Thursday, November 30, 2023

Henry Hudson Kitson's statue of Roger Conant: Boston Globe, 2 September 1910

 



 

SALEM, Sept 1 - A statue of Roger Conant, by Henry Hudson Kitson, is soon to be unveiled in this city by his descendants.

In this work Mr Kitson has tried hard to express the personality of one of the founders of Massachusetts, and the story of how he came to undertake the execution of the memorial and what was required of the artist is of unusual interest.

The statue differs somewhat from the ordinary memorial to the man whose personality stood out in bold relief, even among those strong characters to be found in the time in which he lived.

First, this monument is erected by members of Roger Conant's own family - his own immediate descendants, and not by the public at large; and second, the artist's conception has aimed to embody not only the individual man to whom the statue is raised, but the fearless, undaunted spirit of the time in which he lived.

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Begins Work on the Statue

About four years ago one of a committee composed of members of the Conant family, who were desirous of raising a memorial to their common ancestor at Salem, the place he had worked with such dauntless energy to colonize, called on Mr Kitson, and the latter consented to make a sketch model. As he worked over this he became more and more absorbed by the history and personality, as well as the facial lineaments, of the rugged old settler, though the modelling of these latter was in itself a task sufficiently difficult, since there appeared to be no actual portrait of Roger Conant extant. However, aided by photographs of several of his descendants, showing family as well as individual facial characteristics, the sculptor obtained what might be termed a sort of composite likeness of the whole Conant family, which was quite satisfactory to everyone save the artist himself.

Perhaps it was the wish, as he says, "to make this statue of Roger Conant not only the very best thing I've ever done, but one of the best things made in America" that made Mr Kitson supercritical.

From the first the general form of the design had been clear in his mind - the strong, upright, commanding figure, one of whose hands rested lightly on a young oak tree, which, to Mr Kitson, seemed the visible emblem of Roger Conant's character.

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Loved Peace, But Could Fight.

"You can't pull the oak tree up when once it's taken root," he said, in speaking of his conception of the old settler's personality, "and they couldn't pull him - he was rooted to Massachusetts just as firmly as the oak tree was rooted in the ground.

"Moreover, he was a sort of anomaly in his time - not only a man of peace but essentially a peace-lover, and these facts alone differentiate him from the strict Puritan element.  He loved peace, he ever strove for it, yet, once convinced of the justice of his quarrel, he would fight - fight to the last ditch, and win out against odds to all appearances overwhelming, because, before he began to fight he knew that he had right on his side.

"I've tried to show all this in my figure of Roger Conant - the indomitable purpose of the man who could write such words as these - part of a letter cherished in the Conant family:

" 'And when, in the infamy thereof, it was in great hazzard of being deserted, I was the means, through grace assisting me, to stop the flight of those few that then were here with me and that by my utter deniall to goe away with them, who would have gone either for England or mostly for Virginia, hereupon we stayed to the hazzard of our lives.'

"Moreover, I have tried to depict in the countenance the kindly nature of this man - one of the very few among America's early settlers who was ever looked upon by the Indians as their true and staunch friend.

"Though making this figure has been peculiarly difficult, it has been, at the same time, wonderfully fascinating; since, in my ardent desire to visualize for the people of this day this man to whom the town of Salem in particular and Massachusetts in general owes, perhaps, more than has been justly understood, I have been drawn to study minutely this unique character - one of the greatest men of his time and yet one, curiously enough, whose personality is still comparatively unknown."

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Conant Settled It Peacefully

No less an authority than John Fiske says of the settlement of cape Ann (in which Roger Conant bore a leading part), "It deserves special mention as coming directly in the line of causation which led to the founding of Massachusetts by the Puritans."

For several years prior to 1621 a small body of men, locally known as the "Dorsetshire Adventurers" since the majority of them were English merchants from Dorset, the chief town in the English shire of that name), had sent men to fish off the New England coats near the present site of cape Ann; it was, however, not until the year just mentioned (1621) that the "Adventurers" decided to plant there a permanent colony, to be a sort of fishing station, but having the special advantages of a place of worship and a resident preacher.

It was thus the small band came to occupy cape Ann, but within two years difficulties arose with their neighbors at Plymouth; for, though the new settlement adjoined this town, the men of Plymouth laid prompt claim to It and as the rights vested in grants and assignments had become, in many instances, hopelessly entangled, it was by no means easy to discover just where the real ownership of property lay.

