Roger Conant (colonist)
Roger Conant | |
---|---|
Colonist, drysalter | |
Known for | Founding Salem, Massachusetts |
Roger Conant (c. 9 April 1592 – November 19, 1679) was a New England colonist and drysalter credited for establishing the communities of Salem, Peabody, Beverly and Danvers, Massachusetts (Peabody, Beverly and Danvers were part of Salem during his lifetime).[1][2]
Conant arrived at
Conant's leadership provided the stability to survive the first two years in Salem, but
Conant died in Beverly, Massachusetts Bay on November 19, 1679.
Early life
Roger Conant was baptized in East Budleigh, Devon on April 9, 1592. He was the son of Richard Conant and Agnes (née Clarke). He would later move to London, where he became a drysalter.[5]
Life in New England
Contrary to some accounts that Roger Conant and his family arrived in 1623 in the ship Anne, per Banks, only Roger's brother Christopher Conant is listed as being on the Anne in 1623. In
In 1625,
In the years prior to and also after John Robinson's death, Plymouth Colony had lost about a quarter of its residents. They had moved to other areas of New England or gone back to
In another case of the new Pilgrim vindictiveness, in 1625 Roger Conant was involved in a violent situation between Plymouth Colony military Captain Myles Standish and some fishermen on Cape Ann. Conant was so shocked by the violence the Plymouth captain displayed that Conant later reported the incident in detail for Pilgrim historian William Hubbard. In restating John Robinson's earlier concerns about the way the colony was turning to fanaticism and violence, Hubbard wrote, "Captain Standish…never entered the school of our Savior Christ…or, if he was ever there, had forgot his first lessons, to offer violence to no man." Hubbard also wrote about Standish; "so was the Plymouth captain, a man of very little stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper."[7]
In 1626 Conant was chosen as the first governor of the English settlers on
Later years in Salem
Conant built the first Salem house on what is now Essex Street, opposite the Town Market. In 1630 he was chosen as a freeman, or voting stockholder of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Conant was one of the first two Salem representatives to the colony's general court or legislature, and was repeatedly elected a selectman by the people of Salem. When the legislature granted communities the right to establish district courts, Roger Conant served on numerous Salem quarterly juries for sixteen years. He also was involved in civic activities over the years such as establishing town boundaries and laying out land grants.[10]
Roger Conant was active in the affairs of Salem throughout his life.[10] In 1639, his signature was one of the first ones on the contract for enlarging the meeting house in Town Square for the First Church in Salem. This document remains a part of the town records at City Hall.
During his very long lifetime Conant had a number of family tragedies, including the death of his wife Sarah, and of sons Caleb, Lot, Roger and Joshua. Only his son Exercise and possibly several daughters succeeded him.[6][11]
Family
Roger Conant and Sarah Horton married at St. Ann Blackfriars, London on November 11, 1618, and had nine or ten children. She was alive in November 1660 and may have died before March 1677/78 as she was not named in her father's will. Her burial place is unknown.[6]
Children of Roger and Sarah Conant:[12]
- Sarah was baptized at St. Lawrence Jewry, London on September 19, 1619, and was buried there October 30, 1620.
- Caleb was baptized at St. Lawrence Jewry, London on May 27, 1622. He died in England before November 11, 1633, when his uncle, John Conant, became administrator of his estate.
- Lot was born about 1624 and died September 29, 1674. He married Elizabeth Walton and had ten children. The marriage of their descendant Hannah Conant (d.1810) with Josiah Dodge (d.1785/90) in 1761 connected the line of Mayflower passenger Richard More with the Conant family. The marriage of their descendant John Conant (1814-1903) with Elvira Bradford (1820-1897) in 1842 connected the Conant line to the line of eight Mayflower passengers: William Bradford, William Mullins, Priscilla Mullins, John Alden, William Brewster, Mary Brewster, Love Brewster, and Richard Warren. After Lot's death, Elizabeth married Andrew Mansfield in Lynn on January 10, 1681/82.
