The Mystery of Theodosia Burr Alston: A Mini-Essay

     In December of 1812, Theodosia Burr Alston, the twenty-nine-year-old wife of South Carolina Governor John Alston, set sail from Georgetown aboard the schooner Patriot to visit her father, former vice-president Aaron Burr, in New York.[1] A month later, the abandoned vessel was found floating off Nags Head. As news of the incident spread, speculations grew. Some argued that the passengers and crew abandoned the schooner when she encountered a storm off Cape Hatteras, others believed that pirates pillaged the ship and slaughtered everyone, and a few contended that those aboard had been captured and sold into slavery, with Theodosia's renowned beauty swaying one of the pillagers into sparing her from the same fate and taking her as a bride.[2] In 1869, a New York doctor, William Pool, added an additional plot to the Patriot myth when he claimed that he had tended to an ailing old woman, who had been rescued from the sea by a fisherman and his wife and raised as their own daughter for decades. As payment for his services, Pool was allowed to take one item from the house. When he selected the portrait of a beautiful young women, the aged spinster leapt from the bed and grabbed it from his hands, screaming that it was a present for her father in New York and the doctor could not have it.[3] Despite claims by archaeologist James Michie that previous theories regarding the ship’s abandonment during a storm are the most plausible, popular folklore continues to this day, with local legends maintaining that the ghost of Theodosia, dressed all in white, meanders Huntington Beach on Nags Head as she perpetually revisits the sight of her death.[4] 

Works Referenced

Cawthorne, Nigel. Shipwrecks: Disasters of the Deep Seas. New York: Metro Books, 2013.
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[1] Cawthorne, 121.
[2] Cawthorne, 121.
[3] Cawthorne, 121.
[4] Cawthrone, 121.