16. Aaron Burr managed to keep one scandal hidden during his lifetime
Aaron Burr was one of those individuals who attracted scandal. He was involved in several which drew him the enmity of Alexander Hamilton, eventually provoking the duel in which Hamilton received his mortal wound. He later was accused of treason, and tried for the same, though he managed to avoid conviction. His name appeared in financial scandals, personal vendettas, and political maneuverings which brought him a reputation as untrustworthy and unstable. But there was one scandal, which could have been his undoing, which he kept secret throughout his lifetime. He maintained a lengthy relationship with a servant in his household, Mary Emmons, during his marriage to Theodosia Burr. Burr ensconced Emmons in his New York home, later moving her to his home in Philadelphia, where he resided when Congress was in session.
During Burr’s residence in Philadelphia, his wife Theodosia remained in their home in New York. Mary Emmons was an exotic personage for the time, having been born in Calcutta, of an Indian mother and British father. In 1788, she delivered the first of two children she would have with Burr, whom she named Louisa Charlotte. That same year, Burr’s wife Theodosia delivered a child, one of 7 children the couple had which did not survive childhood. Burr never acknowledged his relationship with Emmons, nor the children which it produced during his lifetime. His only surviving child from his marriage, also named Theodosia, died at sea under unknown circumstances in 1812. Aaron Burr managed to keep his marital indiscretions away from the public eye, perhaps because there were so many other indiscretions serving as distractions.