Morbid - Episode 430: The Mysterious Disappearance of Theodosia Burr Alston
Episode Date: February 13, 2023On 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 would ever see Theodosia or Patriot again. What happened to Theodosia? Pirates? A tragic shipwreck?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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You're listening to Immorbid Network Podcast.
Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondries Podcast American Scandal.
Our newest series looks at the Kids for Cash Scandal, a story about two judges who stood
accused of making millions of dollars in a brazen scheme that shattered the lives of countless children.
Listen to American scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, Weirdo. I'm Melina. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. It is!
With Lindsay Lowen.
Lindsay Lowen, I'm back.
You decide.
I am back.
No, this is just sorry about my voice.
It's saucy and spicy again.
Yeah, it's a lot.
But I'm just still, we're in that fun time of year where me and the kids are just, it's
growing 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 TikTok the other day where parents were like
This household has gone how many days without illness?
Zero and I saw 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 Because people without kids or like people who haven't been around, kids will be like,
why are you only sick?
And they don't believe you.
And they don't believe you
and they want to just be like, you're gross.
And it's like, no, like this is reality
as you just live in a P3 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 it's 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 that I used to.
Yeah. Now that I'm like, you know, passing around germs with
the fam. Yeah. But yeah, we're going to see how far we can get into this before I have to cough again.
Okay.
Um, which is right now.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, she said right now.
Yeah, I had to pause really quick.
You got that tail end of a cough probably.
But you know, we're going to 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 going to talk today about something a little different.
There's mystery here, there's a disappearance here, there's some spooky tales here, but
it is the disappearance of Theodosia Burr, Alston.
Oh.
Now, in case you don't know, Theodosia Burr is in fact the daughter of Aaron Burr.
Imagine that.
Of Hamilton fame.
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.
I was just gonna say so this is really just to everybody's benefit.
Someone up there is looking over us guys.
Here they are.
So, maybe I'll just speak some of the lines
everyone's in a while.
Spoken word.
But this is a very interesting one because it is still unsolved.
We don't know what happened to Theodosha bur, which is very interesting.
It's like, what's fun.
What was the one that you did where it was like that?
And you went through all the ship manifestos and all that.
Oh, yeah.
Shenanigans.
The ship manifest.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it's Dorothy Arnold.
Oh, yep, that was fun.
That was fun and sad.
But that was, well, this have like similar vibes.
A little bit, 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 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's 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 act itself.
Okay. This happened on December 31st, 1812. Damn. The Adoja Burr-Austin, who like I said, is the
daughter of former vice president and relatively notorious foundingosha Burr-Austin, 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, she was on her way to New York from South Carolina.
She was gonna 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 a little bit of a runaway in Europe
a little bit for 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 last time.
Anyone would see Theodoshaver or the Patriot again.
The ship was gone. Yeah.
So, the adoja, in case, like I said, in case you don't know who this is, she was born
into American aristocracy when this all began.
She lived a life young woman could only dream of.
She was an aristocrat.
She was an aristocrat.
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 you think about it.
Pretty nuts.
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,
as I was reading this, I was like,
no one's ever just good, huh?
Like, it doesn't ever,
and I'm not talking about Theodosha,
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, dammit, no one's ever nice.
You're like, fuck you.
It's really well. It's just like, dammit, America. But either way, she was here for all of that.
But as an adult, she married Joseph Allston. So she didn't fall straight 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, because that was only a few months into the war of 1812, when she disappeared.
So for two full centuries, we have no idea what has happened to theodosia bur.
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 kidnapped by pirates?
That's a very real possibility.
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 took off the paper 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? Where is? So let's go back to the beginning. Theodosia Burr was born to Aron Burr in Theodosia Prevo Burr in Albany, New York on June 21st,
1883. She was actually born just six months before the end of the American Revolution. Holy shit.
Quite a birth. Her father, like we said, was already pretty well known. He had a lot of power,
a lot of influence. 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 Army in 1776. But outside of all the military stuff, Aaron was known
to be super hardworking, really influential. 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, sliver. There you go. One being
who, Parasultin, is that her thing? Of course. You got to get a new She's in parasolton. Yeah, she really trademarked that, right?
