was not common for people to be like I'm just gonna go to Niagara Falls to look
at it because it's pretty they were just like not like it was like if you were traveling you were traveling for a very
distinct person for war because for war to go declare battle on someone but yeah
she she needed this like nice little rest period and she wrote a letter to her sister-in-law and she said if you
wish to have an idea of real Sublimity visit the Falls of Niagara they are magnificent I love it the Falls I love
that and again this is like it's pretty significant because it's like one Theodosia is now transitioning into
adulthood she's not child anymore and it's also the first time that anyone really went to Niagara Falls
for recreational purposes that is kind of crazy so she was just like breaking stereotypes everywhere apparently and
this actually began that trend of Lexington cool [ __ ] for no reason so she invented sites same kind of like in a
way like this is a [ __ ] I invented vacation ushering and like you can just go look at [ __ ] wow for vacation you
don't need to be going there for a purpose put it directly from theodosia's Diary you can just go look at it you can
just go look at [ __ ] the Falls of Niagara Niagara are [ __ ] magnificent that's what she wrote so then she
stamped her little name yeah her big old name but you know what she's still in that life she grew up in she's she's an
aristocat as you said she's still she's in South Carolina now um it's all money politics a little bit
of Domesticity in there yeah um Joseph took over a lot of the doting that her father had done on her okay because he
really did start to really just dote on her they hosted dinner parties they had social events at their home they they
would go back to New York in the summer to visit her father it was all very what
you would think of you know like you're just like oh like so fancy So Glamorous fanciful in the spring of 1802 just a
year into their marriage Theodosia gave birth to a boy they named Aaron Burr Alston oh uh she was so happy she called
him the crowning blessing of her life oh my God [ __ ] me up isn't that adorable
I'm gonna call my kids that no unfortunately this birth was also pretty traumatic for both of them because like
I said birth was pretty traumatic back then um she ended up dealing with what is now
recognized as a prolapsed uterus oh [ __ ] yeah and at the time it just went untreated and unnoticed because they
didn't know what it was oh my God so the pain must have been outrageous and it was unrelenting daily to her well is
that just like that doesn't fix itself so she just like went on the rest of her life she was just going with it and she
went to tons of Physicians she went to Specialists she was just unable to find any relief for this because they didn't
know what that was and after this and the in the pain that followed from the whole thing Burr wanted Theodosia and
the baby to come to New York and he said you can get away from you know the crazy
heat in Charleston I would you know I want to be here for you I want to take care of you too like yeah just come here
so they started going every summer and in the fall months actually to New York to visit Aaron it was just like with the
baby like this was a whole thing Aaron visiting Aaron yeah but unfortunately like she loved it but she also was
lonely there because she missed Joseph because like I said they were starting to like you just gonna say they like
each other and in a letter in 1802 she wrote I would I had rather been ill on Sullivan island with with you than
separated from you even my amusements served to increase my unhappiness for if anything affords me pleasure the thought
that were you here you also would feel pleasure and thus re-double mine at once put it's an end to my enjoyment oh baby
that's love they love each other yeah they absolutely what started out is like we gotta get married this is just what
we do it's like I really like you when you start finding amusement and things but you're like not with your partner
and you're like that makes you sad yeah and when you're like just thinking about
the fact that you would find pleasure in this but you can't and like I would be doubly feeling good if you were here
like that makes me sadder it's like that's when you know now the first several years of their marriage were
very happy like I said very happy very Blissful there wasn't really a lot of trauma happening like she was dealing
with the pain but she was going through it but then in 1804 again she was not having any treatment for what is a
prolapsed uterus she was starting to experience gruesome recurring uterine infections oh my gosh yeah which made
her incapable of having any more children and also made sex impossible oh um she was in physical pain all the time
she was also feeling very depressed from this constant physical pain yeah and at
one point she was she had a Suicidal Thoughts um also and you know that's taking a
toll in our marriage because they're not able to be intimate like yeah that's tough he's watching her be in pain he
can't do anything about it that's a lot it's a lot and then making things worse first there was a ton of infighting and
like political rhetoric happening surrounding the end of her father's term as vice president and he was becoming
like inflammatory and it you know it was dealing with Joseph Alston too because he was part of
the whole thing right so that was putting pressure on thing it was like the internet before the internet like
putting a bunch of pressure on that and there was a much publicized Battle of words that you guys might recognize it
was between Aaron Burr um and this guy who was like the Secretary of this uh or the former
Secretary of the Treasury his name was Alexander Hamilton yeah yeah they had like it was pretty publicized they're
they're back yeah there's like a pamphlet or something there was a lot of accusations being thrown around some
