Peacemaker Festival 2026 in East Budleigh

The August/September edition of East Budleigh with Bicton Parish News has announced that the village’s All Saints’ Church will be holding a Peacemaker Festival on 16/17 May 2026 in honour of ‘local lad’ Roger Conant, born in East Budleigh in 1592, and the 400^th anniversary of his founding Salem, Massachusetts, USA, in 1626.

The Peacemaker Festival will run over the weekend with a formal peace-themed music concert addressed by the Bishop of Exeter, the Rev’d Dr Mike Harrison, on the Saturday evening – a ticketed fundraising event for All Saints, open to the public.

On the Sunday, a village music concert will take place with village musicians, followed by a simple buffet hosted by All Saints.

It is hoped to record Bishop Mike’s message so it can be sent to Salem in time for their 400^th anniversary celebrations in June 2026.

The Peacemaker Festival concert on the Saturday will be a ticketed event open to the public and will be preceded by a drinks reception. 

 

Pictured is the logo of Salem 400+ below a photo of the Roger Conant blue plaque at the Church Hall, East Budleigh.

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 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

‘The Petition, 1673’ by John Washington

In his painting entitled ‘The Petition, 1673’, British artist John Washington, a resident of Budleigh Salterton, has imagined the scene where Roger Conant in old age is surrounded by his family in Beverly, the Massachusetts community in which he settled and where he would die in 1679 at the great age of 87.

Roger Conant is composing a petition to change the name of the town of Beverly to Budleigh, a request which was rejected by the magistrates of Salem despite the fact that he was one of the city’s founding fathers. Being of a peaceable nature, and respectful of the wishes of the majority, he accepted their decision.

Roger Conant's petition is mentioned on the blue plaque erected in 2023 on the Church Hall in East Budleigh. In his request to the magistrates of Salem he wrote of his neighbours in the town of Beverly who disliked the name because 'it hath caused on us a constant nickname of “beggarly”'. Along with his neighbours, he, 'being all from the western part of England, desire this western name of Budleigh, a market town of Devonshire and near unto the sea as we are here, in this place and where myself was born'.

Perhaps his request was turned down because of religious prejudice against these settlers from the West of England; strict 'separatist' Puritans of the time tended to come from Eastern England. Conant himself is said to have found the 1620 Mayflower Puritans too intolerant for his liking.

Painting ©John Washington. Photo by Peter Bowler.

For more about John Washington's work, click on his website  at https://www.johnwashingtonartist.com/

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

Succotash and Salem’s cookin’

Wondering what food might be appropriate at a meal to honour Roger Conant, Salem resident and historian Ben Shallop made a suggestion on this site: 

‘For a good dish relative to Conant’s time in Massachusetts I’d recommend Succotash,’ wrote the author of The Founding of Salem: City of Peace. ‘It’s a Native American dish that was adopted by early New Englanders. It’s not as popular today as it was in the mid 20th century here, but it’s quite good and healthy.’   

Indeed, Sweet Corn Succotash is one of the dishes listed in the book Salem’s Cookin’, edited by Jeff Swartz  and Rinus Oosthoek, from Salem Chamber of Commerce. 

It’s a collection of recipes and stories from the city’s best chefs, bakers, brewers and celebrities, with an introduction by Karen Scalia, owner and founder of Salem Food Tours.  The Succotash recipe is courtesy of Chef Daniel Gursha, of Salem’s  Ledger Restaurant & Bar at 125 Washington Street.

You can find out about Salem Food Tours at
https://www.salemfoodtours.com/

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

East Budleigh's Salem Chapel and the philosopher John Locke

Understandably, some people may think that the sisterhood link between East Budleigh and Salem, Massachusetts, came about because of Salem Chapel, the 18th century Dissenters’ place of worship seen here, built on the outskirts of the village in 1719. 

The Chapel has no connection with the Massachusetts city. Salem just means Peace. 

Actually the building does have an indirect American link. It was built with the help of local landowner and lord of the manor of Otterton Richard Duke VI, who apparently supplied stone for its construction. 

One might well ask why. After all, you’d think that a lord of the manor would be a pillar of the Establishment and a supporter of the Church of England rather than non-conformist types who rejected the Book of Common Prayer. 

In fact Richard Duke has been described as a possible Dissenter. What is certain is that in 1686 – a dangerous time for non-conformists and opponents of King James II after the Battle of Sedgemoor – he visited his friend the philosopher John Locke who had fled to exile in Holland. 

Locke was working at that time on his Letter concerning Toleration, supporting the radical idea of freedom of religious worship. It is likely that the pair discussed such matters, especially as both men had spent time in France where they would have witnessed persecution of Huguenots. 

In 1689, a year after the Glorious Revolution and the fall of King James II, Richard Duke would approve the appointment of Daniel Caunieres, a Huguenot refugee from France, as vicar of East Budleigh! 

But back to John Locke. The philosopher’s Second Treatise of Government, published in 1689, is thought to have influenced the wording of the 1776 American Declaration of Independence.

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 Winthrop and Lady Arbella Johnson at Salem in 1630

Yet another connection between Salem and the East Budleigh area! Often seen in East Devon are vehicles registered to Clinton Devon Estates, the family-run business which manages 25,000 acres of land owned by the Fane-Trefusis family, who hold the title of Baron Clinton.  

Also pictured here is an engraving of Lady Arbella Johnson, née Clinton, known as Salem’s English ghost. One of the passengers on the Arbella, the flagship of the Winthrop Fleet, she died in 1630 shortly after arriving in Salem. 

She was the daughter of Thomas Fiennes-Clinton, 3^rd Earl of Lincoln, whose family are linked to the owners of Clinton Devon Estates.   

Engraving of Lady Arbella Johnson, after the portrait by C.R. Leslie; three-quarter length wearing sixteenth-century costume with a high ruff and with a parrot on her wrist; proof before all letters. 1837 Engraving by M.J. Danforth   © The Trustees of the British Museum

 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

 

Salem’s ‘Witch’ Trials took place in 1692/3

Henry Hudson Kitson’s statue of Roger Conant stands unfortunately next to Salem’s Witch Museum. Understandably, many visitors to Salem mistake the figure for a witch, with its tall hat and cloak.  But no, Roger Conant certainly did not dabble in the black arts. By the start of the infamous witch trials in 1692 he had been dead for 13 years.

Photo by John Andrews; Destination Salem

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

Salem, the so-called 'Witch City’

Most people in Devon who think of Salem will know it as ‘The Witch City’ rather than as a 17^th century New England community founded in 1626 by East Budleigh’s Roger Conant.  

Thanks to the reputation that it gained following the appalling witch trials of 1692-93, tourism has become a $100 million annual business in Salem. In October, Salem sees thousands of tourists  buying witchcraft supplies, wearing costumes, and touring local haunts. 

One entrepreneur has been quoted as making 25,000 bottles of Haunted Happenings Costume Blood by the end of July, to be sold by local vendors over the summer. 

In  2023 about one million people visited downtown Salem, representing a 35% increase from 2019.   

Pictured here is the statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, set up in Lappin Park, Salem, as a tribute to the actress who starred as the witch Samantha in the sitcom ‘Bewitched.’

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

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