We got to like, anytime you say, you have to be like,
TM parasolton.
Yes, of course.
So I think she did anyway.
Maybe she'd run as well.
So the adosious parents had a somewhat unconventional path
to marriage, especially for colonial era people.
Like they were still living?
So has anyone seen Hamilton?
Raise your hands.
Oh, yes, raised.
Now, Aaron and his wife, the Adoja Senior,
met while the Adoja Senior was still married
to a man named Jacques Prévo,
who was a British officer with the Royal American Regiment.
That's not a good.
Remember that part of Hamilton, we're bursting.
Theodosia writes me a letter every day.
I'm keeping her bed warm while her husband is away.
Oh.
And then it says,
That's right.
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.
Ooh, sauce.
I kind of love their love.
Yeah, it's like, it's a, it's a,
what's the word one?
Is it like star crossed lovers?
Is that, yeah, I think that's why I was freaking out.
That's why I was speaking out.
It's very Romeo and Juliet, you're not supposed
to be together.
I do love their love, I have to say that.
So after a provost, unexpected death from yellow fever
in 1871, which by the way, throughout
this entire thing, they very openly had an affair.
Like, it was like, it was like, happened.
I mean, did you, you said those lyrics, I heard that.
Yeah, like, just keeping the bed warm all over the room.
Yeah, like, it's very time.
It's like, I want the girl.
But they ended up marrying.
After he did.
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. 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 shit
for it, which is pretty cool.
You know, 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.
We can still hang out with you.
They admired them.
Their social circle really didn't fall apart at this time.
But of course, there was a little bit of gossip.
It's not like people were like,
oh, we don't give a shit 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 shit,
like you hadn't a fair with a fucking British officer's wife.
That's wild dude.
But like do you wanna 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 for station, it was for getting you in a better situation.
But they legit married purely out of love, which in 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 like fate. You know what I mean? If you believe in fate, or like these were so
late. So I feel like they they were meant to see each other. They both shared a real love of arts
and culture that wasn't really like common at the time and for like a woman and a man to find each other. Right. And that was very.
Right. And that was very.
Yeah, and it was cool.
And I mean, Burr adored his wife and everyone knew that around him.
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 daughter. And historians have actually said it was the soul, that she was the
soul of her father's soul. That's how they were like, how beautiful. Isn't that really beautiful?
I'm 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.
But this one was really bad.
They both did recover, but theodosia senior dealt with a lot of after effects.
And when they did, like when they were, you know, both up and running, Burmove to 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 Burby came 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. 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 Theodosius Sr., like I said, was unfortunately dealing
with a lot of 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 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 the Sally and after theodosia, the birds had dealt with two stillbirths tragically. Yeah. So Sally was celebrated immensely, just like a little theater show us.
It's like a rainbow baby.
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 in New
York.
But unfortunately in 1788, Sally ended up dying of an unknown illness.
Oh, shit.
Yeah.
And it was only what, three years after, I think she was only three or four years ago.
Oh.
Yeah.
So after Sally's death, young Theodosia became even more the apple of her parents' life.
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 in her.
Her parents were just so thankful to still have her.
And the Burr's put a lot of attention on her education as well, which was different
for girls of that.
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, Erin 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 the legacy of him being a very well educated man.
So it was like a double sided thing 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.
Oh yeah.
And she was actually able to read and write pretty fluently by five years old.
Holy shit.
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 the L.
Yeah.
And again, it's like I said, this was kind of a double thing.
Like he loved his daughter
He wanted his daughter to be whatever she wanted to be, but again according to Richard Cote Cote who is a historian
He said quote the adoja's education was a direct extension of her fathers
So the drive for her to succeed was definitely also I if it was one I want you to be a well-educated free thinker on your own
But it was also you need to uphold be a well-educated, free thinker on your own, but it was also
you need to uphold my reputation.
Yeah, which I get.
But 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 he could be a problem.