Roger Conant finally caused a peaceful settlement of this dispute. He was an independent leader who had, virtually, withdrawn from the Plymouth colony, being by no means in sympathy with the narrow and bigoted views held by the settlers there. The "Adventurers" at once made Roger Conant their head and, for the moment, all seemed secure. But internal dissentions arose among the "Adventurers" themselves and their next important step was to abandon the cape Ann colony, dissolving the existing partnership and leaving the tiny remnant of the settlers entirely dependent on their own resources, though each man was permitted to retain his tools and his cattle.

Here it was that the marvelous executive ability of Roger Conant came to the front. He promptly assumed charge of the now almost discouraged little band, finding for them an adjacent and far more advantageous place of settlement at Naumkeag, the present site of the town of Salem.

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His Tact and Diplomacy.

When, a little later, this now thriving colony was menaced by the 60 men sent by John Endicott, ostensibly to re-enforce, but actually, for the purpose of forcing Roger Conant from the place of chief authority, the Naumkeag settlers were immediately up in arms and for a short time what a writer of the period turns [terms]  "a dangerous jarre" appeared inevitable. But again the tact and diplomacy of Roger Conant saved the situation, and under his management all were conciliated and an entirely amicable arrangement was speedily arrived at, in token of which the name of the settlement was changed , to Salem, the Hebrew word for peace.

Roger Conant appears to have possessed a perfect genius for getting on with the Indians of the Agawam tribe, which dwelt in the neighborhood. Not only were they passively friendly but they seemed actually glad to have the white men settle on their lands, since they lived in mortal fear of their fierce neighbors, the Tarratines, and hoped to have the aid of the settlers in repelling their attacks.

In one of the most charming of his essays, "Main Street," Nathaniel Hawthorne says of Roger Conant:

"Roger Conant, the first settler of Naumkeag, has built his dwelling months ago on the border of the forest-path and. at this moment, he comes eastward through the vista of the woods with his gun over his shoulder, bringing home the choice portions of a deer. His stalwart figure, clad in a leather jerkin and breeches of the same, strides sturdily onward with such an air of physical force and energy that we might almost expect the very trees to stand aside and give him room to pass.

"And so indeed, they must for, humble as is his name in history, Roger Conant is still of that class of men who not only merely find, but make their place in the history of human affairs; a man of thoughtful strength, he has planted the germ of a city.

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He Could Not Be Moved.

So we have here a memorial to this sturdy, fearless, vigorous Roger Conant, of whom a writer of a later time said: "They tried to Induce him to go with them, but he had taken his position and pledged his faith unconditionally that here he would stand, thru perils from savages and all the hardships of the new settlement clustered around him, and he could not be moved."

And this figure, stamped as it is with this unquenchable courage, this endurance and, most marvelous of all in that age of fierce intolerance and bigotry, the kindness of one "who loved his fellow men," is a statue worthy to be placed among those glorious memorials that are the spontaneous tributes to Massachusetts founders!


 

The statue of Roger Conant outside the Witch Museum, Salem MA  Photo credit: John Andrews and Destination Salem


Saturday, November 25, 2023

Roger Conant's Christmas 'Peace Tree'

 

 



From the top: East Budleigh’s ancient All Saints' Church, where the families of Sir Walter Raleigh and Roger Conant worshipped; the village’s High Street; Salem Chapel, on Vicarage Road, location of East Budleigh Heritage Centre. 

This December will see a renewal of a local tradition in the shape of a Christmas Tree Festival in East Budleigh Heritage Centre.

The first Festival proved so popular that the tradition grew rapidly, progressing from around a dozen trees to over 50 in 2016.




The statue of Roger Conant in Salem, Massachusetts. Image credit: John Andrews and Destination Salem

The 2023 Festival will include an unusual exhibit which pays tribute to East Budleigh-born Roger Conant, founder of the city of Salem in Massachusetts which will mark its 400th anniversary in 2026. 

Decorated with many flags from all over the world, the ‘tree’ created by East Budleigh’s Roger Conant Club has a serious message in its setting of the appropriately named Salem Chapel.


 

Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller of the English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), internationally known for his political liberalism which included the principles of non-aggression and religious tolerance. Image credit: Wikipedia

Surprisingly, Salem Chapel has no connection with the city that Conant founded. ‘Salem’, from the Hebrew word ‘shalom’, simply means ‘Peace’, similar to the Arabic greeting ‘salamun alaykum’ that means ‘Peace be upon you.’  

The Chapel was built by Dissenters in 1719, with help from local landowner Richard Duke, a friend of the philosopher John Locke, pictured above.  

Roger Conant has been described as a sort of anomaly in the hard and violent times in which he lived. 