claims of impropriety I I won't get into it but like you can look it up if you want or listen to the soundtrack if you
want to find a little something and shockingly Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel oh we did yep July of 1804. I
thought that happened and what happened during that is that Aaron Burr shot and killed
Alexander Hamilton yeah uh at this point Theodosia was only 23 years old by the way she's gone through all of this at
23. now her dad is on the actual run like he's by gotta get out of here and on the run like I don't know in the
soundtrack he says on the Run he says someone told you told me you better hide and yeah they were right correct so he
he was out luckily he didn't put he didn't put his family in danger direct danger by coming to them because again
he's on the run from New York right you would think he would just toot down to South Carolina it's confusing though
because like aren't those the the rules of a duel like someone dies yeah but I think he first of all like the whole
thing is that um Alexander Hamilton put his his pistons in the sky yeah and then
I think more people were on Hamilton's side than burst uh yeah so I think so it since
Hamilton put his pistol in the sky that's Burr was also supposed to do that it it's one of those things I think and
I'm not an expert on duels but I believe it's one of those like you know um like like honor things where it's
like if you turn around and the guys got the pistol in the sky you shooting him would be pretty like low-handed like
it's like you see him not shooting you you're you should probably be like can you think of how like quick that happens
though like if he turned around prepared to not see I'm yeah sure he didn't think
he was gonna see Hamilton's gun in the sky of course yeah and if that's a quick movement if you listen to the soundtrack
he says that Alexander Hamilton was wearing his glasses why the [ __ ] would he wear those if he wasn't planning to
shoot him fair you know what's funny is I'm actually supposed to see Hamilton like next week there you go so this will
all be very relevant yeah it literally because he sings songs about both Theodosia senior and Theodosia yeah I've
only seen it on TV but I'm like seeing it yeah and obviously before I get emails that are like you know that
that's not like a historically like perfect thing I know it's a Broadway show I know this I'm just making jokes
um but this is all real and yeah I think it's one of those things where like you
are supposed to have like your seconds out of duel which they're supposed to talk to each other and try to be like
hey maybe these two guys shouldn't just try to shoot each other like maybe we should just like talk through this yeah
but some people are idiots and they don't like to negotiate they like to just go to boom boom trigger finger and
like [ __ ] everything up so yeah they did that gotcha and that's not a good way to
be never a good way so you should always try to negotiate you should always try to do that so and that's what they say
like your seconds are supposed to come in and be like we both know that this is stupid but it doesn't happen every time
it didn't happen with his son either Philip Alexander Hamilton's son yes and died yeah exactly so like there's a lot
of you know a lot of dumb that scene oh God destroy you yeah destroy you all right but this is about Theodosia he did
not exactly so he did not run down to South Carolina and endanger his whole family because that would have
endangered them and Joseph um instead he went out west sorry I almost coughed so my voice broke there I
didn't even catch it I'm okay I swallowed the cough so I went West you're crazy he went out west and he
hoped you know he could just buy I think he went like closer to Louisiana like not all the way out west
but like closer to Louisiana where he was like let's it's making his way to Mexico yeah just trying to get out of
here now by summer of 1805 she would Theodosia Jr was just kind of wandering around this giant estate you know her
husband was away all the time she's right back to when her mother died and it's like in her dad's not around now
she's sick it's a real parallel to like her mother's life it is yeah yeah and she was also dealing with her like
really declining health and she's raising a two-year-old boy yeah at the time like that's a lot so by August of
that year her pain was unbearable um she was at that point she was certain she was going to die before the end of
the summer like that's how bad it got so she actually wrote a letter to Joseph and gave him instructions for what
should happen should she pass away before the end of the summer she said quote after my death and before my
burial and she wrote basically this is my and testament she made instructions for where her belongings should go who
should care for her son she said to you my beloved I leave our child who was once a part of myself you love him now
henceforth love him for me also and oh my husband attend to this last prayer of my of a doting mother
oh like that's horrible [ __ ] me right up yeah Theodosia that's that's gonna work
the good news she did not die she was not sure she did she was dealing with the emotional and physical pain still
but she did not die she didn't have to live out that well and testament just yet
um but Burr was arrested for treason and was taken to Richmond Virginia to be tried I don't think I knew that yeah
um even worse many men were believing that because of burst position that he wouldn't or couldn't pay his debts so
they were now coming to Joseph Alston trying to get assurances that he was going to pay Joseph Alston wasn't able
to provide those assurances so a lot more [ __ ] was coming their way politics throughout this whole trial Theodosia
and Joseph relocated to a home in Virginia to be close to him actually during the trial uh it was a smaller
