Roger Conant (bef. 1592 - 1679)

Born before 9 Apr 1592 in East Budleigh, Devon, England

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Horton) Conant — married 11 Nov 1618 in St Ann Blackfriars, London, England

Descendants

Died 19 Nov 1679 after age 87 in Beverly, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Roger Conant migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 1, p. 451) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Origins

Roger Conant, baptized 9 April 1592 in East Budleigh, Devonshire,^[1] was the youngest of eight children of Richard Conant and Agnes Clarke.^[2][3]

As a young man, Roger moved to London, where he likely apprenticed for the Worshipful Company of Salters. If he completed a full seven-year apprenticeship in London, he had likely removed there before 1611.^[4] The records of the Salters Company were destroyed by fire, so we have no contemporary proof that Roger was a freeman of the company; however, on 20 January 1620, Roger signed the composition bond of his brother, John, as "Roger Conant, salter"^[2] which, according to Anderson, implies "that he was free of the Salters' Company and a Citizen of London".^[3]

Marriage

Roger married Sarah Horton at St. Ann Blackfriars, London,^[5] on 11 November 1618.^[6] Sarah was the daughter of Thomas Horton and Catherine Satchfield^[7] and together they had at least nine children.^[3]

Roger's marriage into the Horton family brought him into close connection with "men prominent in Puritan affairs", including the Culverwell family, which included several Puritan ministers. Quoting Shipton,^[8] Anderson states "evidence suggests that [Roger] was a Church of England Puritan who like Endicott and Winthrop was led by the events of the next decade into Congregational Puritanism."^[4]

Arrival in New England

Roger likely immigrated to New England to practice his trade as a salter. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the fisheries off the coast of New England were of great importance for the English economy. It was necessary to salt the fish for preservation in transport, so Roger's skills were needed in Plymouth Colony.

The date of Roger's arrival in New England is not found in any records. Anderson states: "Attempts to place Conant and his family on one ship or another face an inconsistency in the records that defies certain resolution". ^[3] It is also notable that Roger's name appears nowhere in early Plymouth records and it's possible that he never settled there.

There are two theories about when Roger, his wife Sarah and son Caleb arrived in New England (presumably at Plymouth Colony):

• 1623 (or earlier): Some believe that Roger arrived in May 1623 aboard the Anne. In a May 1671 petition, Roger states that he had been a planter in New England "forty-eight years and upward" (placing his arrival in 1623 or earlier).^[3] His brother, Christopher Conant, was recorded in the 1623 Plymouth land division as an Anne passenger, but Roger, his wife and son are not. However, the three of them may be represented in the ten shares assigned to "Mr. Ouldam and those joyned with him",^[9] as John Oldham's group of ten "particulars" was "to have lands assigned them and be for themselves"^[10] (see research note). Roger was further associated with Oldham as they were both in Nantasket in 1624.
• 1624: Anderson believes Roger most likely arrived in 1624, as he was not named in the Plymouth land division of 1623.^[3] Further support of Roger's arrival in March 1623/4 is found in Bradford's history, which includes a January 1623/4 letter to Bradford from Robert Cushman that mentions he had sent an unnamed master salter to the colony. This salter probably arrived on the Charity in March 1623/4.^[9] If Roger traveled aboard the Charity, he would have arrived with the Reverend John Lyford, who had been sent by the Adventurers to be the colony's minister. Roger was later associated with Lyford at Nantasket, Cape Ann and Salem and shared Lyford's religious views.

There are two strongly contradictory accounts of Roger Conant in Plymouth. William Bradford wrote: ". . . he whom they sent to make salt was an ignorant, foolish, selfwilled fellow."^[11] William Hubbard, on the other hand, called him "a religious, sober and prudent gentleman".^[12] Bradford never mentioned that there were two salt masters in Plymouth Colony but, as he never specifically mentioned Roger by name in his writings, he may have been referring to another man.

