AROUND THE TOWN AND OVER THE POND - 09: 'CLIMBING THE CONANT FAMILY TREE IN OLD ENGLAND'
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https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2024/06/around-town-and-over-pond-08-from.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 ninth part:
Still at the Raleigh Wall.
0.9 CLIMBING THE CONANT FAMILY TREE IN OLD ENGLAND
1. A news
cutting from the Boston Globe newspaper, 13 September 1905
American visitors to the UK sometimes ask whether any of Roger’s descendants live in East Budleigh, hoping to meet offspring of his numerous siblings, and perhaps imagining that Conant family reunions take place in Britain as they do in the US.
Looking down on the graves
in All Saints’ churchyard from the tower
No trace remains of the
East Budleigh Conants, even in All Saints churchyard where any possible graves
disappeared long ago.
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On the list of All Saints Church’s vicars you can see the name of Richard Conant, Roger’s nephew, appointed in 1672. But you will look in vain for any trace of his grave.
St Mary’s Old Church at Bicton, a few miles from East
Budleigh
The same goes for the churchyard of the ruined St Mary’s
Church in the neighbouring hamlet of Bicton.
Image credit: www.findagrave.com
By contrast, in Sidmouth I found this headstone for the grave of Mary Conant who died on 21 February 1900, aged 79 years. Her son William George Conant, buried in the same grave, had died on 19 April 1910, aged 62 years. Also buried with them was his wife Susannah who died ten years later on 21 October 1920, aged 69.
A helpful local history researcher told me that there were
‘lots of Conants’ living in Sidmouth. Many were fishermen as portrayed in these
fine paintings by Peter Goodhall, whose website you can find at www.petergoodhall.com
This photo from the Facebook page Sidmouth Remembers shows a
fish shop on the town’s Church Street, apparently owned by an Amelia Warren
Conant, daughter of Henry Conant, born in 1774, and his wife Mary, nee Hook,
two years younger.
The Western Antiquary, described as ‘a medium of communication for Antiquaries and others interested in the History, Literature and Legendary Lore of the Western Counties’, was published between 1881 and 1894. An issue of 1885 recorded a family tragedy involving 70-year-old Sidmouth fisherman Henry Conant. His younger brother John had drowned while attempting to board a collier brig which was lying at anchor half a mile off shore. Some Conants were boatbuilders, noted the article, and the name was not unknown at Honiton.
The photo of a Chris Conant with a six-pound lobster catch off Sidmouth was published in the Sidmouth Herald newspaper of 22 July 1972.
Various other Conants from Sidmouth were quoted to me by relatives, but a link to the East Budleigh branch has yet to be established with certainty.
A Monmouth rebel greets you at the car park in
Colyton
Ten or so miles east of Sidmouth is the attractive little town of Colyton. Like East Budleigh it’s noted for its picturesque old buildings but is more celebrated as ‘the most rebellious town in Devon’ because of the role that many of its inhabitants played in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 during the reign of the Catholic King James II.
The tannery of J. & F.J. Baker & Co Ltd.
King Street, Colyton
More importantly, Colyton has a strong link to Roger Conant. It’s where his grandfather John Clarke, born around 1520, made local history by achieving independence for the town back in the 1540s during the reign of Henry VIII. Colyton was a notably wealthy town. From medieval times wool manufacture had been a major industry. The Feoffees charter of 1546 mentions that there were six fulling mills along the River Coly, where wool was treated in a cleansing process.
Leather tanning was an equally important industry contributing to the local economy. J. & F.J. Baker is Britain's only remaining traditional oak bark tannery. Oak bark leather has been tanned here on the banks of the River Coly since Roman times, with a process that has hardly changed for centuries.