home that was good because it was kind of less for Theodosia to have to do and have to be responsible for right but she
was dealing with the stress and anxiety of the entire trial and everything that was going on and in the end the court
did determine that the prosecution hadn't made a strong enough case to find Burr guilty of treason so he was
actually acquitted on those charges okay but so now he's free he's free to move about the country he's free to do
whatever he needs to do but he's not gonna be welcomed back with open arms after everything he can't just
like go out there and be like hi friends what's up dinner party like no so he decided he was going to go to Europe
because why not right yeah you might as well go there and it takes a lot for anybody to go over there at this time so
he's like I think I'll be okay over there yeah [Music] foreign but sure Burrs released from trial you
know released from the charges but the Fallout was and he's over in Europe now but the Fallout was everywhere like they
weren't getting away from this right so while he was in Europe he relied a lot on Theodosia and Joseph to give regular
updates essentially on like American politics and also relied on them to spread disinformation among his
political Rivals ah he was very needy at this time it sounds like it now Birds neediness came at a tough time for
Theodosia because she was juggling her responsibilities managing the household raising a child dealing with the health
health issues and now by 1809 all of the constant physical pain was starting to cause neurological and psychological
symptoms um what was referred to as the most violent affections and it was hysteric
fits quote unquote periods of seeing colors and flashes of light but for her eyes wow she would hallucinate like see
people around her bed um she would hear strange you know like auditory hallucinations
and they would come and go it wasn't constant but like she was dealing with it and aside from this she was also
dealing with the depression her equilibrium was off she had a violently stinging mouth sore situation like sores
in her mouth she had exhaustion and the whole equilibrium thing was causing her to like have Falls yeah and one fall
caught she got a spinal injury that kept her immobile for like weeks oh my God she's like really going through it so by
1812 Aaron Burr had been you know wandering around Europe just kind of like going from one place to the next
place like running out of money like going to the next place and the stress on Theodore Dojo was enormous but in
1812 he had finally had enough of that and he wrote to tell her I'm traveling by boat to New York and I would love to
see you and my grandson like I need to see you but unfortunately that never no on June 30th 1912 as or 1812 excuse me
as Burr was making his way from Boston to New York by boat um ten-year-old Aaron Burr Alston
actually died from a summer fever or country fever oh man this was asber was on the boat home and again like the way
that her life mirrors her mother's life that's crazy I know and summer fever or country fever would now be malaria oh
fever some malaria um in 18th and 19th century South Carolina malaria was a huge contributor
to high mortality rates the climate the swampy conditions of that area they're just a breeding ground for swarms of
mosquitoes little Aaron had contacted this around May or early June and during the month of June he was basically in
like a stuporous state to make matters worse it was the early 1900s of it all so they used Mercury and just made him
rest to see if it would help that had never been a cure and wasn't a cure for that but they tried it out it did not
work um Theodosia was obviously very devastated she was dealing with 10 years of
unrelenting pain and suffering and this is just the actual worst thing that could have happened like the one thing
that she just thought was most precious to her isn't it yeah and she's probably like distracting herself from everything
going on in her life by doting on her son yeah of course in a letter she wrote on July 12th to Aaron Burr she said I've
lost my boy my child is gone forever may heaven make you make you some amends for
the noble grandson you have lost and after little Aaron's loss theodosia's only real thing she could look for any
Solace she had was that she was going to be able to see her dad because now she was like you're gonna be back in New
York I can go see you I have she hasn't seen him in like four years he was like exiled in Europe for that long so in
December of 1812 she made firm plans with him I'm gonna come see you and alston's election in South Carolina
for um it was against the South Carolina governor on December 10th was in like full swing at this time so he would have
normally gone with her oh okay of course because she's in poor health too right but he couldn't because he was in the
middle of this whole thing so it just happened to be like a time when he couldn't come so she was gonna have to
do it alone Now by late December 1812 1812 the War of 1812 had been going for like six
months at this time so any Interstate travel at this time was pretty risky yeah this was not an easy decision to
make she had two options to go to New York one she could go by land in the Austin's Carriage which would have been
a two-week Journey at the very least or she could go by sea which would be way shorter but it carried the uh the added
much higher risk of being captured by British soldiers or even possibly Pirates right but still the idea of
spending more than two weeks being thrown around a carriage being driven by what who theodo a driver who Theodosia
referred to as a great drunkard oh no wasn't super appealing so she chose the sea I could see why yeah she was like
I'm gonna take to the Sea so by the winter of 1812 British warships had set up blockades in a lot of the major ports