The ‘Peace Window’ in the Conant Memorial Church at Dudley, Massachusetts, funded by Hezekiah Conant. It represented Roger Conant separating the combatants at Cape Ann in 1625. Sadly the ‘Peace Window’was destroyed by a storm in 1946.  Image credit: Chris Mayen 

A 19th century descendant, the American industrialist and philanthropist Hezekiah Conant, wrote of his ‘Christian forbearance and love of peace’.

The Christmas 'Peace Tree' has a colourful display of flags, sadly representing those nations which don’t have as happy a relationship with each other as they should.


 

On the positive side, the tree stands out for its ‘baubles’ carrying a message of peace. The display includes recipients of the Nobel Peace Prizes along with anti-war quotations from a host of well known or interesting figures from over the centuries, from an Ancient Greek poet to a Buddhist monk.  

 




The portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh in All Saints’ Church

Even East Budleigh’s Sir Walter Raleigh is included. Not many people know that Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtier arranged for a high-ranking Spanish official, Don Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, to discuss peace with Spain with the Queen at Windsor Castle, where they conversed in Latin. 



On his way back to Madrid overland Don Pedro was captured by French Protestants, and the precious Letter of Peace that he was carrying from Elizabeth never reached the Spanish king. Two years later the Armada set sail on its ill-fated voyage.



 

Topped by a dove with an olive branch, Roger Conant’s Christmas Peace Tree has something positive to offer in today’s world with its many terrible conflicts.

 



Alongside the ‘tree’ Festival visitors can see – pictured above - a copy of Budleigh artist John Washington’s painting ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’ which is on display in All Saints’ Church, depicting this hero of East Budleigh. Roger Conant was, it has been said, a leader who ‘preferred the public good to his private interests’.

He is celebrated by many of his American descendants today for his moral courage, tolerance and integrity. An increasing number of them are making the journey across the Atlantic to discover where their famous ancestor was born.

The East Budleigh Heritage Centre’s Christmas Tree Festival will be held on Saturday 2 – Sunday 3 December, 2023, from 10.00am to 3.00pm.


Thursday, November 23, 2023

Raleigh the Peacemaker (1586)

 


 



A copy, in All Saints' Church East Budleigh, of one of the best known portraits of Sir Walter formerly attributed to Zuccaro but now to the monogrammist 'H' (? Hubbard) and dated 1588. It shows Raleigh in court dress at the height of his favour with Queen Elizabeth I. Raleigh had been appointed Captain of the Guard in 1587  

Raleigh does not have a reputation as a peacemaker. Courtier, poet, soldier, explorer, historian he certainly was, and for most of his life, an enemy of Spain. In 1618, after his disastrous second voyage to Guiana resulted in the reinstatement of the death sentence there was jubilation at the Spanish court.  

 




Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar, a title awarded by King Philip III of Spain in 1617. Image credit: Wikipedia

Such was the hatred he inspired there that Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador in London, demanded that Raleigh and his crew be hanged in Madrid.   




The 2007 film Elizabeth – The Golden Age, directed by Shekhar Kapur, starred Cate Blanchett in the title role. Image credit: www.moviemeter.nl

Queen Elizabeth I, for whom Raleigh was a favourite courtier, was equally hated by the Spanish government which viewed her as a heretic. Her speech at Tilbury in August 1588 on the eve of the Spanish Armada led to her becoming immortalised for posterity as a warrior queen. 

For a twenty-year period leading up to that event she had refused to condemn the English privateers who had looted Spanish ships and ports with impunity. In 1585 she pledged English support for the Dutch who were fighting for independence from Spain, agreeing to send 5,000 foot soldiers and 1000 cavalry to the Netherlands.  

 




Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder. Image credit: Wikipedia

Yet even in that year, Elizabeth wanted peace and advised her diplomats in Madrid to pursue this goal. Portraits of the Queen at this time use symbols to emphasise the message. This painting, attributed to the Flemish Protestant Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, is sometimes known as the Peace portrait and has been dated to between 1580 and 1585. In her right hand the Queen holds an olive branch; at her feet lies a sword but it is sheathed.




The Ermine Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, variously attributed to William Segar or George Gower, is in the collection of Hatfield House. Image credit: Wikipedia

Another painting, known as the Ermine Portrait and dated 1585, again shows her with those two symbols of peace. The ermine or stoat symbolises purity and royalty.

Early in 1586, King Philip II instructed his admiral the Marquis of Santa Cruz to submit plans for an invasion of England.  He had been encouraged in his plans by news of the refitting of a fleet of Portuguese galleons.

At around the same time, seemingly with the aim of reaching an agreement with the Spanish, Elizabeth initiated talks with Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, Governor of the Netherlands. 

