Celebrating East Budleigh’s Other Hero
On Friday 12 May this year, local MP Simon Jupp was joined by two American descendants of Roger Conant in a formal unveiling of a blue plaque at East Budleigh’s Church Hall. The event had been arranged to honour the East Budleigh-born founder of the American city of Salem in Massachusetts, as Mr Jupp explained in a speech. The unveiling was followed by dinner in the Sir Walter Raleigh pub for around 30 guests. © John Washington/Peter Bowler East Budleigh’s Roger Conant Club was formed recently to raise awareness of this early European settler in the run-up to the 400 th anniversary of Salem’s founding. Along with the blue plaque a fine painting by local artist John Washington is now displayed in All Saints Church. It depicts a moment in early American history when Conant intervened as a peacemaker in a potentially violent quarrel between West Country fishermen and a group of armed soldiers from Plymouth Colony commanded by the Mayflower Pilg...