including Charleston and had been capturing American ships as prizes on top of that [ __ ] Pirates and privateers
were also very active off the coast of the Carolinas which made things worse Joseph Alston really didn't like the
idea of her going into the sea especially because she is like a prominent figure's daughter and a
prominent figure's wife yeah I have a feeling that's what happened here yeah and it's like he was strongly protesting
this and they got in like months of arguments about this like he was really like please do not do it just get in the
carriage but finally she he was like fine you're not gonna listen so you gotta I'll just give you my blessing
sorry I had to stop to cough you probably heard the end of that I was like blessing but there we go she was
going but really he only agreed to this in the end the only thing that made him agree to it was he was really hopeful
that visiting her father was going to lift her spirits yeah and he thought that might translate into her physical
health as well because they didn't know anything about this back then so like maybe if she feels better she'll feel
better right but because of her health he was like I'm not gonna just let you go like without any provisions here so
Burr actually helped him arrange to have his friend Dr Timothy Green travel from
Boston to South Carolina and then accompany Theo to New York oh I see on a private Schooner the one named The
Patriot so his a private doctor was going to be on the ship to make sure everything went okay
on December 30th a day before they were leaving Joseph Alston walked Theodosia and Dr Green to the family's Landing in
Oaks Creek where they both were ferried to the Patriot in Georgetown Harbor the other thing that's contributing to this
I feel like is the name of the ship I I was thinking that too I was like oh you really put like a big Target on that
ship yeah it's carrying like you know it's carrying like a political daughter and it's also carrying like kind of a
pariah political's daughter like you know I mean there's a lot of layers here and it's called The Patriot yeah in the
high and like you said the wife of a political you know bigwig so it's a lot now the Patriot itself was a 63 foot
shallow draft Schooner okay um it was used as a pilot boat during the American Revolution before this oh
sure and it only needed like a small crew I think it only needed like three or four people to sail it uh this was a
private ship but it was considered a privateering ship so it had been authorized by the government to carry
guns as a means of protection against Pirates and British warships but this one in particular only had three cannons
in a civilian crew so it was really not gonna be helpful like even with the guns
it wasn't really going to be helpful this was a civilian crew awesome if they did run into Pirates they're probably
gonna be in some trouble a British warship yikes like not gonna be great but it records
indicate that the Patriots cannons had actually been weren't even going to be helpful anyways because they had been
dismounted and stowed below deck because they figured they couldn't use them anyway I think I know what happened to
Theodosia so even if they wanted to fend off Invader Invaders they definitely weren't going to be able to yeah well
they'll be another thing that'll kind of be like oh maybe that's what happened but Joseph Alston hadn't really chosen
the Patriot because he wanted it to be this like warship that was gonna get her there it was apparently very Swift
sailing very smooth it was like had a very good record of being safe and he figured this is going to get her there
quick in less than a week it was supposed to get her to New York oh wow because that was the whole thing was the
carriage was going to be like over two weeks right so the Patriots set sail out of Georgetown harmer Harbor at 12 noon
on December 31st 1812. that was again the last time anyone saw Theodosia Burr Alston Dr Timothy Greene the Patriot or
its crew when Theodosia failed to show up to New York a week later Byrne Alston were like a little alarmed yeah but they
weren't freaking out yet you know there were several reasons delay could happen so it wasn't super uncommon that this
was going to happen but then the second week came and no word was heard from the
ship or Theodosia and they began freaking out they were now seeking answers um apparently one of them who wasn't it
was I think it was Joseph or no it was um Aaron excuse me Aaron wrote to Theodosia in New York and wrote another
male and still no letter all that I have left of heart is yours all my prayer for
your safety and well-being now after three weeks Alston was beginning to suspect the worst and he
began casting blame actually towards Burr at this point he said in a letter he said tomorrow will be three weeks
since in obedience to your wishes Theodosia left me because again he was not happy she was
gone he's like you did this and he wrote gracious God is my wife too taken from me I do not know why I write but I feel
like I feel that I am miserable oh because he just lost his son too yeah now after several months now without
word from Theodosia or any of the people on the Patriot the men were they were forced to accept that she was gone
something happened here um and Aaron Burr wrote to a friend were she alive all the prisons in the world
could not keep her from her father when I realized the truth of her death the world became a blank to me and life then
lost all its value I mean I get that like he was he lost everything and he loved his daughter now Joseph Alston was
clearly obviously equally as [ __ ] up by the realization that he was never going to see her again and he also lost
everything yeah and in one of his final letters to Aaron Burr his anguish oh like this is this will destroy you get
ready he wrote my boy my wife both gone this then is the end of all the hopes we
had formed you may well observe that you feel severed from the human race she was