When, later that year, Raleigh was presented with an important Spanish nobleman as his prisoner he must have felt that the scene was set perfectly for him to take on the role of diplomat and bring about that very peace that the Queen was seeking.


 

A bronze relief with the bust of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa. Image credit: Wikipedia

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, was the founder and governor of the Spanish settlement in Patagonia, South America. Explorer, author, historian, mathematician, and astronomer, he is known today mainly for his History of the Incas, which contains extremely detailed descriptions of Inca history and mythology but remained in manuscript for centuries until it was published in 1906. An English translation was published by Sir Clements Markham the following year.

Sarmiento had been captured in September 1586 by the crews of the Serpent and the Mary Sparke under the command of Captain Jacob Whiddon. Both ships, belonging to Raleigh, were on their way back to Plymouth from a voyage to the Azores. Along with Sarmiento they had captured the Governor of the Isle of São Miguel, the largest island in the Azores, and seized booty which included ‘sugars, elephants teeth, waxe, rice’ along with ‘sumacke and other commodities’.  

Leaving Plymouth the ships sailed with their prizes to Southampton where the crews were rewarded with their shares by Raleigh himself.

 




The title pages of Raleigh’s History of the World, published in 1614

Born in 1532, Sarmiento was older than Raleigh by about twenty years but the two men evidently developed a rapport. Much later, Raleigh would remember Sarmiento as ‘a worthy gentleman’ as he wrote in his History of the World.

Like Raleigh he can be described as a Renaissance figure for the breadth of his interests and talents – ‘un hombre multidisciplinar que encarnaba a la perfección el ideal del hombre renacentista de su tiempo’ – as a recent biographer has written.

Like Raleigh he had encountered difficulties with the religious authorities. While in Peru, in his twenties he was accused by the Inquisition in Lima of possessing two magic rings and some magic ink and of following the precepts of Moses.



‘The School of the Night’ by Ronnie Heeps, 2006. © the artist. Photo credit: Jersey Heritage

Similarly, Raleigh, who was a relatively freethinking man for his age, would be accused of atheism. A commission was set up in 1594 at Cerne Abbas, close to his home at Sherborne Castle, to deal with accusations that Raleigh and his circle of intellectuals, known to some as ‘The School of Night’, had denied the reality of heaven and hell.  He would be acquitted, but the accusation of atheism would again be raised at his trial for treason in 1603. It is likely that such accusations contributed to the guilty verdict reached by the court, a verdict which would prove fatal after the failed 1617 expedition to Guiana.  

So well did the two men get on that Sarmiento agreed to share his maps with English cartographers, despite Spain's official policy of keeping all navigational information secret. He is also said to have discussed with Raleigh the existence of the supposed city of El Dorado.

It did not take long for Raleigh to realise Sarmiento’s potential value in discussing peace negotiations with Spain. On 28 November the Venetian Ambassador in Paris reported that the Queen had summoned Sarmiento to Windsor, where he had conversed with her and with all the principal members of the Council, and how ‘they are treating him with much distinction’.  Elizabeth and Sarmiento apparently conversed in Latin for as much as two hours.

The Spaniard left London on October 30, 1586, crossed to Calais, and then passed through Paris, where he met with Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador to France.

Spanish diplomats in London seemingly had high hopes of successful peace negotiations, given the character and reputation of Sarmiento. A letter written by them to Bernardino de Mendoza and dated 10 November 1586 urged that Sarmiento should be the Spanish king’s choice to conduct negotiations. It recommended that he should be sent back to London for this purpose because of his evident empathy towards the English. ‘He is a person of much worth who really understands these people as if he had lived ten years amongst them, a man of decision, an excellent scholar and a person who will speak to them with all fitting plainness.’

After three days in Paris, Sarmiento set out on 5 December for the long journey to Madrid. Among the items he carried was a precious Letter of Peace from Queen Elizabeth with which he had been entrusted to deliver to King Philip of Spain.

He had been warned to make the journey by sea since the south of France was in turmoil because of the Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants, known as Huguenots. Fatefully he chose to go by land.

Perhaps he trusted too much in the protection of the Protestant Queen of England. The Venetian ambassador in Paris reported in December that Sarmiento, ‘a Spanish gentleman of great importance’ had reached the French capital having been a prisoner for four months in England. ‘They say he had long audiences of the Queen, and is armed with her passport, as he has to travel through Huguenot country; that he is charged by her to speak for the peace,’ wrote the ambassador.

