Regicide in the Family

Join us on Tuesday, May 5 at 6:00 as we welcome author Sarah Dixwell Brown.

Imagine discovering in your family tree a man who sentenced a king to death—a regicide!

With humor and not a little chagrin, Sarah Dixwell Brown uncovers layer by layer two interwoven stories: The first is her discovery, breaking through her father’s reticence on the topic, of John Dixwell, her seventeenth-century ancestor who hightailed it to the New World to escape the henchmen of British King Charles II, himself bent on avenging his father’s beheading.

Along the way a second story shines through—of her family and a meditation on her own life amid generations of New England Puritan heritage.

Brown taught writing at Stanford University, Santa Clara University, Mount Holyoke College and the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has published numerous personal essays in national and local publications.

Regicide in the Family: Finding John Dixwell was awarded first prize in the Family History/Genealogy category by the Connecticut Society of Genealogists in 2023.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase at this event, and Dixie will sign.

For more information about the author and the book. please visit: About the Book – Sarah Dixwell Brown

Made possible by the support of the Friends of the Athol Public Library.

Free and Open to the Public.
Registration is required.