the last tie that bounds us to the species but the man who has been deemed worthy of the heart of Theodosia Burr
and has felt what it is to be blessed with such a woman's love will never forget this elevation
wow um like they just don't write like they used to they don't they don't make it
like yeah like he's tearing up in the coins that part got me yeah like I'm not oh my goodness
so what happened to Theodosia Pirates this was a big deal and or the British you know it could no this was a big deal
and of course there is there was no real explanation being offered they couldn't really come up with one so
there were a lot of theories that were having to be kind of like plonkered together this is on there's honestly
very little information about what might have been loaded onto the ship before it
left like they don't have a lot of Records saying like this is exactly what was on this ship but according to one of
um Joseph alston's descendants actually there were a lot of barrels of rice from
alston's Plantation aboard which were to be sold once the ship reached New York and it would offset the cost of this
trip okay and others have suggested that Theo carried with her the Burr family silverware which she planned to return
to her father okay this is just important to know that there were things on the ship the people you might have
wanted yeah it was also said that the ship's Captain who was William overstocks he had
painted over the name of the ship on the hall to avoid attracting any attention okay and that he also carried on the on
him with the ship quote the proceeds of her raids so money or like things of value money
and while these definitely make it like interesting yeah there is a weather thing to take a note to account here
when you say like it definitely was Pirates like it absolutely could have been pirates could have been British
could have been any of these things but there's another little thing to think of
this is just to give you a little bit of the you know these things were on the ship so that's interesting now the most
likely explanation for what happened is kind of simple but really tragic okay um I it might have been caught in a
storm after leaving Port but they've never found it that's the thing and as of 2022 just to put it out there there
are over 10 000 shipwrecks in North America um and some this was some of it is from
battle but a lot of it was just caused by an experienced captains you know and unpredictable weather yeah
because at the time especially it wasn't easy to forecast right now in 1812 sailing relied entirely on analog
methods of operation so the odds of the miscalculation of some weather event coming are pretty good and this would
definitely be something that could sink a ship especially a schooner now interestingly on January 1st 1813
the day after the ship set out one weather event did come through and it quote blew up that night off Cape
Hatteras now about this is only about 400 or so miles north of Georgetown so interesting it is there and it's
believed that this could be the storm that maybe forced the Patriot off course maybe it hit rocks and it sunk to the
bottom of the Atlantic before anyone could get off it odd now this is pretty accepted by a lot of people they're like
that makes a lot of sense um this was the one that also in the beginning especially was the one that
was accepted by Aaron Burr and Joseph Alston when they didn't hear her from her in months
um in a letter written to her two weeks after she had left the port at Georgetown Joseph wrote I hear Too
rumors of a gale off Cape Hatteras the beginning of the month the state of my mind is Dreadful oh yeah now also
apparently General Thomas Pickney who was a family friend of the altons or the alstons met with an admiral from the
British blockade just off the coast of South Carolina China and this guy from the British blockade said he could
confirm that the Patriot was a loud safe Passage through the blockade just hours
before quote a violent Gale followed the same night oh okay but we're gonna go back to that because there's a little
mystery in that too yeah so that sounds all very like okay so people figured it out that's it like that's it it was a
storm but then in 1998 archaeologist James L might I think it's Michi or Michi I'm
pretty sure okay commissioned the study to uncover more evidence of what happened to The Patriot and after a ton
of digging his team was able to find that there was no record of the Patriot having passed through that blockade so
and why would they have let it well that did happen there would be like granted safe passage orders but it would have
been logged that would have been something that would have been very much logged right there is no record of them
going through that blockade yeah and that's interesting because they didn't they were able to verify that there was
a violent storm that passed over South Carolina on the coast on January 1st 1813 and according to Mitchy quote the
Gale was so severe that the warships furled and reefed most of their sail nevertheless the ferocity of the storm
stripped off top Gallant yards and mass snapped rigging and tore out chain plate
bolts from the hell to the hall excuse me so it's strange because they were not given safe passage at least not recorded
safe passage so that's often Shady because it's like did you do something yeah and you're pretending that you let
them through right but like did sense so it's absolutely could be the storm but it absolutely could be that they were
not allowed in safe passage and that that [ __ ] was taken right interesting now let's get on to little urban legends
like a little more urban D legendary Urban alternate theories here so more theories abound the most prominent and
dramatic theory that came out of the late 19th century early 20th century and came out of your mouth too was that and
