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.[
[602]] "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] [
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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 was; but before summer was out, he burnt the house, and the fire was so vehement as it spoiled...” Unless there were three salters at Plymouth (the other known salter was not sent to Cape Ann), this account refers to Roger. The more positive accounts of Roger as peacemaker may come from Hubbard’s (also contemporary) General History of New England may be traced to the fact that Conant and Hubbard were known friends and Roger may have fed him a positively spun version of events. If true, this helps one understand why someone so prominent in the settlement of Salem would take no part in the larger affairs of the colony after the 1630s.[
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Savage's: ROGER, Salem, was one of the earliest sett. of Mass. hav. been in 1623 at Plymouth, next at Nantasket, thence rem. to Cape Ann, there resid. betw. one and two yrs. and rem. to Naumkeag, a. 1627. He was s. of Richard and Agnes, br. it is said of Dr. John of the gr. Assemb. of Divines at Westminster, tho. ano. acco. makes his f. William, b. in the hundred of E. Budleigh, bapt. at the parish ch. of the same, in Devon, 9 Apr. 1593; appoint. 1625, gov., agent, or superintend. for the Dorchester project. of the planta. as Endicott, wh. supersed. him, was, 1629, for the Gov. and Comp. of Mass. bef. the com. of Winthrop the first chart. Gov. in the country. [Felt, I. 106. Hubbard, 109, 10.] Gibbs says his gr.f. John was of French, i. e. Norman, extract. his ancest. for many generat. hav. been at Gittisham, betw. Honiton and Ottery St. Mary's. He req. to be freem. 19 Oct. 1630, was adm. 18 May foll. was rep. at the first gen. Ct. of Mass. 1634, d. 19 Nov. 1679, in 87th yr. at Beverly (wh. he earnestly desir. to be name Budleigh). Young, Chron. 24, gives him four s. I think he had five; but even the assiduous fondness of Felt, in a Mem. of gr. dilig. filling fourteen pages of Geneal. Reg. II. has not furnish. complete fam. acco. His abstr. of the will, made 1 Mar. 1678, refers to s. Exercise and childr.; s. Lot's ten ch.; gr.ch. John, s. of Roger; gr.ch. Joshua C. whose f. may have been John, or Roger; [[vol. 1, p. 441]] ds. Elizabeth C. prob. never m.; Mary, wh. had been wid. in 1662, of the sec. John Batch, now w. of the sec. William Dodge, and her five ch.; Sarah, and her ch. John and four ds.; a gr.ch. Rebecca C. whose f. may have been either of the s. John, or Roger; beside cous. Mary, w. of Hilliard Verin, but whose d. is unkn.; Adoniram Veren, and his sis. Hannah, with her two ch. and three ds. of his cous. James Mason, dec. and it is equally unkn. wh. she was. Of Exercise, perhaps the third s. b. at Cape Ann, a. 1636, bapt. 24 Dec. 1637; Joshua; and Lot, above, is all that is kn. to me; John was of Beverly ch. 1671, prob. d. bef. his f.; Roger, the first b. ch. at Salem is spok. of next. His w. was Sarah, but neither h. nor w. unit. early with the ch.