On the journey south, near Bordeaux, he encountered Huguenot forces who seized his belongings along with the letters he was carrying and imprisoned him at Mont de Marsan.


 

© CHRISTIE'S 2022

Did Elizabeth seriously believe that peace was possible? The above document signed by her at Greenwich was a passport for a diplomatic party including Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby and William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham and Lord Warden of the Cinq Ports. The party was appointed by the Queen to 'depart into the Lowe Contreys in speciall Comission and Ambassade from us', and were to be allowed to pass with all their train and baggage, and were to be furnished with horses, carts or any other necessary form of carriage by sea or land. ‘Whereof fayle ye not, as ye tender our pleasure,’ concluded the document.




Portrait of Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma by the Flemish painter Otto van Veen (1556-1629). Image credit: Wikipedia

The party's 'special commission' was to negotiate a peace treaty with Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, which would end the war with Spain. Just months later, in July 1588, the Spanish Armada set sail.

As for poor Sarmiento, he spent three years in prison before being liberated, despite the efforts of the Queen and Raleigh to have him released.

Apparently his name became a byword for misfortune. Spanish people would say, glibly, "So and so has the luck of Pedro de Sarmiento"'.

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa spent the rest of his life dedicating himself to his writings and worked as an editor of poetry. On his last naval mission in the service of the king he was made Admiral of an armada of galleons en route to the Indies. He died on board ship in 1592, off the coast of Lisbon.

Did any Huguenot soldiers bother to read the documents that Sarmiento was carrying? Was Elizabeth being sincere? Was Raleigh?

Not everyone believed him, including many historians. ‘An ingenious plot’ and ‘this extraordinary ploy’ is how author Raleigh Trevelyan describes the way in which Sarmiento and ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza were ‘duped’ by Elizabeth’s favourite. Mendoza, for example, had accepted Raleigh’s assurance that he was ‘much more desirous of sending to Spain his own two ships for sale, than to use them for robbery’. King Philip and his councillors were not so easily bamboozled by Raleigh’s promises, wrote Trevelyan in his 2002 book Sir Walter Raleigh. ‘They were rightly suspicious, and at once refused, bringing to an end Raleigh’s first attempt at international intrigue.’

Some historians nonetheless like to ponder the ‘What if?’ question. If Sarmiento had made it, and if King Philip had read that Letter of Peace, might the Spanish Armada not have set out? War might have been averted, the course of history in Europe and in Latin America would have been changed. 

And Sir Walter Raleigh might have been known to posterity not just as a pirate but as a peacemaker.  


 

The Woburn Abbey Armada portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, by an unknown English artist (formerly attributed to George Gower). It depicts the Queen surrounded by symbols of royal majesty against a backdrop representing the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Image credit: Wikipedia

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

67. From Budleigh to Bodley

 


 

One of the striking images on display in RAMM’s ‘Gatekeepers to Heaven’ exhibition  Image credit: Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery; Bodleian Library, Oxford

There’s a fascinating exhibition at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) which gives an insight into life in the Middle Ages, bringing back six exceptional medieval manuscripts to Exeter for the first time in over 400 years.

The manuscripts, originally part of Exeter Cathedral’s collection, are on loan from the world-famous Bodleian Library in Oxford. They are the star attraction of the exhibition, entitled ‘Gatekeepers to Heaven: religion, knowledge and power in medieval Exeter’.  


 


If you enjoy spotting blue plaques and are familiar with Exeter you may be aware of the city’s connection with the Bodleian Library, for it was founded by none other than an Exonian. Sir Thomas Bodley was born in the city in 1545 and is commemorated by this plaque on the corner of Gandy Street.

Closer to home is another connection with the Oxford library. Dr John Conant, born in the village of Yettington on 18 October 1608, was the nephew of East Budleigh’s Roger Conant, founder of Salem, Massachusetts. Unlike Roger, he stayed in England, studying theology at Oxford and eventually becoming Archdeacon of Norwich.


 


Portrait of Dr John Conant in the collection of Exeter College, Oxford, by an unknown artist  Image credit: Wikipedia

It was as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University that he made a significant contribution to the Bodleian. In 1659 he was instrumental in procuring the enormous collection built up by the scholar John Selden; it consisted of around 8,000 items, including more than 400 manuscript volumes.  

Like Roger Conant, Dr John Conant is not as well known as he should be in his home county, and the RAMM exhibition which I visited yesterday was a reminder of this distinguished clergyman’s achievements.

If you are thinking of visiting ‘Gatekeepers to Heaven’ do be aware that the exhibition closes on 3 September. Admission is free.

You can find out more about RAMM  here.

