![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Halloween # 21: Theodosia Burr
Oct. 21st, 2017 09:40 amI remember reading My Theodosia by Anya Seton when I was in high school and it fascinated me. Another true mystery story...
~~
The Dramatic Life and Mysterious Death of Theodosia Burr
From Atlas Obscura
The fate of Aaron Burr’s daughter remains a topic of contention.
by Hadley Meares
October 07, 2016
( The Nag's Head Portrait )
Today the legend of Theodosia lives on. The Nags Head Portrait now hangs in the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale. Her ghost is said to haunt her plantation The Oaks, the Outer Banks, Richmond Hill and Bald Head Island, where it is said her spirit is chased by three headless pirates. In the late 19th and early 20th century the mystery was spun into several novels and countless magazine articles. Many little girls were named after her—including Theodosia Burr Goodman, who would become famous as the silent screen vamp Theda Bara. Her story was a favorite of poets, including Robert Frost, whose poem Kitty Hawk includes the line:
Did I recollect how the wreckers wrecked Theodosia Burr off this very shore? T’was to punish her, but her father more.
But perhaps the impact of the mystery of Theodosia is best summed up by her friend Margaret Blennerhasset in her poem On A Friend Who Was Supposed To Have Suffered A Shipwreck:
And now I wander all alone, Nor heed the balmy breeze, but list the ring dove’s tender moan, and think upon the seas.
~~
The Dramatic Life and Mysterious Death of Theodosia Burr
From Atlas Obscura
The fate of Aaron Burr’s daughter remains a topic of contention.
by Hadley Meares
October 07, 2016
( The Nag's Head Portrait )
Today the legend of Theodosia lives on. The Nags Head Portrait now hangs in the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale. Her ghost is said to haunt her plantation The Oaks, the Outer Banks, Richmond Hill and Bald Head Island, where it is said her spirit is chased by three headless pirates. In the late 19th and early 20th century the mystery was spun into several novels and countless magazine articles. Many little girls were named after her—including Theodosia Burr Goodman, who would become famous as the silent screen vamp Theda Bara. Her story was a favorite of poets, including Robert Frost, whose poem Kitty Hawk includes the line:
Did I recollect how the wreckers wrecked Theodosia Burr off this very shore? T’was to punish her, but her father more.
But perhaps the impact of the mystery of Theodosia is best summed up by her friend Margaret Blennerhasset in her poem On A Friend Who Was Supposed To Have Suffered A Shipwreck:
And now I wander all alone, Nor heed the balmy breeze, but list the ring dove’s tender moan, and think upon the seas.