mine as well was that she was seized by Pirates yeah that's what I found um but there it gets even worse like that makes
sense but this one's saying that she lived long enough afterwards to help direct the course of American History so
she stayed active in directing our history which wow um I was like oh you lost and what gets
interesting is that several Sailors throughout the 19th century said they had seen Theodosia among the Pirates and
one pirate said that he quote claimed to have actually laid the plank that Theodosia then walked all dressed in
white into the stormy sea oh that's not chilling wild another theory out of 1873
says that the Patriot was a victim of a trap laid by a pirate who went by Gibbs and who apparently confessed after being
sent uh captured and sentenced to hang the tail was wild because it said that Joseph and Theodosia were arguing over
the morality of her father's actions like his whole thing with Hamilton and that there was such a blowout that
that's why she decided to go to New York but we know she was fleeing and so this
is why this one is not really a good one this one also says that she took her two
children with her and she only had one and she didn't have any children at the time their child died of malaria but the
story says that Gibbs so you can take that and say people probably switched it but the story says that Gibbs heard of
this trip and through the [ __ ] and and thought that the ship was likely to have
tons of valuable [ __ ] on it so he said a trap captured the ship everyone on it
and it's a tale that in this tale many of the crew and officers were murdered and he decided to put all the survivors
to death as well by walking the plank okay um obviously this is [ __ ] um I would say I'm like okay I'm not
saying she wasn't captured by Pirates I'm just saying this one in particular was definitely not one I would think but
and they they very much like in all these stories they very much like romanticize it yeah like she walked off
the plane the Pirates and the wearing all white and all that um but a similar story appears roughly
10 years after the Gibbs story most of the same kind of plot points but this one says that a rough and hard looking
former sailor by the name of Benjamin Burdick was on his deathbed um and he was in uh Michigan when he was
on his deathbed and wished to unburden himself I'm confessing yes um but he wanted to confess his role in
the death of theodosiah the story was supposedly told to Mrs Parks the wife of a local Methodist Minister and it was in
I guess there was three witnesses there to hear it they are unnamed it's pretty vague egg and according to Burdick as a
boy in 1813 he was on board a pirate ship Who Came Upon the Patriot he said it was on January 3rd 1813 so three days
after they had set sail he said they kind of chased them the Patriot was captured by Pirates Burdick claimed that
they had taken everything of value off the ship and then they then compelled the captain and every passenger on board
to walk the plank into the sea and all perished hmm now they kind of he also kind of
romanticizes this you can read this in the montgom Montgomery County Sentinel from 1883. he said there was this one
lady on board who was a beautiful who was a beautiful appearing intelligent and cultivated person who gave her name
as Mrs Theodosia Burr Alston when her turn came to walk the Fatal plank she asked for a few moments time which was
gruffly granted to her I was like I don't think Pirates are letting her have time I don't think so either she
appeared pale yet beautiful as she retired to her birth and changed her apparel appearing again on deck in a few
moments clad in pure white garments and with a Bible in her hand she announced that she was ready she appeared as calm
and composed as if she were at home and not a Tremor crept over her frame nor did any pallor overspread her features
as she walked towards her fate as she was taking the Fatal steps she folded her hands over her bosom raised her eyes
to Heaven she fell and sank without a murmur or sigh a pirate said this beautiful yeah now he went on to say
that um it was his quote unhappy lot to be delegated by the captain to pull the plank from beneath her yeah and he said
he would have given his whole life to undo what had been done supposedly before he died he repeated this
confession to other men at the house saying I shall never forget the perfect confiding Faith which she which her eyes
expressed as she gazed up into heaven when about to take the Fatal step her pale face has haunted me ever since and
I see it now as plainly as I did on that terrible day oh interesting now let's get on to one of my favorite
theories is that she became a pirate Queen I do love that I don't see that but I
love I don't see that but I love it yeah now the rumors of the you know them being taken by Pirates
they began circulating almost immediately after it was announced that she had disappeared but it wasn't until
decades later that the story really like started gaining some footing and according to the one particular Legend a
group of researchers discovered evidence that the weather reports at the time of
theodosia's departure weren't actually what they said they were oh it seems like this Theory says that there was
something that was assumed to be a violent storm but it actually wasn't nearby to where they were okay and that
this is the one that says like okay so that didn't happen they were not lost in a storm so they were definitely
commandeered by Pirates and one of these Pirates was a pirate turned respected citizen oh by the name of Dominique
Frederick you I like that name now it said that you had been a member of a mysterious Fraternal Order
and that someone else was in this order Aaron Aaron Burr I had a feeling and apparently some of the the primary
tenets of this this Fraternal Order was quote the protection of daughters of members against all harm
