Female

June 1783

January 1813

Albany, NY

New York, NY

Theodosia Burr Alston was the only child of Theodosia Bartow Prevost Burr and Aaron Burr. Aaron and her mother desired for her to receive the best education possible, far past the degree most women of her station were educated at the time period. After her mother's death in 1794, she was her father's closest confidante and devoted daughter, managing his Richmond Hill estate. She married Joseph Alston, the Governor of South Carolina, in 1801. Their son, Aaron Burr Alston, was born in 1802. After her father returned from a period abroad in Europe in 1812, she attempted to sail to NY to meet him and was lost at sea aboard The Patriot with the entire crew in January 1813. Her son Aaron Burr Alston died of a fever just before she left for the voyage. The cause of the ship's loss remains unknown ...to this day, and her disappearance is featured amongst the legends and folklore of the coast of the Carolinas.
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References to Theodosia Burr Alston are made in Robert Frost's "Kitty Hawk" poem.