Yeah.
Because while he was away as much as he loved his wife,
he had several extra marital affairs, not great.
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 a good choice.
Why do you have to cheat on your sick wife? Worst choice good choice? Why do you have to cheat on your sick wife?
Worst like come on man like why can't you walk why can't you just be good? Like be good like be good, but I guess no one can but like bomber so great father
loved the adoja senior, but like
He was a founding father, so there was other 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, men, he was going to 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. 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 seniors' health is still declining. She's not doing
great from everything. Who is struggling from like all angles?
Yeah, exactly. And she had struggled obviously since the birth of the adosha.
I think how there you go.
She had struggled since the birth, which was at this point about 10 years earlier.
She was still struggling from that.
Wow.
By 1793, it was kind of apparent that she was really going to continue to decline.
She was apparently quote in a 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, burst friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush actually
recommended that she take small doses of hemlock to treat this, which I'm here to tell you
that that's probably what killed her.
Yeah, one would think.
At least hastened, mightily, the death.
Yeah.
It's like how George Washington, they were like,
let's just bleed you for this cold 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.
Fucking prescribed me chocolate and wine at any time you need to.
Which I'm 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.
Probably.
Strangely, none of it did anything to relieve her pain.
Unfortunately, Theodosia, senior died in the family's New York
home on May 18th, 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,
the adorja, no, she had her daughter,
who was only 11 at the time, though,
and was caring for her mother,
and she was the one who was there.
Thank 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 the adorja seniors passing, 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, or excuse me, see, I don't, yeah, theodosia seniors passing, young theodosia had to step into the role as
woman of the house now. So now not only was she taking on new responsibilities, but she was also
now the full center of Erin Burce worlds. Like this was it.
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 he was very much pushing her to be the best she could be continuing her
education, giving her a lot of moral instruction, despite not adhering to it himself.
But she was killing it.
She was doing amazing.
She was achieving far more than her peers were, so 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 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.
It'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,
there 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 always something where you like,
oh, and she and I forgot we're in the 1700s. Yeah. Yeah. But she took on all of that. And by the time
she reached the age of 18 and 1801, she had received more and better of an education than men
more and better of an education than men twice her age had received. Back to the yeah.
All while 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 badass.
She really is a testament to the whole,
the whole upgrade bringing she had
Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham the host of Wondery's podcast American scandal
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And this is when in 1801, this is when she was finally 18, so she was finally able to move into
another Potter Blife, which is married life, especially back then, you were expected
to enter into that life.
So her marriage was, you know, she liked her husband.
They got along like this.
It's a good start.
Yeah, 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 respect and
adoration formed out of that. Okay. So it wasn't like it all went bad. You know, like
you just shithead and they hated each other and that was it. They made do. She married
Joseph Allston in 1801. And again, like I said, they definitely turned into they more than tolerated each other.
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
that we're like a city. This 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 N.T. basically says like,
I felt worthy of being in her presence.
Like 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 lucky.
Yeah, like I'm lucky to have entered into this.
So the adoja met Joseph Allston during the presidential campaign of 1800 actually.
Burr was using Allston as kind of a middleman to convey information from the north to the
Republicans in the south.
And you know, like many men that came into the adoja'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 air about her that like,
I know how great I am, but like not annoying.
And she, and also I love this because he blatantly says
that she was never put off by her lack of skill
in the womanly arts.
Oh, so like she was like gonna like make up and stuff.
How good of you.
And I think it was like in like folding laundry.
Oh.
In like fucking dinner, you know, like the womanly arts.
She was doing better shit.
Those are the womanly arts.
And she was, she was too busy getting an education to really, you know,
she learned that stuff, but it wasn't what she was into.
And he, he wasn't put off by that.
I'm not gonna folding either, Thia.
May, you know, now once the election was finally,
you know, over Jefferson was president,
Burwis is vice president,
Allston proposed to the adocia,
but she said no.
She said, I love this, this is in a letter.
She said Aristotle judged a man to a mature
for marriage before age 36.
Oh yeah.