 

 

 

  

 

 


Tuesday, August 15, 2023

66. Interview with Benjamin Shallop on his book The Founding of Salem: City of Peace (2022)

Congratulations to Benjamin Shallop on his book The Founding of Salem: City of Peace (2022) about the founding of his home city and East Budleigh-born Roger Conant’s part in it. Below is a series of questions and answers with dates, put together as an online interview that I conducted with the author.

 



 

13 February 2023

Q: No book has been written about Roger since 1945. Why do you think that is?

I think there are several reasons for that. First and foremost he is not an easy guy to research! It took me nearly ten years to piece together what little I could of his story in my book, and that is because sadly not much has survived and what has survived is not very accessible.

The people who recorded much of the history of the 1620s in New England were mostly religious leaders with their own agendas, and often were more interested in making themselves look good to people back in England rather than acknowledging the actual work of people who they regarded as ‘Strangers’ (a label created by the Pilgrims at Plymouth to describe anyone who was not a separatist from the Church of England) such as Roger Conant.

 




The statue of William Bradford (c.1590-1657) in Plymouth, Massachusetts Image credit: Wikipedia

Case in point is the First Governor of the Plymouth Colony William Bradford. Bradford wrote a history of the Plymouth Colony in 1651 (called ‘Of Plymouth Plantation’) that has become the primary source for much of America's understanding of the early settlement of New England, and in that history Bradford very intentionally left Roger Conant's name out of it. He only refers to Roger Conant derisively as ‘a Salter’ and makes several disparaging and dismissive remarks about how some nameless salter knew nothing of salt. Given the timeframe, that Salter could only be Roger Conant who was a member of the Salters’ Company of London and was more working class than the Pilgrim leadership.




‘Pilgrims Going to Church’, an 1867 portrait by the Anglo-American artist George Henry Boughton (1833-1905). 

Image credit: Wikipedia

Part of the animosity that Bradford had towards Conant seems to have stemmed from Conant's support of a minister of the Church of England who performed the sacraments at Plymouth for ‘Strangers’, but I also think part of that animosity also stemmed from simple classism. Roger Conant was a worker and he was a leader of people who did the work that supported the early New England Colonies financially, not one of the educated religious radicals that we remember today as ‘The Pilgrims’.  Working people like Roger Conant of that era were all too often left out of the history books by the elites like Governor Bradford. I honestly think that the fact that ANYTHING survived of Roger Conant's efforts in New England is the greatest testament to how remarkable of a man he was.

The other reason I think not much is written about him is that he was not the normal sort of hero that people write about. Roger Conant never fought any wars, made any lasting speeches, or ever owned very much of anything. Roger's legacy is using the art of Compromise to settle disputes (which he excelled at), of stopping unnecessary conflict before it began, and of laying the foundations of our government in New England (New England Town Meetings, checks on the power of the governor, even the right to vote all owe a debt to Roger Conant). Roger Conant was always the one who did the real grunt work of building a community, and he was essential to the success of early New England, but he never was considered a ‘Great Man’ by the political and religious leadership of his time (despite being a leader himself.)


21 February 2023

Q: What do we know of Roger Conant’s relationship with Native Americans?




The Indian village of Secoton; bird's-eye view of village with huts, lake or river, fire, fields and ceremony. Watercolour by the Elizabethan artist John White (c.1539-c.1593)  © The Trustees of the British Museum

Roger Conant developed a very close relationship with the Massachusett People at Naumkeag (the Algonquin name for what would become Salem) and the woman who led them.

Sadly, that woman’s name has been lost to history. She is only recorded as ‘Squaw Sachem’. ‘Squaw’ is a derogatory term for native women that is either derived from a French corruption of an Iroquoian word for women’s genitalia, or a French corruption of an Algonquin word for ‘women’s work’.  Either way, it was a term that by the 17th century was being used broadly by the English and the French to refer to native women, and was not really a term native women would have used for themselves. ‘Sachem’ is Algonquin for chief.

It’s unfortunate that her name has been lost. She was undoubtedly a remarkable woman who led her people through an incredibly difficult time, and we should at least know her name.

When Roger Conant moved the settlement from Cape Ann to Naumkeag, he worked very closely with the Massachusett People there. They even shared fields together in common, and sheltered together when the Massachusett feared raids from a people they called the Tarrantines (Algonquin for ‘Eastern Men’ and likely referred to the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia).

In 1614 John Smith visited Naumkeag and estimated that the population of Massachusett people there was around 4,000. By 1626, when Conant arrived, there were only a few dozen survivors left. A plague had killed more than 90% of them, some time between 1614-1620, and then raids from the Tarrantines killed more (including the husband of the woman Sachem whom I mentioned earlier), and then they got embroiled in a brief war with the Plymouth Colony.

