The Salter's Song - with pics

 

An invitation to Roger Conant’s birthplace

The August/September edition of East Budleigh with Bicton Parish News has revealed the news that the Mayor of Salem in Massachusetts would like to forge ‘an official connection in some way’ with East Budleigh.

This follows the visit of a delegation from Salem, hosted by East Budleigh’s Roger Conant Club.

On Wednesday 25 June, 2025, a letter from the Mayor of Salem, Dominick Pangallo, was delivered to Cllr John Tresidder, Chairman of East Budleigh and Bicton Parish Council in the light of the forthcoming 400+ celebrations in the American city.

It was, wrote Mayor Pangallo, ‘an invitation for our two communities to become “Sister Cities”, united by the story of Roger Conant, who was born in your historic village in 1592 and became a pivotal figure in the founding of Salem in 1626’.

For the Mayor, the link between Salem and East Budleigh was ‘a connection that transcends centuries and continents’.

He added: ‘The timing – again coinciding with our 400th anniversary – makes this opportunity particularly meaningful and poignant.’

Pictured is the seal of the city of Salem below an image of the village of East Budleigh which highlights its rural setting. The motto on Salem’s seal ‘Divitis Indiae,vsque ad vltimvm sinvm’ has been translated as ‘To the farthest port of the rich East’.  It reflects Salem's historical connection to maritime trade and its ambition to reach distant markets. 

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 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/700424602802079

An Upham connection

Just a few miles north of Budleigh is an area of Woodbury Common known as Uphams Plantation. 

When Matthew and James Upham recently moved their antiques business from London to Budleigh Salterton, taking over the town’s old post office building on the High Street and renaming it Upham House, local historians wondered whether there was a connection. 

Matthew and James are indeed well aware that they have returned to the land of their ancestors. With a keen interest in family history they also know that one particular ancestor, around a dozen years after Roger Conant, left our area of East Devon to cross the Atlantic, founding the community of Malden in Massachusetts. 

Known as Deacon John Upham, he was born some seven years after Roger Conant in the hamlet of Bicton, in the same parish. With his wife Elizabeth, their three children and two other members of the family, he sailed for America in March 1635, settling first in Weymouth before moving to Malden. 

Between 1620 and 1640, in a time known as the Great Migration, some 20,000 people left England to settle in New England. Many towns and cities have recently celebrated or will soon celebrate their 400th anniversaries, including Plymouth (2020), Weymouth (2022) Chelsea (2024), Quincy 400 (2025), Salem (2026), Beverly (2026), Boston (2030), Barnstable (2030) and Malden (2040). 

Both Roger Conant and John Upham founded dynasties which number thousands of American citizens. The late 19th century, in 1887 and 1892 saw the publication of two massive volumes, of 639 and 573 pages respectively, recording the history and genealogy of the Conant and Upham families. 

Sir Walter Raleigh is more prominent in Budleigh’s story than the Conant and Upham families, but back in 2013, George and Agnes Martin from Chicago made a special visit to Budleigh Salterton’s Fairlynch Museum. They were keen to discover any trace of Robert Martin (c.1587-c.1660), who married Joane Upham (c.1591-c.1668) in Ottery St Mary on 16 November 1618 before leaving for New England.

Agnes and George Martin are shown here with Fairlynch Museum volunteer Sheila Jelley, above an illustration of the grave of Deacon John Upham, reproduced from the online research journal Anne’s Family History.

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 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/700424602802079

Author Joseph Bolton on Roger Conant

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 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/700424602802079

John Wingate Thornton (1818-1878) on Roger Conant

The American lawyer and antiquarian John Wingate Thornton (1818-1878), pictured here, made this interesting statement in his book The Landing at Cape Anne or The Charter of the first permanent colony on the territory of the Massachusetts Company, published in Boston and New York, 1854: ‘Governor Conant and his associates, in the fall of the year 1626, removed to Naumkeag, and there erected houses, cleared the forests, and prepared the ground for the cultivation of maize, tobacco, and the products congenial to the soil.’  

In his book, published at Boston in 1854, Thornton continues:  ‘In after years, one of the planters in his story of the first days of the colony, said, "when we settled, the Indians never then molested us, but shewed themselves very glad of our company and came and planted by us, and often times came to us for shelter, saying they were afraid of their enemy Indians up in the country, and we did shelter them when they fled to us, and we had their free leave to build and plant where we have taken up lands”’.

