♀Agnes Clarke

Agnes Clarke (born 16 May 1548, buried 22 September 1630) was the daughter of a merchant of Colyton, in Devon, England, and married into the Conant family of nearby East Budleigh. She and her husband Richard Conant had been married for more than fifty years when they were buried at East Budleigh on the same day, 22 September 1630, in a single entry of the parish register, which does not say how they died. She was the eleventh great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son Roger Conant (1592–1679).

Colyton

She was born at Colyton on 16 May 1548, the daughter of John Clarke and Anne Macye, who had married there on 9 June 1544; her mother was the daughter of William Macye of Colyton. Her father was one of the town’s leading men. After Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter^W, was beheaded in 1538 and his lands passed to the Crown, a number of Colyton’s wealthier townsmen bought part of the manor from the king, together with the running of its fairs and markets, and John Clarke’s name stood first on the royal patent. When he was buried on 9 April 1585 the register called him a merchant, “who in his life tyme was the cheftest traviler of the purchas of the mannor of Colliton and the marketts”.

Marriage and family

Richard Conant and Agnes Clarke were married at Colyton, a market town about eight miles east of East Budleigh, on 4 February 1578/9. The Colyton register records that “Rychard Counnett, the sonne of John Counnett, of Easte Budleye, was wedded unto Agnes Clarke, the daughter of John Clarke, senior, of Collyton”. She was thirty. They had eight children, the eldest, Joan, baptized at East Budleigh in January 1579/80, and the youngest, Roger, in April 1592.

Richard was a yeoman and twice a churchwarden of East Budleigh, and their house, with its shop, brewing house, milk house and weaving shop, was among the better-off in the parish. Their son Richard died before them and was buried at East Budleigh on 3 September 1625.

When her husband made his will on 20 November 1629, he left most of what he had to their daughter Jane Wotton, but reserved its use, and that of his silver bowl, to Agnes for the rest of her life. She did not outlive him. On 22 September 1630 they were buried together, the register naming them “Richard Conant, Gent, and Agnes, his wiffe”. A later life of their grandson John Conant called them both persons of “exemplary piety”.

Notes

Sources

• Her birth, her parents’ marriage, her own marriage, the baptisms of her children and the burials are from the parish registers of Colyton and East Budleigh, as printed in A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family (Frederick Odell Conant, 1887). The Colyton register, as printed there, lists “Annes Clarke, dafter of John Clarke, of Coliton” under 16 May 1548 among its christenings; the 1887 genealogy gives that date as her birth and calls her “Annes, or Agnes”.
• Her father’s part in the purchase of the manor of Colyton and his place on the patent are from the 1887 genealogy. It takes “John Clarke, senior”, named at her marriage, to be the “John Clarke the elder” whose burial in 1585 the register records.
• Her husband’s will and the inventory of his house are printed in full in the same book. The words “exemplary piety” are its quotation from the Life of John Conant, the son of her son Robert.

The year of the marriage

Both registers date the marriage to 1578: “the iiij. daye of ffebruary, 1578” at Colyton and “4 Feb., 1578” at East Budleigh. The year then began on 25 March (Old Style^W), so by the modern reckoning the wedding was on 4 February 1579.