To like, the adult.
Just agree with you.
Oh yeah.
The adult.
I love it.
And they had these letters back and forth
that are very like sassy.
Like she's just like in your two immature.
I'm sorry about it.
Call me when you're 36.
36 is like such a random age.
She was like, that's what Aristotle said.
So I'm going to 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 everything is supposed to kinda like,
it's also like a really shitty period in your life.
It really can't be.
Because everything gets like mismatched
and then falls into place, you know?
I'm doing it.
So I'm gonna go ahead and get ready for that.
I got married before 30.
I didn't have kids until 30.
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 the adotia to marry him.
Was he 36?
He was not 36, but he did a lot of convincing.
He did the leg work. Yeah, he traveled. So you know that traveling was not 36, but 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.
That's fuck is not.
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 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. But it also gave the adoja 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.
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, no, I don't think for that.
If you were traveling, you were traveling
for a very distinct purpose.
For war.
Because it for war to go declare battle on someone.
But yeah, she needed this like nice little rest period
and she wrote a letter
to her sister and Lawn, 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 of Niagara.
I love that.
And again, this is like, it's pretty significant because it's like one, the adoja is now transitioning
into adulthood.
She's not a 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
let's go look at cool shit for no reason.
So she invented sites.
They kind of like in a way like this is a bitch.
I invented vacation.
I was sharing it and like you can just go look at shit.
Wow, for vacation, you don't need to be going there
for a breakfast.
What is directly from Theodosius diary?
Yeah, you can just go look at shit.
You can just go look at shit.
The falls of Niagara, Niagara are fucking magnificent.
That's what she wrote.
So she stamped her little name on there.
Yeah, her big old name.
But you know what, she's still in that life. She up in. She's, she's an aristocrat,
as she said. She's still, she's in South Carolina now. It's all money politics, a little bit of
domesticity in there. Joseph took over a lot of the doding that her father had done on her.
Okay. Because he really did start to really just do it on her. They hosted dinner parties. They had social events at their home.
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.
So fanciful. In the spring of 1802, just a year into their marriage, the adoja gave birth to a boy.
They named Aaron Burr AustinAustin. Oh.
She was so happy. She called him the crowning blessing of her life.
Oh my God.
Fuck me up.
It's a bit adorable.
I'm going to call my kids that.
Now, unfortunately, this birth was also pretty traumatic for both of them,
because like I said, birth was pretty traumatic then.
She ended up dealing with what is now recognized as a prolapse deuterist. Oh, then. She ended up dealing with what is now recognized
as a prolapse deuterist.
Oh, shit.
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, does 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 pain that followed
from the whole thing,
Burr wanted the adosion, the baby to come to New York
and he said, you can get away from,
you know, the crazy heat in Charleston.
I want to be here for you.
I want to take care of you too.
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, she loved it,
but she also was lonely there because she missed Joseph.
Like I said, they were starting to like each other.
And in a letter in 1802, she wrote, I had rather been ill on Sullivan Island with you than
separated from you.
Even my amusement served to increase my unhappiness.
For if anything affords me pleasure, the thought that were you here, you also would feel
pleasure, and thus redouble mine here, you also would feel pleasure
and thus redouble mine
at once puts an end to my enjoyment.
Oh, baby, that's love.
They love each other.
Yeah, they absolutely do.
What started out is like,
we gotta get married,
this is just what we do is 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 what 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.
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 suicidal thoughts.
Also, you know, that's taking a toll on her marriage
because they're not able to be intimate.
Like, that's tough. He on her marriage because they're not able to be intimate. 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.
It's a lot.
And then making things worse, there was a ton of infighting and like political rhetoric
happening surrounding the end of her father's term as vice president.
And it was becoming like inflammatory.
And it, you know, it was dealing with Joseph Austin 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 and this guy who was like the secretary of the former secretary
of the treasury. His name was Alexander Hamilton. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They had like, it was pretty
published size there. They're back in front. Yeah. There's like a pamphlet or something.