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 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/700424602802079

Roger Conant and the Native Americans

A celebrated landmark in Salem is the statue of Roger Conant, designed and executed by Sir Henry Hudson Kitson (c.1863-1947), pictured here. 

In an article published in the Boston Globe newspaper of 2 September 1910, the sculptor described Roger Conant as ‘one of the very few among America's early settlers who was ever looked upon by the Indians as their true and staunch friend’.  

Elsewhere in the article, he explained: ‘I have tried to depict in the countenance the kindly nature of this man.’

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 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/700424602802079

Roger Conant, not forgotten in Beverly

Beverly, mentioned on the blue plaque in East Budleigh, is also celebrating its 400^th  anniversary  in 2026.  It was where Roger Conant and his family finally settled. 

Both Salem and Beverly were originally part of the Native American settlement of Naumkeag, which changed its name to Salem in 1629. Later, Roger wanted to change the name of Beverly to Budleigh, but the authorities refused his request.  However he has not been forgotten in Beverly. 

The 20^th century saw a partial granting of his wish with the use of Budleigh’s name in the Beverly community. On 27 December 1920, Budleigh Lodge A.F. & A.M.  the A.F. & A.M. meaning Ancient Free and Accepted Masons –was instituted at 134 McKay Street in Beverly by the city’s Freemasons. You can see their arms here.  

Beverly also has a Budleigh Avenue and a Conant Street. And this message was received in 2022 along with a donation towards the East Budleigh blue plaque: ‘As a resident of Beverly Massachusetts I'm actually rather glad he wasn't
successful in his name change attempt but to make [up] for that, I'm glad to support the addition of a plaque in his honor.’

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 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/700424602802079

Ben Shallop’s book The Founding of Salem: City of Peace, published on 22 Aug 2022

Many books about the 400^th anniversaries of the founding of New England towns will appear in the near future. What has been called the Great Migration of settlers from Europe took place between 1620 and 1640. 

Following the publication of Benjamin Shallop’s book The Founding of Salem: City of Peace the author was interviewed via Zoom by residents of East Budleigh in the Sir Walter Raleigh pub.  

Here’s one reader’s response: ‘As a descendant of Roger Conant, I can't thank Benjamin Shallop enough for this book. Through his writing, I've come to learn a lot about Salem and the people that once lived in this historic town. Quite often, most historical writings are about the Salem witch trials. Instead, The Founding of Salem - City of Peace guides the reader to some Native American back story and the peaceful negotiations of Conant. I'd definitely would recommend this book to anyone interested in early America. It talks in length about the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Governor of the Dorchester Company.’

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 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/700424602802079

The ‘Peace Window’, Conant Memorial Church, Dudley, Massachusetts

Pictured here is an image of the ‘Peace Window’, created in Tiffany stained glass for the  Conant Memorial Church in Dudley, Massachusetts.  Like John Washington’s painting in All Saints’ Church, East Budleigh, the ‘Peace Window’ depicts the events of 1625 at Cape Ann, Gloucester, Massachusetts. 

The artist had not seen the Dudley ‘Peace Window’ before he started work on his  ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’. The Conant Memorial Church and its ‘Peace Window’ were commissioned by the industrialist and philanthropist Hezekiah Conant (1827-1902). 

In a souvenir booklet, published in 1893 to celebrate the completion of the Conant Memorial Church, Hezekiah Conant wrote that ‘the scene depicted by the painter shows Roger Conant’s influence for good among his fellow-colonists, as also his Christian forbearance and love of peace’. 

Sadly the 'Peace Window' was destroyed in a storm in 1946. 

You can read more about Hezekiah Conant at https://conant400.blogspot.com/2021/11/43-some-other-conants-hezekiah-conant.html

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 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/700424602802079

Blessed are the Peacemakers

 

This painting by Budleigh artist John Washington depicts the events of 1625 at Fisherman’s Field, Cape Ann, Gloucester, Massachusetts. Roger Conant is said to have intervened in a potentially violent quarrel between fishermen from the West of England and an armed force led by Captain Myles Standish. The fishermen had refused give up a fishing stage claimed by Plymouth Colony.

 

The fishermen denied access.  

It could have been a bloody mess.

But hero Roger saved the day.  

His words of peace made all ok. 

 

Conciliation, then and now,   

Is always better than a row.

Diplomacy, a path to peace,  

Will cause all stupid wars to cease. 

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 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/700424602802079