Book signing of historical interest

Published 12:37 pm Wednesday, July 25, 2018

A book-signing event for Cynthia Mattson’s new book, “The Killing of Reverend Kay: A hidden Murder in Colonial Virginia,” will be held Sunday, July 29, at 2 p.m., in the historic 1827 circuit courtroom at Lunenburg’s county seat.

Mattson is a Lunenburg County Historical Society (LCHS) life member. Her first book, “James Craig, Patriot Parson” followed the life of Craig, Anglican parson in Lunenburg County at the time of the American Revolution. Many know him as the owner of Craig’s mill that was burned by the British during the American Revolution.

Mattson’s most recent book is about yet another Anglican parson, William Kay, and his murder in Lunenburg County in 1755 which became the subject of a “top-level, colonial cover-up.”

Mattson is well-qualified to tell the story of this unprecedented crime. She is a graduate of the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America and served as a trial lawyer for most of her career with the federal government. She has meticulously searched untapped colonial court records to bring to light the story of Kay’s murder in Lunenburg County and the circumstances surrounding it.

Copies of her book will be available at the signing.

The book has been critically acclaimed by scholars such as Otto Lohrenz, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Nebraska at Kearney, who has written extensively on the Anglican clergy in colonial Virginia, and by James B. Bell, Distinguished Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford University, who is known for his works on the Anglican Church in colonial America.