There was a lot of accusations being thrown around some claims of impropriety. I won't get into it,
but like you can look it up if you want or listen to the soundtrack. If you want.
Find a little something. And shockingly you want or listen to the soundtrack. If you want to find a little something and shockingly,
Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel.
Oh, he did.
Yep.
July of 1804.
Not that happened.
And what happened during that is that Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton.
Yeah.
Uh, at this point, the adoja 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.
Yeah, and on the run.
Like I don't know, in the soundtrack, he says,
but on the run, he says, someone told you, told me you better hide.
And yeah, they were right.
Correct.
So he was out.
Luckily, he didn't put his family in danger,
direct danger by coming to them,
because again, he's on the run from New York. You would think he would just
toot down to South Carolina. It's confusing though, because like, aren't those the rules of a
duel? Like someone dies? Yeah, but I think he, first of all, like the whole thing think that Alexander Hamilton put his pistol in the sky. Yeah.
And then I think more people were on Hamilton's side than Bursa.
Yeah, so I think.
So it's in Hamilton put his pistol in the sky.
That's where it was also supposed to do that.
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, and I'm not an expert on duels, but I believe it's one of those
like, you know, 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 should probably be like, which is about like quick that happens though.
Like if he turned around, prepared to not see, I'm sure he didn't think he was going
to 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
and where the fuck would he wear those
if he wasn't planning to shoot him.
Fair.
And 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 will.
Cause he sings songs about both Theodosha senior and Theodosha junior. 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. 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 dual, 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 fuck
everything up. So yeah, they did that
Gotcha, and that's not a good way to be never a good way to eat. 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
Mm-hmm, but it doesn't happen every time it didn't happen with his son either fill up Alexander Hamilton and son
Yeah, it's undied. Yeah, his son died.
Yeah, exactly.
So like there's a lot of, you know, a lot of dumb.
That scene?
Oh, destroying.
It got right to you.
Yeah, destroy you.
All right, but that's about the adoja.
Not exactly.
Not exactly.
So he did not run down to South Carolina
and endanger his whole family
because that would have endangered them, and Joseph.
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 it was, but like closer to Louisiana
where he was like, let's try to get out of here.
Let's try to get this way to Mexico.
Yeah, just trying to get out of here.
Now, by summer of 1805,
the adosion junior 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. That's a time like that's a lot. So by August of that year,
her pain was unbearable. 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 will and testament, she made instructions for where her belonging 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.
Right up. Yeah. Theodosia. That's that's going to ruin me.
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 in testament,
just yet.
But Burr was arrested for treason
and was taken to Richmond, Virginia to be tried.
I don't think I knew that.
Yeah.
Even worse, many men were believing that because of Burr's
position that he wouldn't or couldn't pay his debts.
So they were now coming to Joseph Austin trying to get assurances that he was going to pay.
Joseph Austin wasn't able to provide those assurances.
So a lot more shit was coming their way.
Politics.
Throughout this whole trial, the Adoja and Joseph relocated to a home in Virginia to be
close to him actually during the trial.
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 Burghilty 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 welcome 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 gonna 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 they're like I think I'll be okay over there. Yeah
But sure, Burs 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 rebels.
He was very needy at this time.
It sounds like it.
Now, Burz neediness came at a tough time for theodosia because she was juggling her responsibilities,
managing the household, raising a child, dealing with the health issues. And now, by 1809, all of the constant physical pain was starting
to cause neurological and psychological symptoms. 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.
quote unquote, periods of seeing colors and flashes of light but for her eyes. Wow.
She would hallucinate, like see people around her bed.
She would hear strange, like auditory hallucinations.
And they would come and go.
It wasn't constant.
Like she was dealing with this.
And aside from this, she was also dealing with the depression.
Her equilibrium was off.
She had a violently stinging mouth sore.
So she was 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.
She's that kept her a mobile for like weeks.
My God.
Yeah.
She's 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,
running out of money, going to the next place. And the stress on the adozo 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. I need to see you.
But unfortunately, that never happened.