Henry Courtenay, KG, shown 2nd from left wearing a mantle displaying his arms, detail from procession of Garter Knights in the Black Book of the Garter, c.1535. Image credit: Royal Collection, Windsor; Wikipedia
Much of the land in Devon and Cornwall was owned by Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter and Earl of Devon, who was a cousin and friend of Henry VIII. But the religious and political upheavals of the English Reformation in the 1530s led Courtenay into rivalry with Thomas Cromwell. As Henry’s chief minister, Cromwell had sufficient influence at Court to destroy his enemies, and in November 1538, Courtenay was arrested on suspicion of treason. After a brief trial he was beheaded on 9 December at Tower Hill in London. His lands were seized by the Crown and the Earldom of Devon was declared forfeit.
Not just any old town council building. The inscription above the
front door proudly states that it is the Feoffees Town Hall
A group of 20 Colyton merchants saw an opportunity to create, with
royal agreement, a form of self-government in the town, and travelled to
Westminster to state their case in 1546. The King agreed to the sale of
Courtney’s estates in the town – ‘the manor of Coliton’ – subject to the
proceeds being used for ‘good, godly and commendable uses’. On 6
January 1546, the Colyton Chamber of Feoffees was established.
Prominent among these merchants who travelled to London in 1546 was John Clarke, whose daughter Agnes would marry Roger Conant’s father, Richard. Clarke’s importance in the town is evident from the entry in parish records following his death:
'John Clarke, the elder of Coliton, merchant was buried IX of
Aprill, who in his lyfe time was the cheffest traviler of the purchas of
the manor of Coliton, and the markets, with other lyberties pertaining the
same, as aperieth by the pattent - and deceased the VI day of Aprill
1585.'
St Andrew’s Church, Colyton
A walking tour of Colyton might include all the buildings that would
have stood in John Clarke’s time. No doubt Roger Conant would have been
familiar with them during visits to his grandparents. Of all the buildings of
Colyton, St Andrew’s Church with its octagonal lantern tower stands out as a
local landmark. The church’s size is an indication of the wealth of the town
and its merchants. Visitors from the US may also be fascinated by the various
church monuments with transatlantic connections to other early settlers in New
England such as the Popham and Pole families.
The priest’s door is set into a beautifully carved frame in stone from the famous Beer quarries, situated some ten miles to the south of Colyton.
The oldest item on display in the church is this Anglo-Saxon
cross, probably dating from the 10th century and described as
‘the best pre-Conquest sculpture in the county’.
As Roger Conant’s grandfather and as a wealthy merchant with contacts in London, John Clarke may well have been instrumental in gaining places for his grandsons Christopher and Roger with the two ancient and prestigious livery companies based in the capital. Both Worshipful Companies - the Grocers and the Salters - would certainly not have accepted anybody as apprentices, especially coming from a distant county like Devon.
Colyton is a lovely town with many well preserved ancient buildings, and is well worth a visit. You can read more about it here and here.
Portrait of Dr John Conant - Roger’s nephew. Collection of Exeter College, Oxford. Image credit: Wikipedia
Further away from Devon, on the other side of England, is a branch of the Conant family which is well aware of and proud of its connection to Roger Conant.
Roger’s elder brother Robert, born at Bicton in 1583, married Elizabeth Morris at All Saints Church, East Budleigh on 14 October 1607.
Their eldest son John, born in Yettington, another small village close to East Budleigh, would become a distinguished clergyman and theologian and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. His portrait, seen above, hangs in the University’s Exeter College.
This portrait, also said to be of Dr John Conant, is reproduced in Frederick Odell Conant's A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family, published in 1887.
These portraits should be of interest to Roger’s descendants if only because they could give an idea of Roger’s own face, as no painting of him has been discovered. His statue in Salem was apparently created after the sculptor Sir Henry Hudson Kitson had observed facial features of the Conant family members whom he met.
Dr John Conant DD as he is known, married Elizabeth Reynolds in August 1651, the youngest daughter of Edward Reynolds, then rector of Braunston, Northamptonshire. The couple had six sons and six daughters. You can view their family tree at www.lyndon-estate.co.uk
The Lyndon Conants’ family home. Image credit: Lee M.
Withey
By contrast there is a definite family link between Roger Conant and the English branch of the family based in Rutland. This photo of their family home on the Lyndon Estate was taken by an American Conant descendant, Lee M. Withey.
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