HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Last known stop of Theodosia Burr Alston before she boarded the schooner Patriot in 1812 and disappeared at sea; her ghost is said to materialize at the house and dock.
Corner of Front and Queen Streets, Georgetown, SC 29440
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Exterior viewing free; best experienced as part of a Georgetown ghost tour
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat downtown streetscape; dock area may have uneven surfaces
Equipment
Photos OK
Last known land location of Theodosia Burr Alston before her 1813 disappearance · Theodosia was wife of South Carolina Governor Joseph Alston and daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr · The schooner Patriot sailed from the Cannon Street dock December 31, 1812 · The disappearance remains one of the most debated maritime mysteries of the early republic
Theodosia Burr Alston was the daughter of former Vice President Aaron Burr and the wife of Joseph Alston, Governor of South Carolina. On December 31, 1812, she boarded the schooner Patriot at a dock off Cannon Street in Georgetown, intending to sail north to New York to visit her father. The vessel had been refitted in Georgetown that December, its guns dismounted and concealed below deck for the transit through waters still contested during the War of 1812.
Before departure, Theodosia stayed at the house on the corner of Front and Queen Streets, then owned by Mary Man, whose father had owned the Mansfield Plantation. The house became the last place she was known to have set foot on land. The Patriot and all aboard were never seen again. Scholars analyzing British naval logbooks concluded the vessel most likely sank in a severe storm that struck the Carolina coast on January 2–3, 1813. Theodosia was 29 years old.
The case became one of the most famous disappearances in early American history, partly because of her father's notoriety and partly because of the several deathbed confessions over subsequent decades—from pirates and wreckers who claimed to have encountered the ship—none of which could be conclusively verified. The Man-Doyle House and the Cannon Street dock have been part of Georgetown's ghost tour circuit since at least the 1990s.
Sources
Georgetown's ghost tour tradition has long placed Theodosia Burr Alston at both the Man-Doyle House and the Cannon Street dock. Witnesses describe a female figure in period dress appearing near the dock's edge, gazing toward the Sampit River, before disappearing. Accounts of the apparition have circulated in Georgetown for well over a century.
The Hammock Coast regional tourism site describes her ghost as having "materialized at both locations," and multiple walking tour operators include the site as a featured stop. The emotional weight of the story—a young woman of national prominence, departing on the last day of 1812 from a town her family knew well, never to arrive—has given the site durable staying power in Georgetown's paranormal folklore regardless of whether the apparitions are verifiable.
Notable Entities
The Man-Doyle House at the corner of Front and Queen Streets and the dock at the end of Cannon Street are walkable from Georgetown's historic riverfront. The house exterior can be viewed from the street; the Cannon Street dock overlooks the Sampit River.
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