Budleigh Past and Present

    at  August 19, 2025     Email This BlogThis! Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Labels:  Massachusetts ,  Myles Standish ,  Roger Conant No comments: Post a Comment Older Post Home Subscribe to:  Post Comments (Atom) The Salter's Song - with pics  

  Notable among the visitors to East Budleigh’s 2025 Scarecrow Festival on 7/8 June was a figure from the distant past. Born in the village over four centuries ago, a generation later than its better known Sir Walter Raleigh, Roger Conant was very different from Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtier. Sailing across the Atlantic to America in around 1623, he founded the Massachusetts city of Salem.   Today, he is seen as a more modest and peace-loving character than many of the country’s European pioneers.  And so, ‘Roger Conant’  had come to the 2025 Scarecrow Festival to preside over its Duck Race, now named after him. Many  visitors to the American city are struck by the sight of Roger Conant’s statue with its tall hat and long cloak, unfortunately sited next to Salem’s Witch Museum. Understandably they think that its founder must have dabbled in the black arts. Some of East Budleigh’s visitors at the weekend probably thought the same.  So ‘Roger Conant’...

Continued from  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2024/06/around-town-and-over-pond-09-climbing.html AROUND THE TOWN AND OVER THE POND A walk around Budleigh Salterton to interest transatlantic visitors. Every so often there’s a diversion which may inspire you to visit places like East Budleigh, Exeter, Sidmouth, Colyton or even places in the United States and Canada.        The walk is set out in parts. Here’s the tenth part: Still at the Raleigh Wall. 10. AN AMERICAN PEACE LOVER  Summary: Roger Conant idealised The First Church in Salem   Image credit:  www.firstchurchinsalem.org At the First Church in Salem Roger Conant is respected today not just as one of the founding members. ‘ We celebrate him regularly as the founder of Naumkeag, his relationship to the indigenous people of Cape Ann, and for his role in the peaceful transfer of power to John Endicott,’ writes Diane Smith.   Frontispiece of A History and Genealogy of th...