♂Richard Conant

Richard Conant (buried 22 September 1630) was a yeoman of East Budleigh, in Devon, England, and twice a churchwarden of its parish. He and his wife Agnes Clarke 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. He was the eleventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Roger Conant (1592–1679).

Early life and marriage

He was the son of John Conant of East Budleigh, and was probably born there about 1548. His father was a churchwarden of the parish in 1577 and still paid tax there in 1581; by 1588 it was Richard who was assessed, for lands in East Budleigh worth £4 a year, so the property had most likely passed to him.

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”. They had eight children, the eldest, Joan, baptized at East Budleigh in January 1579/80, and the youngest, Roger, in April 1592.

A churchwarden of East Budleigh

He was churchwarden with Henry Cowde in 1600 and again in 1616. In 1600 he paid a malt rate of four shillings, and in 1630 his rate of 2s. 6d. was the second highest in the parish, after that of a member of the Arscot family.

The inventory taken after his death shows a large working household: a hall, two parlours and a buttery, a shop next to the hall with scales, weights and a counter, a brewing house, a milk house and a weaving shop, with tools for husbandry, the implements of a mill and a new millstone. Among the furnishings were a silver bowl, “one greate byble” and other books worth £3, and two pairs of virginals^W. The whole was valued at £129 14s. 4d.

Will and death

His son Richard died before him and was buried at East Budleigh on 3 September 1625. When he made his will on 20 November 1629, as “Richard Conant, of East Budleigh, in the countie of Devon, yeoman”, he left his silver bowl to that son’s son Richard, keeping its use for his wife during her lifetime. His son John was to have a silk grogram doublet, Turkey grogram hose and “my gold ringe with a Turkies in it”, and his son Robert his second-best cloaks and most of his other clothes. Roger is named only as the father of a granddaughter, Sarah, who was left five pounds.

His daughter Jane’s two girls by her first husband, Thomas Knowles, were to have five pounds each on marrying with the consent of their stepfather Philip Wotton, their mother and their uncle John. He gave twenty shillings to the poor of East Budleigh and left everything else to Jane, reserving its use to Agnes for her life, and made Jane his sole executrix, with John, by then of Lymington in Somerset, as overseer.

Agnes did not outlive him. On 22 September 1630 they were buried together, the register naming them “Richard Conant, Gent, and Agnes, his wiffe”. The will was proved in the Archdeaconry Court of Exeter on 13 October 1631. A later life of their grandson John Conant called them both persons of “exemplary piety”.

Notes

Sources

• The marriage, the baptisms of the children and the burials of Richard, Agnes and their son Richard 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 same book prints the will in full from the Archdeaconry Court of Exeter, with a long extract of the inventory, which was taken on 30 September 1631.
• His birth in East Budleigh about 1548 is the 1887 genealogy’s estimate; it prints no baptism for him. His father’s and his own taxes, his malt rates and his terms as churchwarden are from the same book, which cites the subsidy rolls and the parish’s own accounts. The passing of the land from father to son between 1581 and 1588 is the book’s inference from the tax lists.
• The words “exemplary piety” are the 1887 genealogy’s quotation from the Life of John Conant, the son of Richard’s 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.

Yeoman or gentleman

In his will he called himself a yeoman; the burial register gives him the title “Gent”.