- Roger was born in Salem and died in June 1672. He married Elizabeth Weston by 1661 and had two children.
- Sarah was born about 1628. She married John Leach and had ten children.
- Joshua was born about 1630 and died in England in 1659. He married Seeth Gardner by 1657 and had one son.
- Mary was born about 1632.
- She married:
- 1. John Balch about 1652 and had one daughter.
- 2. William Dodge by 1663 and had five children.
- Elizabeth was born about 1635 and was unmarried in March 1677/78. Nothing further is known.
- Exercise was baptized in Salem on December 24, 1637, and died on April 28, 1722. He married Sarah Andrews by 1668 and had six children. He was buried in Olde Mansfield Center Cemetery, Mansfield, CT.[13][14]
- John
- Ally
Death and burial
Roger Conant died on November 19, 1679, in what is now the city of Beverly in Essex County, Massachusetts. He was reportedly buried in Burying Point Cemetery in Salem.[15]
Statue in Salem
In 1913, the Conant Family Association approved sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson's design for a bronze sculpture of Roger Conant. Kitson's dramatic design features Conant overlooking Salem Common, shrouded in a billowing heavy cloak. The sculpture was installed atop a boulder taken from nearby Lynn, Massachusetts.[11] Because of the cloak, wide-brimmed hat, and its location directly outside the Salem Witch Museum, visitors to the area often mistake Conant for a witch.
In 2005, the Salem Common Neighborhood Association successfully raised funds to restore the statue by cleaning the bronze of the stains it had accumulated from acid rain and pollution. The $30,000 restoration was completed by Rika Smith McNally. [16]
A plaque affixed to the front of the statue reads:
"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."
Further reading
One of the earliest known genealogies of Roger Conant and his descendants is the volume written by his descendant E. W. Leavitt and privately printed in 1890: "A Genealogy of One Branch of the Conant Family, 1581-1890."[17] An earlier Conant genealogy, published in Portland, Maine, in 1887 and written by Frederick Odell Conant also delved into the English origins of the Conant family.[18]
Shipton, Clifford Kenyon (1945). Roger Conant, a Founder of Massachusetts. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. p. 171.
References
- ^ a b c Bartlett, Sarah S. Roger Conant in America: Governor and Citizen, An Historical Address Delivered at the Conant Family Reunion, Hotel Vendome, Boston, June 13, 1901, p. 8.
- ^ a b Shipton, Clifford K. Roger Conant: A Founder of Massachusetts, p. 53-4, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1944.
- ^ Shipton, Clifford K. Roger Conant: A Founder of Massachusetts, p. 37-8, 72, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1944.
- ^ Shipton, Clifford K. Roger Conant: A Founder of Massachusetts, pp. 68-75, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1944.
- ^ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History & People, 1620-1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 269
- ^ a b c d e Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History & People, 1620-1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 269, 270
- ^ a b c d e William Hubbard, A general history of New England
- ^ Endicott, Charles M. (1847) Memoir of John Endicott, first governor of the colony of Massachusetts Bay (via archive.org)
- ^ Stage Fort at American Forts Network
- ^ a b Shipton, Clifford K. Roger Conant: A Founder of Massachusetts, pp. 124-5, 128, 149, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1944.
- ^ a b Roger Conant in Salem
- ^ Shipton, Clifford K. Roger Conant: A Founder of Massachusetts, pp. 142, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1944.
- ^ New England Historic Genealogical Society, Family Sketch of Roger Conant [1]
- ^ Frederick Odell Conant, A history and genealogy of the Conant family in England and America, thirteen generations, 1520-1887 : containing also some genealogical notes on the Connet, Connett and Connit families (Privately printed: 1887) p. 99
- ^ Memorial of Roger Conant on Find A Grave
- ^ "Statue of Roger Conant · Salem Public Library Digital Heritage". digitalheritage.noblenet.org. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
- ^ George Gatfield, Guide to Printed Books and Manuscripts Relating to English and Foreign Heraldry and Genealogy (London: 1892) [2]
- ^ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, Boston, 1888