On June 30th, 1912, or 1812, excuse me, as Burr was making his way from Boston to New York by boat,
10-year-old Aaron Burr Allston actually died from a summer fever or country fever.
Oh man. This was as Burber 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, wow.
So malaria.
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 them rust 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
The adoja 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
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 is.
Yeah, and she's probably like distracting herself from everything going on in her life
by doting on her son.
Yeah, of course.
And this happens.
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.
12.
And after little errands lost, the adoja's only real thing she could look but any solace
she had was that she was going to be able to see her dad.
Yeah.
Because now she was like, you're going to be back in New York.
I can go see you.
She hadn't seen them in like four years.
She was like exiled in Europe for that long.
So in December of 1812, she made the firm plans with him,
I'm gonna come see you.
And Allston's election in South Carolina,
for it, 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 going to have to do it alone.
Now by late December 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.
Yeah.
Or she could go by sea, which would be way shorter,
but it carried 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, a driver who, the adoja 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 going to 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 shit, pirates and privateers were also very active
off the coast of the Carolinas, which made things worse. Joseph Austin 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, 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, bless, sing.
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.
And he thought that might translate
into her physical health as well,
because they didn't know anything about this back then.
So that like maybe if she feels better,
she'll feel better.
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 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 Austin walked the adoja 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 was thinking that too.
I was like, oh, you really put like a target on that ship.
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
Yeah, and the high and like you said the wife of a political, you know, big wig
So it's a lot now the Patriot itself was a 63 foot shallow draft schooner. Okay
It was used as a pilot boat
during the American Revolution before this.
Oh, shit.
And it only needed like a small crew.
I think it only needed like three or four people to sail it.
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 and a civilian crew, so it was really not
going to 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 going to be in some trouble.
A British warship?
Yikes.
A lot like not going to be in some trouble, a British warship, yikes. A lot like not going to be great.
But 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 at the Adoja.
So even if they wanted to fend off invaders, they definitely weren't going to be able to
do that.
Well, there'll be another thing that'll kind of be like,
oh, maybe that's what happened.
But Joseph Austin 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 gonna get her there quick
in less than a week, it was 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 Harbor at 12 noon on December 31, 1812.
That was again the last time anyone saw the Adoja Burr-Austin, Dr. Timothy Green, the
Patriot Orts Crew.
Oh.
When Theodosia failed to show up to New York a week later,
Burr and Allston 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, ee.
And no word
was heard from the ship or the adoja and they began freaking out. They were now seeking
answers. Apparently one of them who was and it was, I think it was Joe or no, it was Aaron,
excuse me, Aaron wrote to the adoja in New York and wrote another mail 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 all stem 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
O'Beat in obedience to your wishes, the adoysia left me.
Because again, he was not happy.
She was going to the praise for you.
He's like, you did this.
And he wrote, gracious God, is my wife to taken from me?
I do not know why I write, but I feel like I feel that I am miserable.
Cause he just lost his son, too.
Yeah.
Now, after several months now without word from the ad adosure, any of the people in the Patriot,
the men were, they were forced to accept.
That she was gone.
Something happened here.
And Aaron Burr wrote to a friend,
where 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 lost everything.
He loved his daughter.
Now, Joseph Austin was clearly obviously
equally as fucked up by the realization that he was never going to see her again.
And he also lost everything.
Yeah, and he's mend it.
And in one of his final letters to Aaron Burr, his anguish,
like this is this will destroy you, get ready?
Oh, my God. He wrote,. Oh, like this is this will destroy you get right? 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 bleep blessed with such a woman's love. We'll never forget this elevation. Wow. Like they just don't like they used to. They don't make it.
They don't like these tear enough in the coins. That part got me. Yeah. Like I'm not oh my goodness.
So what happened to the Adoja pirates? This was a big deal. And
or the British. Yeah, you know, we could. Now this was a big deal. And of
course, there was 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 plunkered 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 the ship
But according to one of Joseph Austin's descendants actually
There were a lot of barrels of rice from Austin'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 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 that people you'd 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. And that he also carried on him with the ship, quote, the proceeds of her raids.
