Aaron Burr - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

In 1782, Aaron Burr married Theodosia Bartow Prevost, the widow of Jacques Marcus Prevost (see The Hermitage), a British Army officer of Swiss origin, who had died in the West Indies during the Revolutionary War. The Burrs moved to New York City, where his reputation as a brilliant trial lawyer grew. Twelve years later, Mrs. Burr died from stomach cancer. They had one child who survived birth, a daughter named Theodosia, after her mother. Burr believed in equality of the sexes; and he prescribed education for his daughter in the Classics, language, horsemanship and music. Born in 1783, Theodosia became widely known for her education and accomplishments. In 1801, she married Joseph Alston of South Carolina and bore a son, who died of fever at ten years of age. During the winter of 1812-1813, she disappeared with the schooner Patriot off The Carolinas, either murdered by pirates or shipwrecked in a storm.

Recently, the Aaron Burr Association acknowledged the possibility that Burr had two illegitimate children—Louisa Charlotte (born 1788) and John Pierre Burr (born 1792)—with his servant Mary Emmons, not wanting to delay pending proof of the claims of Emmons' elderly descendant. Burr was still married to Theodosia then, but most of his time was spent in Albany, serving in the State Assembly. DNA testing, which might verify these claims, is not possible because there is no male descendant in this line. A historian who has written extensively on Burr stated that the claims were "plausible."