which obviously Aaron Burr Theodosia Burr now if she had told you upon the time of
being captured I am Aaron Burr's daughter I am Theodosia Burr he couldn't have done anything to bring her harm so
this is the one that says well she lived her days out happily among the Pirates and it says that she was smart she had a
very wide skill set especially for a woman of her time she was also youthful and beautiful and she had everything
that you need to be a pirate queen other than um that prolapsed uterus there's that there was that
um they said you know like she she also might have been really good to have around for like writing letters and
keeping accounts and keeping books because they're not really good at that you know so she wouldn't have to do some
of the heavy lifting doing pirate bookkeeping pirate bookkeeping now this is likely bullfit [ __ ] but it's
pretty fun yeah I would say that's a fun one disguise were not clear like that is
not true uh not by many of their weather reports at least and the legend kind of
just relies on a woman who matches theodosia's description being frequently seen in the company of pirates oh yeah
and actually not even just pirates pirates like there was a well-known pirate named Jean Lafitte
um he this is where like people saw a woman who looked like Theodosia in his company and he happened to be a close
associate of Dominique Frederick you so it's like a very much like eight degrees
of Kevin Bacon yeah like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon 65 degrees of Kevin Bacon kind of situation
um so because you would have to in order to connect these two people um you would have to
I it's it's even hard to connect them because you would have to be like okay so you is connected because he is
conveniently a part of this really vague Fraternal Order that apparently he and Aaron Burr were in even though there's
no real evidence to such and that this Fraternal Order would have had this weird like you have to protect Daughters
of members kind of thing but in reality like fraternal orders and societies at the time in America were
just like Social Clubs yeah like they weren't like the Skull and Bones like they weren't like you know the skulls
like yeah yeah there was no like really intense things and Pirates were not beholden to any code except the pirate
code which is just like Yoho which is just yo ho ho in a bottle of Rome so it's they were brutally violent
criminals right they were very much their whole life was outside of the law like I think I found the Pirates of the
Caribbean yeah it just they literally live their lives to avoid having to be bound by any kind of societal laws so
why would why like that doesn't make any that's just not a very probable not impossible but very not probable agreed
foreign [Music] now another one I'm going to talk about and I think is this is the last one I
will talk about is the Nags Head painting theory that sounds interesting so so the pirate narrative actually got
a little bit of credibility okay not the exact narrative that I've been telling like those can sound crazy yeah but like
the idea that she and the crew were captured by Pirates was not a weird or Wild Thing no and so it did gain a
little bit of credibility in the late 19th early 20th centuries when a woman who was living in Elizabeth City North
Carolina came forward and she had a painting and she claimed that this painting was of Theodosia Burr Alston
this painting was believed to have been on board the Patriot when it left port in Georgetown okay according to this
Theory a doctor named William Poole paid a visit to an elderly woman living in some cabin in Nags Head in the summer of
1867. and it was there that he discovered a painting quite quote quite quite quote
an oil painting on polished mahogany 20 inches in length and enclosed in a frame
Rich richly gilded the beautiful Patrician face the unmistakable stamp of arist aristocratic birth and refinement
was easily recognizable as Theodosia Burr Alston okay so when the doctor asked about where the
[ __ ] did you get that painting he literally he was like where the [ __ ] did you get that painting she because he was
like we're in a cabin like a remote cabin somewhere like very out of like this painting is sticking out like a
Thor Stone where the Thor's thumb wow girly girl a sore thumb I'm on cold medicine so excuse me but the woman was
like a little reluctant to give him the origin of it but finally she was like okay
this painting it was apparently discovered during the winter of 1812 and it was when America was fighting the
English and a small pilot boat had drifted ashore a few miles from Nags Head the woman said that the boat was in
perfect condition there was like literally a meal undisturbed sitting on the table it was
like it was just frozen in time and they said and she said it looked like it had
just been abandoned by everyone on board so she was like when I saw when we saw it we thought obviously Pirates yeah but
when the woman explored the ship that's when they found the painting of Burr hanging on one of the walls and they
also found like silk dresses they found flower like Wax flowers which were very like pretty and fancy back then
um they had like you know glass closures that were covering certain things there
was um a nautilus shell that had been beautifully carved out like all these things that would indicate that someone
of aristocratic birth life had been on this boat and so the shoe was like that's where we found it so we took the
stuff I have it here and that's the origin of it that's why I was a little reluctant to tell you because I kind of
stole it off an abandoned boat so the doctor was there obvious obviously to help her yeah and so in order to pay him
she was like okay well I just told you this whole story and she said you know do you want to take the painting as your
payment and he was like [ __ ] yeah I do because that's wild so somehow it made its way into the home of Mrs John