So money or like things of value. And while these definitely make it like interesting,
there is a weather thing to take into 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. I 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. And this was some of it is from battle, but a lot of it was just caused by
inexperienced captains, you know, 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
Hatteris. 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
may be forced the Patriot. Of course, maybe it hit rocks and it sunk to the
bottom of the Atlantic before anyone could get off it. All. Now, this is pretty accepted by a lot of people. They're like, that makes a lot of sense.
This was the one that also, in the beginning, especially, was the one that was accepted by Aaron
Byrne, Joseph Allston, when they didn't hear her from her in months. In a letter written to her,
two weeks after she had left the port at Georgetown, Joseph
wrote, I hear two rumors of a gale off Cape Hatteris, 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, met with an admiral from the British blockade just off the coast
of South Carolina.
And this guy from the British blockade said he could confirm that the Patriot was allowed
safe passage through the blockade just hours before, quote, a violent gale followed
the same night.
Oh, okay.
But we're going to go back to that because there's a little mystery in that, too.
Yeah. So that sounds all very like, okay. So people figured 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.
That was a storm.
But then in 1998, archaeologist James L. might, I think it's Michi or Michi, I'm pretty sure.
Okay.
Commissioned a 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.
Mm-hmm.
So 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 Mitchie, quote, the gale was so severe
that the warships furled and reefed most of their sale. Nevertheless, the ferocity of the storm stripped off top
gallant yards and masks snapped rigging and tore out chain plate bolts from the hull.
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 that's why you're pretending that you let them through.
Right. But like, it's, so it's absolutely could be the storm, but it absolutely could be that
they were not allowed to save passage in that that ship was taken. Right. Interesting. Now,
let's get on to little urban legends, like a little more urban, the legend, the
urban, the alternate theories here. So more theories about 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 in mine as well? Was that she was seized by pirates. Yeah, that's what I feel
But there it gets even worse and like that makes sense
But this one saying that she lived long enough after words to help direct the course of American history.
So she stayed active in directing our history, which wow.
I was like, oh, you lost me.
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 the adoja then walked all dressed in white into the stormy sea.
Woo, that's 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 captured in sentence to hang.
The tale 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 blow
out that that's why she decided to go to New York.
But we know that's not true.
She was telling.
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 switch it.
But the story says that Gibbs heard of this trip and thought that the ship was likely
to have tons of valuable shit on it.
So he set 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.
Obviously this is bullshit.
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 they very much like in all these stories, they very much like romanticize it.
Yeah, like she walked off the plane and all the lights and the wearing all white and all
that.
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. And
he was in Michigan when he was on his deathbed and wished to unburden himself. I can fess him. Yes, unbur, but he wanted to confess his role in the death of Theodosia.
The story was supposedly told to Amis's parks, the wife of a local Methodist minister.
And it was in, I guess there was three witnesses there to hear it there, unnamed.
It's pretty vague.
And according to Burtek, 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.
Burtek 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, he also kind of romanticizes this.
You can read this in the Montgomery County Sentinel
from 1883.
He said, there was this one lady on board
who was a beautiful
appearing intelligent and cultivated person who gave her name as Mrs. Theodosia Burr
Allston. 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 to.
I don't think so either. She appeared pale yet beautiful as she retired
to her birth and changed her peril, 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 paler 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 in sync without a murmur or sigh.
It a pirate said this?
Beautiful.
Yeah.
Now, he went on to say that it was his quote,
unhappy lot to be delegated by the captain
to pull the plank from beneath her.
Ooh.
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 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. 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 it.
I don't see that, but I love it. Now the rumors of 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 the Adelges departure
weren't actually what they said they were.
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.
In 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 by the name
of Dominique Frederick U.
I like that name.
Now, it's said that you had been a member
of a mysterious fraternal order
in that someone else was in this order.
Aaron.
Aaron Burr.
I had a feeling.
And apparently some of the primary
tenants of this fraternal order
was quote, the protection of daughters of members against all harm, which obviously Aaron Burr,
the Adosha Burr. Now, if she had told you upon the time of being captured, I am Aaron Burr's daughter,
I am the Adosha 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 that prolapsed uterus.
