Leonora Sansay
She was the author of Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo, in a Series of Letters Written by a Lady at Cape Francois to Col. Burr, late Vice-President of the United States, Principally During the Command of General Rochambeau (Philadelphia, 1808) and Laura (Philadelphia, 1809), and possibly three other novels: Zelica: The Creole (London, 1820); The Scarlet Handkerchief (London, 1823); and The Stranger in Mexico (not extant).
On Valentine's Day 1779, her mother married a Philadelphia innkeeper named William Hassel (sometimes Hassal); Sansay's stepfather maintained Hassal's Tavern (or The Half Moon — a generic name for an English pub), which was located across from the State House (Independence Hall), where local politicians and members of Congress often met informally.
At some point in the mid- to late 1790s (she shows up in the Philadelphia City Directory for 1796 as "Eleonora Hassel, Gentlewoman"), Sansay met Aaron Burr, who became her friend and mentor.
(Sansay stated that she met him after the death of her fiancé, who had left a letter leaving her and their unborn child "to his protection.
John studied to become a doctor like his father but was removed from Princeton and became an assistant to his father (1792), challenged numerous men to duels (1797-1807), served in the Navy (1798-1808), attempted suicide multiple times, was relieved of duty and declared insane by a doctor with the U. S. Naval Hospital in New Orleans (December 1808).
Leonora writes in Secret History that Burr convinced her to marry Louis Sansay (St. Louis), then a New York merchant having fled his plantation in Saint-Domingue (now Haïti), a French colony subject to a massive slave uprising that would ultimately end with the declaration of Haitian Independence in 1804.
[3] Corroborating the purpose of Leonora's visit, Burr also wrote to his cousin, Pierpont Edwards: Madame Sansay will sail with her husband for St. Domingo (I believe the Cape) in a few Days -- She is the Lady of whom you may have heard me speak under the Name of Leonora, married about two years ago to Mr. Sansay a reputable french Merch[an]t. formerly of that Island but for some Years past resident of N York - I pray you to give Made.
In these letters, Louis asked that, "considering the affection and the attachment that you always have attested for [Leonora]", Burr would "employ yourself for us ... to obtain for me at the expense of the French government my passage [to Haiti] and that of my wife, my daughter and of my two servants by making him see that I am without means.
Declaring he would "sacrifice even my life rather than to see her in the possession of another," Louis begged Burr "to reassure my heart, which is broken with pain," "to urge her to come back as promptly as possible."
[9] But when his "intolerable and groundless jealousy" grew to the point where "[i]n every man that approached me he saw a rival" and when he "came home [one night] in a transport of fury, dragged me from my bed, said it was his intention to destroy me, and swore that he would render me horrible by rubbing aqua-fortis [nitric acid] in my face," Leonora left him, escaping in the dark of night to a remote village 12 miles away.
Sansay appears in a March 1, 1808 news item in The Richmond Enquirer under one of her pseudonyms, Madame D'Auvergne, an apparent francization of her birth name (Davern).
(See Thomas Abernethy, Burr Conspiracy (1954), p. 270 - Robert T. Spence testified he had sailed from Philadelphia to New Orleans "with Bollman, Alexander, and a Madame D'Auvergne, alias Nora Haskel"].
See also Davis, Private Journal of AB, Mrs. --- to Burr, 11-6-1808, 1:78-79 - "Just before I left New-Orleans I received a present of elegant medals from my friend in Mexico."
(New Haven, 1987), 2:259 - He wrote to Lewis DeMun in New Orleans: "If you see M. D'Avergne [sic], say every thing that the sincerest respect would prompt.")
After the Burr trial, Sansay returned again to Philadelphia and wrote and published Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo, in a Series of Letters Written by a Lady at Cape Francois to Col. Burr, late Vice-President of the United States, Principally During the Command of General Rochambeau.
And Mary-Jo Kline, Political Correspondence & Public Papers of Aaron Burr (1983) 2:70, AB to Pierpont Edwards, 3-20-1802.
According to The Scarlet Handkerchief, the main character, Sophia, travels to London in the hopes of obtaining fame through publication of her novels.
Sophia ultimately tells a friend: "My work, you must remember, was a first essay, and was entrusted to one disposed to throw all possible discouragement in my way to prevent my remaining in Europe.
The rest of The Scarlet Handkerchief finds Sophia largely in France under the care of an elderly woman: Madame D'Ormesson, who "embodies the values of propriety and adherence to social norms, especially regarding the behavior of young ladies in French society.
(AI generated summary of The Scarlet Handkerchief, via researcher and software engineer, Maxim Rud, London, October 2024.)
With barely a "Napoleon" left to her name, Sophia askss: "[I]s there any thing so forlorn as a female who has none to direct, support, or console her?"
Sansay projects her darkest thoughts onto the impetuous younger version of herself, Julia, who, finding herself betrayed by "the object of her love" ultimately "plunged [herself] into the Seine."
Sansay was buried one month before her 48th birthday in an unmarked grave at St. Mary's Church on November 12, 1821, in the Parish of Newent, County of Gloucester.