Nantasket

Soon after John Lyford's arrival in Plymouth, William Bradford accused him of promoting religious practices of the established English church among the settlers – practices that the Pilgrims had come to America to escape. When Lyford and fellow dissident, John Oldham, were expelled from the colony, it is thought that Roger may have left the colony with them. Anderson states that Oldham and Lyford were expelled from Plymouth in the summer of 1624^[13] and that Oldham left immediately while Lyford was given liberty to stay for six months.^[14] It is not known if the three men and their families were close acquaintances and decided to settle elsewhere together, or if they simply left Plymouth Colony about the same time and ended up in the same place.

All three men removed to the Nantasket peninsula, which had been an Indian trading post established in 1621. Hubbard states that Roger, Lyford and Oldham had resided at Nantasket "for the space of a year and some few months" before removing to Cape Anne in 1625.^[12]

Cape Ann

Roger Conant is Notable.

A group of investors called the Dorchester Company (of which Roger's brother John was a member) had brought a small number of colonists to Cape Ann (now Gloucester) in 1623 to establish a fishing operation and plantation. In 1625, the Company invited Roger to move there as governor of the Cape Ann patent.^[15] Lyford and Oldham were also invited to Cape Ann; Lyford removed there for a short time to be the minister at the settlement and Oldham remained in Nantasket.^[16] As the settlement at Cape Ann predated the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Roger has sometimes been referred to as the first governor of Massachusetts.

The settlement at Cape Ann soon failed and conflict ensued, as Captain Miles Standish came to Cape Ann from Plymouth with an armed group, claiming encroachment.^[2] Hubbard praised Conant for making peace, with harsh words for Standish.^[12] However, Bradford blamed "he whom they sent to make salt" for the outpost’s failure, alleging that the salter had burned the house and spoiled the salt pans, ending "that chargeable business".^[9]

The Dorchester group withdrew its funding for the unsuccessful fishing venture at Cape Ann by the end of 1625. The plantation at Cape Ann broke up in 1626 and Roger led a small group west to settle a more promising locale called Naumkeag (later renamed Salem).^[15] The group he traveled with included John Woodbury, John Balch and Peter Palfreys, who were employees of the Merchant Adventurers, as well as John Lyford.^[16]

Salem and Beverly

In 1626, Roger and his family removed to Naumkeag, where he is best known for being the first governor of the English settlers at the plantation there.^[9] Under Roger's leadership, the plantation had survived the first two years but, in 1628, Roger was replaced by John Endicott, who had recently been sent to the region by the Massachusetts Bay Company. The Naumkeag plantation, soon to be renamed Salem, was absorbed into the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Roger and other settlers of lands on Massachusetts Bay that were not part of Plymouth Colony (established in 1620) or the Massachusetts Bay Colony (established in 1628) became known as the "Old Planters".^[17] As one of the old planters in Salem, Roger received substantial land grants and was admitted as a freeman of the town on 18 May 1631.^[3]

Under Endicott, a Congregational church was established at Salem, replacing the Episcopal form of worship under Lyford.^[16] Despite their Episcopal preferences, Roger and his wife Sarah appear in a list of Salem church members made in late 1636. In the Salem grant of 1637, he was listed as being in a household of nine people. For the next few decades, Roger filled a variety of civic offices, serving as a Deputy to the General Court, a magistrate, a member of juries and committees. He was regularly elected selectman and also helped establish land boundaries.^[3]

Sarah Conant died between June and September 1667.^[18] In 1668, the part of Salem where Roger resided was set off and officially incorporated as the town of Beverly. On 28 May 1671, Roger unsuccessfully petitioned the court, requesting to change the name of Beverly to Budleigh, his home town, citing his life of service to the colony:

The humble petition of Roger Conant of Bass River alias Beverly, who have been a planter in New England forty-eight years and upward, being one of the first, if not the first, that resolved and made good my settlement under God, in matter of plantation with my family, in this colony of the Massachusetts Bay, and have been instrumental, both for the founding and carrying on of the same, and when in the infancy thereof, it was in great hazard of being deserted ...^[3]

Roger was called "of Beverly, alias Bass River" on 28 May 1679, when he received a grant of of 200 acres of land in the wilderness.^[3]

Death

Roger Conant died 19 November 1679 in Beverly, aged about 88 years, 7 months.^[19][20] His burial place is not found in any records.