There was that. 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. That's true.
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 both bullshit, but it's pretty fun. Yeah, I would say that's a
fun one. This guys were not clear. Like that is not true. Not by many of their weather reports at
least. And the legend kind of just relies on a woman who matches the adoja's description being
frequently seen in the company of pirates.
Yeah.
And actually not even just pirates.
Pirates like, there was a well-known pirate named
Jean Lafitte.
This is where people saw a woman who looked like the Adoja
in his company and he happened to be a close associate
of Dominique Friedrich 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.
Yeah. So because you would have to, in order to connect these two people, you would have to,
it's even hard to connect them because you would have to be like, okay, so you
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 it's 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 Yoho, Ho, Ho in a bottle of rum.
So it's it they were brutally violent criminals, right?
They were very much their whole life was outside of the law like I've got the power 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 possible,
but very not probable. Agreed.
Now another one I'm going to talk about and I think this is the last one I will talk about is the nag's head painting theory.
That sounds interesting.
So the pirate narrative actually got a little bit of credibility, 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.
So it did gain a little bit of credibility
in the late 19th, early 20th centuries,
when a woman who was living in Elizabeth's city,
North Carolina came forward and she had a painting.
She claimed that this painting was of Theodosha Burr, Austin.
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 and nags head in the summer of 1867.
And it was there that he discovered a painting quote, quote, quote, quote, quote,
an oil painting on polished mahogany 20 inches in length and enclosed in a frame rich,
richly gilded. The beautiful protrition face, the unmistakable stamp of aristocratic birth and refinement
was easily recognizable as the adoja bur allston.
Okay.
So when the doctor asked about where the fuck did you get that painting?
He was like, where the fuck did you get that painting?
Direct quote.
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 Thorstum, where the Thorstum?
Wow, girly girl.
A sore thumb.
I am uncold medicine, so excuse me.
Oh, love it.
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, 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 a shore a
few miles from Nagzhead. 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 said it looks like it had just been abandoned by everyone on board.
So she was like, when I saw it, we thought obviously pirates.
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 found waxy flowers, which were very pretty
and fancy back then.
They had glass closures that were covering certain things.
There was a nautilus shell that had been beautifully carved out.
All these things that would indicate
that someone of aristocratic birth
and life had been on this boat.
And so, she was like, that's where we found it.
So we took the stuff I have it here,
and that's the origin of it.
She was like, that's why I was a little reluctant to tell you,
because I kind of stole it off in a bin and a book.
So the doctor was there, 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, fuck 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.
And it was actually, apparently according to this, was known to be among the cargo that was loaded
onto the Patriot. So it says that the pirates boarded the ship. They made everyone walk the
plane. 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 accounts of this.
And what's even more interesting is the painting is real.
Yeah.
Like Dr. William Pool 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 kinda checks for me a little bit.
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 own 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, loopety loops just to get to that end game.
And in the end,
Theodosia Burr-Austin was truly a remarkable human.
Absolutely.
She was brilliant.
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.
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 and between her father 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, you know, where it was even like, you were expected to be pretty in a clean 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,
the adoja should really be like the story here. I'm just like, what a bad ass woman.
Like it's kind of very, like she's very feminist, she's very, like, 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.
I do know what I thought it is. And that is the story of the Adoja Burst Burr-Austin.
Yeah, it's a really sad story from start to finish with like a little...
No matter what it's tragic.
Yeah, with like little inklings of happiness, but not a ton.
No, it's really not. It's a tragic story, tragic lives, you know, with little glimmers of hope
in between. And I know this one was a little bit of a different episode, but I think it was an interesting story,
and it's a mystery.
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.
Hey, good job.
I would like to keep singing your praises
and telling you how much I like this,
but you need some fucking tea.
I do, because I'm about to cough again.
All right, well, with that being said, y'all'all we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it
but that's so weird that coughs ready go bye Hey, Prime Members!
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