Mathews County’s VA250 Committee, like other localities across the U.S., has been busy making plans for the 250th anniversary celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

But Mathews has two things other cities and counties can’t lay claim to, said VA250 Committee Chair Fred Lyon: the Battle of Cricket Hill and an original musical that tells its story.

The battle, fought on July 9, 1776, was the final stand for Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia. After making an encampment on Gwynn’s Island, Dunmore was vanquished by General Andrew Lewis, members of the 7th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army, and local colonists, whom he haughtily dubbed “crickets.”

As part of the 250th anniversary celebration in Mathews, said Lyon, the VA250 Committee is teaming up with the Court House Players, a community theater group, to stage a production of “Crickets on a Hill,” the beloved musical written by the late Judy Ward, a Mathews native and regionally renowned singer and songwriter.

Shawn Jaeger, president of the Court House Players, said the show is getting a makeover, with all of the original version still intact, but expanded with a complementary current-day story that will include roles for children. David Shuber, Ward’s singing partner, who played the lead character in the original show during the 1976 bicentennial celebration and orchestrated the music for the last production in 2017, will be involved in this show, as well.

Lyon said the VA250 Committee’s next job is to pull together the funding for the show by applying for grants and seeking private contributions.
There are other major initiatives in the works, as well, said Lyon, including encampments and reenactments that will fill the week following July 4 with lots of activities to celebrate the birth of the nation. Lyon said there will be more about those activities after a meeting next month with the Sons of the American Revolution and the 7th Virginia reenactment group.

But that final week doesn’t tell the whole story. In the lead-up to the crowning events of the celebration, there are other initiatives being rolled out. These include a collaborative research effort by the Mathews committee and the Gloucester VA250 Committee to identify as many local people as possible in 1776 who were patriots, loyalists, free people of color, enslaved people, and Native Americans. Quarterly lectures are planned, as well, on various aspects of the fight for independence in the American colonies. The next lecture will be in October.

And, of course, the July 4 celebration in 2026 will be a big one, said Lyon, and will, thus far, include a parade and a picnic.

“There will be lots of Mathews-forward activities,” said Lyon. “We’re looking forward to lots of community involvement.”