His will dated 1 March 1677/8 was proved 25 November 1679. In it, he named his only surviving son Exercise as executor. His estate was valued at £258, primarily real estate, which was distributed to a large number of family members, many of them grandchildren^[3] as several of his children had predeceased him. It should be noted that prior to making his will, Roger had gifted large parcels of land to sons Lot, Roger and Exercise in 1667.^[2] See the transcribed will of Roger Conant here.

In 1913, the Conant Family Association erected a bronze statue of Roger Conant, which can now be seen facing the Salem Common. It is inscribed with a quote from Roger's 1671 petition to rename Beverly, as follows:

"I was a means, through grace assisting me, to stop the flight of those few that then were here with me, and that by my utter denial to go away with them, who would have gone either for England, or mostly for Virginia."^[21]

The statue's placement in front of the building currently housing the Salem Witch Museum (founded in 1972) leads some to incorrectly assume that Roger was instrumental in the Salem Witch Trials^[22] or that he was considered a witch himself. However, Roger, who died more than a decade before those unfortunate events and was widely regarded as a peacemaker, was never involved in the chaos that was the Salem Witch Trials.

Children

Roger and Sarah had the following children:

1. Sarah, baptized at St Lawrence Jewry, London, 19 September 1619; buried there 30 October 1620^[3]
2. Caleb, baptized at St Lawrence Jewry, London, 27 May 1622, died unmarried "beyond seas" before 11 November 1633;^[3] Caleb was named in the 1627 will of his grandmother Catherine (Satchfield) Horton^[7]
3. Sarah, born in New England about 1623, married John Leach, she is named with her children in Roger Conant’s 1678 will;^[3] Sarah was also named in the 1627 will of her grandmother Catherine (Satchfield) Horton^[7]
4. Lot, born about 1624, left a will dated 24 September 1674, married Elizabeth Walton^[3]
5. [possibly] Joanna, born about 1626, who was struck by Lydia Glutch February 1648/9^[3]
6. Roger, born in Salem about 1628 "the first born child in Salem", married Elizabeth ______^[3]
7. Joshua, born in Salem about 1630, married Seeth Gardner^[3]
8. Mary, born in Salem about 1632, married (1) John Balch and (2) William Dodge^[3]
9. Elizabeth, born in Salem about 1635, named in Roger's 1678 will, unmarried^[3]
10. Exercise, baptized at Salem 24 December 1637, married Sarah ____, named in his father's will^[3]

Research Notes

Oldham's "Particulars"

Mary Walton Ferris makes a good case for Roger arriving with Oldham's group and offers some context:

The members of this group were not the so-called "regulars" of the Plymouth Company, which was financed by the English "Adventurers" and was under contract to hold all property in common and do all work in common for a period of seven years; but were on their own expense, desired to live near the settlement for safety but had not come to unite with the colonists and favored the Church of England rather than the Separatists’ religious beliefs. Arrangements were made whereby these "particulars" might live in the village, share equally in its advantages and be free from community labor except for military and similar duties, but must obey the laws, refrain from trading in furs with the Indians and must annually contribute to the public Treasury one bushel of corn for each male of sixteen years or over. ...While it is not proved that Roger Conant came as a "particular", the fact that he resided among the "regulars" for about a year, yet was not mentioned by William Bradford in his history of the early days of the colony, and also the fact that he removed to Nantasket with two or more who were designated as "particulars", justifies the belief that he was one.^[16]