Overman of Elizabeth City North Carolina somewhere along the way and this story says that the painting was actually
originally intended as a gift to Aaron Burr that's why it was on the ship um and it was actually apparently
according to this was known to be among the cargo that was loaded onto the Patriot
um so it says that the Pirates boarded the ship they made everyone walk the plank they killed everyone and then they
got surprised in the middle of getting their Bounty off the ship by a government Cruiser ship and they
abandoned before they could take everything that I believe now this goes along with the dying confessions of two
criminals executed years executed years before in Norfolk Virginia okay so they said they were part of a pirate crew and
this is exactly what they did like they both gave those stories so now there's like two so two accounts of this even
three even more interesting is the painting is real yeah like Dr William Poole is real
had it in his possession after it was given as a gift he spent a lot of his later life trying to authenticate this
story for sure he never was able to it isn't confirmed but it isn't debunked okay this one kind of checks for me I
was gonna say I think so if it's not the storm this one could be it and how interesting would that be if there was
just like a painting of her on board I know I think that no matter what in my opinion Pirates were involved yeah I
think everybody just goes with pirates because I think you know humans really don't like Mysteries we like it but we
want it solved 100. we want it tied up in a bow and we will often do a lot of like loopy Loops just to get to that end
game and in the end Theodosia Burr Alston was truly a remarkable human absolutely she was brilliant she she was
afforded a lot of advantages in life but she took a lot of advantage of them as well yeah like she didn't just take them
and rest on her Laurels um and again like it seems like people loved her like you look at these letters
that were exchanged between people that were like courting her in between her father yeah and her and it's like people
were really really astonished at the charm she had the grace the wit the intelligence like they were taken aback
by her and for her to be able to Captivate that many people around her especially in that time as a woman yeah
you know where it was even like you were expected to be pretty and clean the house that's pretty amazing and
unfortunately her life ended very abruptly and we don't really have the conclusion and no matter what tragically
so I think it's important that even though we talk about these like you know Fantastical theories there's Pirates
there's pirate Queens there's all this craziness Theodosia should really be like the
story here just like what a badass woman like it's kind it's very like she's very feminist she's very
like and this was a very oppressive era like we said so I think it's she's an interesting lady I think it's really sad
that she had to go through what she went through in her personal life totally and
then to have her story end like this is like I hope they find what actually happened I know I do too because it
feels very unfinished you know what I thought it is and that is the story of Theodosia Burr Alston damn it's like a
really sad story from start to finish no matter what it's tragic yeah with like little inklings of happiness but not a
ton no there's really not it's a it's a tragic story tragic lives yeah you know with little glimmers of Hope in between
but and I know this one was a little bit of a different episode but I think it was a it was an interesting story and
it's a mystery yeah we don't know what happened so I just thought it would be a fun one to put in there yeah history
Buffs out there I really liked it good job um I would like to keep singing your praises and telling you how much I like
this but you need some [ __ ] team do because I'm about to cough again all right well with that being said y'all we
hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but that's so weird that coughs ready go
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On December 31, 1812, Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of former vice-president and very notorious founding father Aaron Burr (Aaron Burr, sir!), boarded a modest ship named Patriot bound for New York to spend some quality time with her father who was “freshly out of exile”. Once the ship had left port in South Carolina, no one would ever see Theodosia or Patriot again. What happened to Theodosia? Pirates? A tragic shipwreck?

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Brief Summary

Theodosia Burr Alston vanished at sea in 1812, leaving behind a mystery involving pirates, storms, and her father's political legacy.

Key points

The Disappearance of Theodosia Burr Alston. Explore the unsolved mystery of Theodosia Burr, daughter of Aaron Burr, who vanished in 1812.
Theodosia's Struggles and Triumphs. At just 18, Theodosia achieved more than many men twice her age, while grappling with loneliness.
A Shocking Text Changes Everything. Jill Evans receives a text that threatens her dreams of happiness and freedom.
The Duel That Changed History. Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton, thrusting Theodosia into turmoil at just 23.
The Tragic Loss of a Child. Theodosia mourns her son, expressing her grief in a poignant letter to Aaron Burr.
A Father's Heartbreak. Aaron Burr reflects on the devastating loss of his daughter, Theodosia, and its impact on his life.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

For two full centuries we have no idea what has happened to Theodosia Burr.

Ash introduces the mystery surrounding Theodosia Burr's disappearance.

6:38WatchFeb 13, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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