Given all of those hardships, it is likely that the Massachusett at Naumkeag were looking for new allies in the area. They definitely welcomed Roger Conant and his party with open arms.

 




Monument to Miles Standish (c.1584-1656), Pilgrim and founder of Duxbury, Massachusetts. Image credit: Wikipedia

It’s also my belief that at least part of the reason the Massachusett were so welcoming of Conant was that they must have witnessed him standing up to Miles Standish and his armed musketeers at Cape Ann a year earlier. Miles Standish was the military commander of the Plymouth Colony (and by all accounts a bit of a brash bully) and had fought with the Massachusett before at what is now Weymouth, Massachusetts, and possibly Ipswich, Massachusetts. Seeing Roger stand up to him, and seeing Miles back down rather than picking a fight must have greatly impressed the Massachusett.

I should also mention for clarification that Algonquin is the language spoken by the First Nation’s Peoples of New England. Iroquoian is the language spoken by the Huadenosuanee and Huran peoples of the Saint Lawrence valley and Great Lakes

The Massachusett were a nation whose territory roughly extended from just north of Salem to just south of Boston. They fished and farmed on the coastal areas in the summer, and then moved inland in the winter to avoid the awful coastal storms that often hit this region during that time. That nation is gone today, but some descendants are now members of other First Nations that survive today.

Naumkeag is Algonquin for ‘Good Fishing Place’.  Roger Conant always preferred that name to Salem as he thought it more descriptive and respectful of the Massachusett people than renaming it Salem. We still have excellent seafood here today!

 

10 March 2023:

Q: You work indirectly with the film industry. Would the subject of Roger Conant make a good film? Which plot elements would you include? For example the unproven meeting between Roger Conant and Sir Walter Raleigh – who may have been on a return visit to East Budleigh – with artistic licence, would make for an interesting moment.

 

I do work in film, but I’m a Union Rep for SAG-AFTRA and not really involved in the creative process beyond the contracts of actors and the financial aspects of filming in New England. That said, I do have my opinions like any other history fanatic….though my favorite movies nearly always flop.




‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’ by Budleigh artist John Washington. The painting, which depicts the 1625 confrontation between Roger Conant and Myles Standish, is on display in All Saints Church, East Budleigh © John Washington

I think it would be hard to contain the story of Roger Conant in a movie, but I think a good series might work well. I think the most captivating part to his story is the stand off with Miles Standish at Cape Ann. 

To really understand the friction between Roger Conant and the Plymouth Colony, you would have to go all the way back to the expulsion of Rev Lyford and John Oldham from the Plymouth Colony. To understand that then a series would need to explore the relationship between the ‘Strangers’ (settlers at Plymouth who were working class adherents to the Church of England) and the ‘Pilgrims’ (religious zealots and separatists from the Church of England who were the political, economic, and social elite of the Plymouth Colony). 

The time Roger Conant spent in Plymouth could be one season, his time at Cape Ann could be another, and his move to Naumkeag/Salem and the arrival of the Puritans under Endecott (where again Roger Conant handled friction between the working fishermen he led and the religious authorities of the Puritans admirably) could be a third season.

Q: What about the tragic episode of King Philip's War - the savage conflict between indigenous peoples and the European settlers in New England? Perhaps you've read Jeff Conant's vividly written 'longish piece of fiction' inspired by the events - see https://jeffconant.com/2023/01/05/1466/     Roger Conant lived long enough to have perhaps played a part in the events.





‘Indians Attacking a Garrison House’, from an old wood engraving. This is probably a depiction of the attack on the Haynes Garrison, Sudbury, Massachusetts on 21 April, 1676. Image credit: Wikipedia

Roger Conant was in his 80s when King Phillip’s War broke out (and it was an awful war and truly a tragedy) so I doubt he took much part in it. While Salem and Beverly did send troops to fight in that conflict, the battles of that war all took place far from Salem. However, Roger Conant was only in his mid 40s when the Pequot War broke out in the 1630s and may have taken part in it.

However, if he did I don't know of any record. As a salter and leader of the working class fishermen he may have been considered essential for the fishing industry and exempted from serving in the militia away from Salem. In 1636 the first muster of militia in America took place on Salem Common before going off to fight in the Pequot War.

Today the Massachusetts National Guard consider that First Muster to be their founding event.