Sources

1. ↑ "Devon Baptisms", database with images. Archive South West Heritage Trust, Ref. #:1180A/PR/1/1. FindMyPast Image - FindMyPast Transcription($): Roger Conant, baptism 9 Apr 1592, East Budleigh, Devon.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Conant, Frederick Odell. A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family in England and America. Portland, ME: Press of Harris & Williams, 1887, pp. 99-128. Archive.org.
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20} Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633. Boston: NEHGS, 1995, vol. 1, pp. 451-459. AmericanAncestors.org($): Roger Conant.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Anderson, Robert Charles. "The Conant Connection: Part Two - Roger Conant, Two Culverwell Families and the Puritan Ministerial Network" in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: NEHGS, April 1994, vol. 148, pp. 107-129 (see pp. 124-129 for Roger Conant and his Puritan connections). AmericanAncestors.org($).
5. ↑ "England, Boyd's Marriage Indexes, 1538-1850", database, FindMyPast Transcription($): Roger Conant, 1618, Sarah Horton, St Anne Blackfriars, London.
6. ↑ Ancestry.com. "London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812", database online. London Metropolitan Archives, London, England. Ref #: P69/ANN/A/002/MS04509/001. Image 17. Ancestry.com($).
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2} Anderson, Robert Charles. "The Conant Connection: Part One - Thomas Horton, London Merchant and Father in law of Roger Conant" in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: NEHGS, 1993, vol. 147, pp. 234-239. AmericanAncestors.org($).
8. ↑ Shipton, Clifford Kenyon. Roger Conant, a Founder of Massachusetts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1945. Not available online.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3} Stratton, Eugene Aubrey. Plymouth Colony: Its History & People, 1620-1691. Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986, pp. 269-270. Not available online (checked by Thiessen-117 on 24 Apr 2024).
10. ↑ Banks, Charles E. The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1962, p. 135. Archive.org.
11. ↑ Bradford, William. History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647. Charles Dean, ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1856, p. 170. HathiTrust.org
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2} Hubbard, William. A General History of New England. Boston: Charles C Little and James Brown, 1848, pp. 102-111. Archive.org.
13. ↑ Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, 1995, vol. 2, p. 1352 (John Oldham). AmericanAncestors.org($).
14. ↑ Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, 1995, vol. 2, p. 1215 (John Lyford). AmericanAncestors.org($).
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1} "The Dorchester Company" under "Colonial America" teaching resources published on the Small Planet website, copyright 2020. Sources listed.
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3} Ferris, Mary Walton. Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines. 1931, vol. 2, pp. 220-228. Archive.org.
17. ↑ Young, Alexander. Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636. Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1846, pp. 20-35; 144-145 (old planters). Archive.org.
18. ↑ Records of the First Church in Beverly, Massachusetts, 1667-1772. Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1905, pp. 2-7. Archive.org.
19. ↑ Vital Records of Beverly, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849. Topsfield, MA: Topsfield Historical Society, 1906, vol. 2, p. 406. Archive.org.
20. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001", database and image, FamilySearch: Roger Conant, 19 November 1679. Also see this record.
21. ↑ Roger Conant Historical Marker on The Historical Marker Database, created 2009, revised 2023.
22. ↑ RogerConant.com

See also:

• Anderson, Robert Charles. Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633. Boston: NEHGS, 2004, pp. 134-143. Not available online.
• Felt, Joseph B. "Notice of Roger Conant," in the The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston: NEHGS, 1848, vol. 2, pp. 233-239. HathiTrust.org: incorrectly states that Roger was expelled from Plymouth with Oldham and Lyford.
• Hurd, D. Hamilton. History of Essex County, Massachusetts. Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1888, pp. 2-3. Archive.org.
• Leavitt, Emily Wilder. A Genealogy of One Branch of the Conant Family, 1581-1890. Boston, MA: Printed for private circulation, 1890, pp. 1-3. Archive.org.
• Perley, Sidney. The History of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, MA: S. Perley, 1924, vol. 1, pp. 78-83. Archive.org.
• Thornton, John Wingate. The Landing at Cape Anne, or, The charter of the First Permanent Colony on the Territory of the Massachusetts Company. Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1854, pp, 24-. Archive.org.
• "Conant Family Papers", pdf, archival summary. HistoricBeverly.net.
• "Find a Grave", database with images, Find A Grave: Memorial #5725134, Memorial page for Roger Conant (1592-19 Nov 1679), citing Burying Point Cemetery, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA.