♂John Conant

John Conant (buried 30 March 1596) lived in the parish of East Budleigh, in Devon, England, and was one of its churchwardens in 1577. He is the first of the family who can be traced with any certainty, and he was the grandfather of Roger Conant, who would lead the first settlers of Salem in Massachusetts; Roger was baptized at East Budleigh four years before John’s death. He was the twelfth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Richard Conant (buried 1630).

Life in East Budleigh

He was probably born about 1520 at Gittisham, a parish near Honiton some ten or twelve miles from East Budleigh. A life of his great-grandson, the clergyman John Conant^W, written about 1700, says that he “was descended from ingenuous parents of Gittisham, near Honiton, whose ancestors for many generations had been fixed here but were originally of French extraction”. In the language of the time, “ingenuous” meant of free and honorable birth. Who his parents were is not known.

By 1571 he was settled at East Budleigh, where the subsidy roll^W of that year assessed him on goods worth £4 a year. In 1577 he and Edmond ffowler were the parish’s churchwardens. He was still taxed there in 1581, but by 1588 it was his son Richard who was assessed, for lands in East Budleigh worth £4 a year, so the property had most likely passed to him.

His wife’s name is not known. Richard Conant and Agnes Clarke were married at Colyton, a market town about eight miles east of East Budleigh, on 4 February 1578/9, and the Colyton register names the groom as “the sonne of John Counnett, of Easte Budleye”. Richard’s children were baptized at East Budleigh from 1580 on; the youngest, Roger, was baptized on 9 April 1592. John Conant was buried at East Budleigh on 30 March 1596.

Notes

Sources

• His taxes in 1571 and 1581, his churchwardenship in 1577 and his son’s assessment in 1588 are from A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family (Frederick Odell Conant, 1887), which cites the subsidy rolls and the parish’s records. The same book prints the burial entry from the East Budleigh register, “1596 Mch. 30, John Conant”, the Colyton marriage entry and the East Budleigh baptisms of Richard’s children.
• The quotation about his parents is the 1887 genealogy’s, from the Life of Dr John Conant (1608–1694), the son of Richard’s son Robert.
• The passing of the land from father to son between 1581 and 1588 is the 1887 genealogy’s inference from the tax lists.

Birth and parentage

No baptism is known for him. The birth about 1520 at Gittisham is the 1887 genealogy’s estimate, resting on the Life. The book thought it likely, but could not prove, that he was the son of a John Conant buried at Gittisham on 4 September 1559, and it also weighed a John Connante of Gittisham whose will was proved in 1586 and who named a son John. Neither is entered as his father.

His burial

The register entry of 30 March 1596 gives only the name. It is the only burial of a John Conant in the 1887 genealogy’s extracts from the East Budleigh registers, and the book takes it to be his.