Roger Conant (Salem)

Roger Conant (c. 1592 – 1679) was the leader of the company of fishermen who founded Salem, Massachusetts (then called Naumkeag) in 1626. He was later supplanted by the governor sent by the Massachusetts Bay Company, John Endicott. He nevertheless remained in high standing with the community, giving long service as a juror and member of the Board of Selectmen, with duties including the establishment of boundaries for new communities.

Early life

Roger Conant was baptized in East Budleigh, Devonshire, England on April 9, 1592. [East Budleigh parish registers, cited by Conant, Frederick ODell, History and Genealogy of the Conant Family, Portland: Private Printing (1887).] He was the eighth and youngest child of Richard Conant and Agnes Clark. Some sources say that he served an apprenticeship in London as a salter. [Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins, Profile of Roger Conant. On 20 Jan 1619/20, Roger, with brother Christopher, signed the Composition Bond of their brother John as “salter, of London”. [http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/database/great_migration/default.asp] ]

Later life

He married Sarah Horton in 1618 in London. He immigrated to Plymouth Colony in 1623 or 1624 with his wife and his son Caleb, possibly aboard the ship "Anne" with his brother Christopher. [Anderson, "supra", in a comprehensive review of records of the time, found no evidence that Roger Conant sailed aboard the Anne or that he was in New England in 1623. He did not receive the land grant that all other adult passengers on the Anne received. His brother Christopher did, however, arrive on the Anne and Roger is found in the area by 1624.] In 1624, he removed to Nantasket because he was uncomfortable with the strictness of the Puritans.

In 1626, he founded Salem, Massachusetts and was its first governor, but in 1627 he was replaced by John Endicott. He remained active in town affairs and is today memorialized in a statue across from the Salem Common. [Founder of Salem profiles on Salem Website. [http://www.salemweb.com/guide/roger.shtml] [http://www.salemweb.com/tales/conant.shtml] ] He died on November 19, 1679 in Beverly, a nearby town which he also helped found. [Early Records of Town of Beverly, MA. Boston: Eben Putnam (1907). [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jdevlin/ma/beverly_ma_vitals3.htm] ] 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." [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=45YZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA631&lpg=PA631&dq=%22e.+w.+leavitt%22+conant&source=web&ots=bNBxLa38cO&sig=QW5X-rFxT8kNN7jauQ4sY2hIwNQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result Guide to Printed Books and Manuscripts Relating to English and Foreign Heraldry and Genealogy, George Gatfield, London, 1892] ] 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. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=QNBQsQZEmvUC&pg=PA225&lpg=PA225&dq=%22roger+conant%22+genealogy&source=web&ots=ZNlTn0ArMi&sig=8fSVMIeQJciRzkL5VfTFXbjJxEg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result#PPA224,M1 The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, Boston, 1888] ]

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