“Nowhere to Run: Dunmore’s Floating City and a Diminishing Loyalist World” will be the topic of a talk at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at Kingston Parish House on Main Street in Mathews.

Brenden Burke, associate director of archaeology for Florida’s St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, will discuss the history leading up to the 1776 Battle of Cricket Hill, as well as the technology and techniques involved in an upcoming underwater search. The lecture is being sponsored by the Mathews County Historical Society.

In 1775, Virginia and her fellow colonies struggled to emerge from colonial control. John Murray, better known as the 4th Earl of Dunmore, served as Virginia’s final, and arguably most ignominious, colonial governor.

On June 8, 1775, Dunmore succumbed to political and military pressure and departed the capitol at Williamsburg. He, his fellow loyalists, and troops began a 13-month saga that wound its way out the James River and up the C...