In 1801 Theodosia, daughter of Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United
States, married Joseph Alston of "The Oaks," Hobcaw Barony, S.C. They
had one son, Aaron Burr Alston, who died in 1812, the same year that
Joseph Alston was elected Governor of the State. On December 30th, 1812,
at the urgent solicitation of her father, who had just returned from
Europe, and who awaited her eagerly in New York, Theodosia set sail from
Georgetown, S.C., in the pilot-boat schooner, "Patriot." Those on board
were never seen again.
The vessel, which was being fitted out as a privateer, was carrying
dismounted guns under her deck, and may have foundered in the severe
gale of January 1st, 1813.
In 1869, however, a Dr. W.C. Pool attended a fisher family at Naggs
Head, Kittyhawk, N.C. In the fisherman's hut hung an oil painting of a
beautiful woman, which had been taken from an abandoned pilot-built
schooner that drifted onto the North Carolina coast in that vicinity in
January, 1813. No one was aboard and the vessel had evidently been
looted. Ladies' clothes were found in great disorder in the cabin.
There was also a story told by a dying sailor who confessed that he had
seen the crew of such a boat walk the plank, and that among them was a
beautiful woman who walked into the sea with a Bible or prayer-book in
her hand.
The painting is in the possession of the Burr-Alston connection, and is
thought by them, on account of its striking family resemblance, to be a
picture of Theodosia Burr. The painting story has often been scouted,
but there is too much circumstantial evidence to ignore it in treating
the legend.