Ancestry of Ethel Blanch Miles - Urs Boxler Photography

Ancestry of Ethel B. Miles
Descendants of ROGER Conant
Generation No. 1
1. ROGER 1 CONANT was born Bef. April 09, 1592 in East Budleigh, Devonshire, England, and died
November 19, 1679 in Salem, Essex, Mass, USA 1 . He married SARAH HORTON November 11, 1618
in St. Ann's, Blackfriars, London, England 2,3 , daughter of THOMAS HORTON and CATHERINE
SATCHFIELD. She died Bet. June - September 20, 1667 4 .
Notes for ROGER CONANT:
Notes for Roger CONANT by Amelia Morrow
Moved to London about 1620. On 20 Jan 1619/20, with brother Chris signed Composition Bond of
brother John for first fruits of Rectory of Lymington as "salter, of London". Salters are on of the 12
guilds of London. Date of immigration unclear, but a 1671 affadavit says he had been there for 48
years, and his brother arrived in 1623 on the Ann.[327] "Mr. Connant" was one of the five prominent
men to receive a two hundred acre farm in the freeman's lands at the head of Bass River 25 January
1635[/6] [ STR 1:12, 19]
Governor of the Cape Ann Colony 1625-1628. He was to have been governor, but Endicott arrived
from England with the proper charter. He was influential in the settling of both Salem and Beverly,
across the river. Beverly was almost named "Budleigh" after Roger's home parish, but the founders
named it Beverly after Beverly in York. (Beverly Town History: http://www.thehannah.org/bev75a.html)
From the Salem, Mass, web site describing the statue of Conant in town:
According to records, Roger Conant was baptized in East Budleigh, Devonshire, England in 1592, the
youngest of eight children. In 1623 he emigrated to Plymouth with his wife, Sarah and son, Caleb.
However, he was uncomfortable with the strict Pilgrim society in Plymouth and moved his family to
Nantasket in 1624. In the late autumn of 1625, Conant was invited by the Rev. John White and other
members of the Dorchester Company to move to their fishing settlement on Cape Ann as their
governor.
Still looking for more favorable conditions for a settlement, he led a group of people to Naumkeag, now
Salem, in 1626, and continued as their governor. In 1627 a patent was solicited from England and it
was obtained by a group led by John Endicott who arrived in Naumkeag in 1628. Endicott and the
other settlers of the New England Company now owned the rights to Naumkeag. Fortunately for the
peaceful continuity of the settlement, Conant remained in Salem and, despite what must have been a
disappointment for him, acceded to Endicott's authority as the new governor.
Conant built the first Salem house on what is Essex Street today, almost opposite the Town Market. In
1639, his was one of the signatures on the building contract for enlarging the meeting house in Town
House Square for the First Church in Salem. This document remains part of the town records at City
Hall. He was active in the affairs of the town throughout his life. In 1679, he died at the age of 87.
This dramatic, cloaked statue of Roger Conant faces the Salem Common and stands atop a huge
boulder brought from the woods near the floating bridge at Lynn. Artist Henry H. Kitson designed this
heroic bronze statue for the Conant Family Association and the statue was dedicated on June 17,
1913. (http://www.salemweb.com/roger.htm)
Not all portrayals of Conant are positive - Bradford's account of Plymouth refers to a salter "...he whom
they sent to make salt was an ignorant, foolish, selfwilled fellow ... he caused them to send carpenters
to rear a great frame for a large house, to receive the salt & such other uses. But in the end all proved
vain. Then he laid fault of the ground, in which he was deceived; but if he might have the lighter to
carry clay, he was sure then he could do it ... he could not do anything but boil salt in pans, and yet
would make them that were joined with him believe there was so great a mystery in it as was not easy
to be attained, and made them do many unnecessary things to blind their eyes, till they discerned his
subtlety. The next year he was sent to Cape Anne and the pans were set up there where the fishing
Register Report of ROGER Conant: 69