Theodosia Burr Alston
| Theodosia Burr Alston | |
|---|---|
Theodosia Burr Alston in an 1802 portrait
|
|
| Born |
June 21, 1783 Albany, New York, U.S. |
| Disappeared | January 2 or 3, 1813 (aged 29) Off the coast of Georgetown, South Carolina |
| Spouse(s) | Joseph Alston |
| Children | Aaron Burr Alston |
| Parent(s) | |
| Relatives |
|
| Signature | |
 |
|
Theodosia Burr Alston (June 21, 1783 – approximately January 2 or 3, 1813) was the daughter of U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr and Theodosia Bartow Prevost. Her husband, Joseph Alston, was governor of South Carolina during the War of 1812. She was lost at sea at age 29.
Theodosia Burr Alston was born to Theodosia Bartow (Prevost) Burr and Aaron Burr in Albany, New York, in 1783, a year after they married. Her mother was the widow of Jacques Marcus Prevost (1736-1781), a British Army officer who settled in New York City; she had five other children from that marriage and was nine years Burr's senior.
Alston was raised mostly in New York City. Her education was closely supervised by her father, who stressed mental discipline. In addition to the more conventional subjects such as French (the French textbook by Martel, Martel's Elements, published by Van Alen in New York in 1796, is dedicated to Theodosia), music, and dancing, the young "Theo" began to study arithmetic, Latin, Greek, and English composition. She applied herself to English in the form of letters to her father, which were responded to promptly, with the inclusion of detailed criticism. Their correspondence numbered thousands of letters.
Theodosia Bartow Burr died when her daughter was eleven years old. After this event, her father closely supervised his daughter's social education, including training in an appreciation of the arts. By the age of 14, Alston began to serve as hostess at Richmond Hill, Aaron Burr's stately home in what is now Greenwich Village. Once when Burr was away in 1797, his daughter presided over a dinner for Joseph Brant, Chief of the Six Nations. On this occasion, she invited physicians David Hosack and Samuel Bard, and Bishop Benjamin Moore, among other notables.
In 1801, she married Joseph Alston, a wealthy landowner from South Carolina who would become the 44th governor of that state. They honeymooned at Niagara Falls, the first recorded couple to do so. It has been conjectured that there was more than romance involved in this union. Aaron Burr agonized intensely and daily about money matters, particularly as to how he would hold on to the Richmond Hill estate. It is thought that his daughter's tie to a member of the Southern gentry might relieve him of some of his financial burdens. The marriage to Alston meant that Theodosia Alston would become prominent. Her letters to her father indicated that she had formed an affectionate alliance with her husband. The couple's son, Aaron Burr Alston, was born in 1802 and died of malaria at age 10, a few months before his mother's death in 1812.
...
Wikipedia