Today, in America, there are thousands of admirers of East Budleigh-born Roger Conant, with many of them researching his life and writing about him and his fellow-settlers in 17th century New England.
Joseph Bolton, pictured here, is a US Army veteran from Massachusetts, author of the illustrated series Old Grandmother’s Tree — a celebration of French-Canadian folklore and intergenerational wisdom.
In this section from his Augustine’s Alley blog he writes of Roger Conant and his contemporaries, including John Oldham and Roger Williams, both of whom incurred the enmity of leaders of the Plymouth Colony who had travelled to America on the Mayflower in 1620:
‘Plymouth’s colonists, under pressure from starvation and uncertain leadership gave in to fear and that fear lead to fanaticism and intolerance,’ he writes. ‘The slightest offense was punished with beatings, the most infamous being when John Oldham was compelled to run a gauntlet of his fellow Plymouth neighbors hitting him with their muskets.
'Roger Conant, much like his philosophical fellow traveler Roger Williams, found the fanatical intolerance of his fellow Puritans distasteful. Like Roger Williams, he chose not to add to the civil strife by confrontation but instead left to start a new colony built on peace and nonviolence.
'For Roger Conant, it was a move north along the shore to Nantasket and Cape Ann. There he and his fellow settlers found a community based on civil cooperation, not confrontation. It also was where everyone was free to worship as they pleased.’
If you are interested in the history of early America,
and Roger Conant as a peacemaker in troubled times you can join the Devon
Peacemaker Festival Facebook group at
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