It must be noted though that the Pequot War did result in the first true act of genocide by English colonists against native peoples when the Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonial forces and their Narragansett allies surrounded the Pequot settlement at what's now Mystic Connecticut and burned it to the ground, killing every Pequot man woman and child there. Shortly after that, the remaining Pequot were either sold into slavery to English colonists in Barbados (where most died horribly) or forced to renounce their nation and language and submit themselves to the Narragansett. Remarkably however, there are still people alive today who can trace their ancestry to the Pequot Nation.


15 March 2023




Q: The word ‘stern’ has been used by historians to describe both the statue of Roger Conant in Salem, above left, and the 19th century statue ‘The Puritan’ in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Augustus St Gaudens. It’s an echo of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s imagining of his Puritan ancestors as ‘stern and blackbrowed’. Hawthorne describes them as members of ‘the most intolerant brood that ever lived’. In the light of those comments how do you feel about Roger Conant’s statue in Salem?

 

I have a lot of love for the statue of Roger Conant on Salem Common, but I don't think it's a very accurate depiction of him nor do I think it really does a good job of either teaching his history or honoring the man. The prologue of my book, The Founding of Salem: City of Peace, discusses common misconceptions that arise about Roger Conant because of that statue.

Statues are always more about the people who erected them than they are about the people they depict. When Roger Conant's statue was first erected in the early 20th Century it was a time when America was really trying to emerge as a real world power and people of that time were looking to their history as inspiration for the development of an American Origin Story that was often not quite accurate. In some ways many Americans of the turn of the 19th-20th century were beginning to look upon their ancestors more like pseudo mythic Arthurian heroes doing great noble deeds than actual historical humans who had the fortune (or misfortune) of living through ‘Interesting Times’ and doing the best they could.




The statue of Roger Conant in Salem. Image credit: Kate Fox  

Roger Conant's statue reflects that early 20th Century America's idealized Puritan quite well: stern faced, lots of buckles, pointy hat, stepping forward and gazing upon the Town Common of the city he founded. The problem with that depiction though is that Roger Conant was probably not a Puritan, there's no reason to think he was stern faced, he probably had few buckles (buckles could get expensive in the 17th century and he was not a wealthy man), and probably had a markedly less pointy hat.




The First Church in Salem 

Image credit: www.firstchurchinsalem.org 

While Roger Conant did later join the thoroughly Puritan First Church of Salem (now a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, and I am a member) and founded First Parish in Beverly, there is no real indication that he was a Puritan. During his time in Plymouth he became pretty closely associated with Rev Lyford who was quite clearly not a Puritan.

He was also a leader among the ‘Strangers’ in the Plymouth Colony (those working class settlers who were not members of the Leyden Congregation that became the Pilgrims), and later in life he sent his son to England to be trained as clergy at a time when the Puritans were out of favor.

He also stayed out of the religious quarrelling so common among Puritans at that time. For example: his argument for founding First Parish in Beverly was that it was difficult to cross the North River in winter to attend services at the First Church of Salem and had nothing to do with theology.

Roger Conant seems to be someone who was a church goer, and valued the church, but didn't have strong opinions on doctrine or dogma like the Puritans and Pilgrims that were his contemporaries and valued the more traditional aspects of Church of England services rather than having more radical Protestant views on the subject.... which is in keeping with how most early fishermen and working class ‘strangers’ in New England at this time practiced their faith.

 




Image credit: Kate Fox

The other issue with the statue is that the old church that it was originally erected in front of is now the Salem Witch Museum. So there is a big yellow sign that says "SALEM WITCH MUSEUM" right behind him. The result is that most tourists who visit Salem assume that Roger Conant had something to do with the Salem Witch Trials, which of course is nonsense (thankfully Roger Conant passed away decades before that tragic year).

If I rolled my eyes every time I heard a tourist proclaim "ooooh, that must be the Head Witch! Or maybe a Witch Hunter!" I'd have a detached cornea by now.

For the record: The Salem Witch Museum is a really wonderful site and really does a remarkable job of teaching that history.

All that being said, while I think it does a horrible job of teaching history and gives all sorts of false impressions, I do like the statue. I walk by it a few times a week at least and always say hi to old Roger when I pass. It's a part of my community and in many ways it has become one of the iconic symbols of the community I love so dearly and I cherish it for that reason.

18 March 2023



Q: Here in Roger Conant’s homeland, some individuals have questioned the ethics of praising this Devonian for his achievements. They tell us that they are unwilling to celebrate such pioneers, and that institutions throughout the UK ‘are reevaluating their associations with the colonial past’. For example, Oxfam, the British-founded charity for alleviating global poverty has just issued a guide which describes English as ‘the language of a colonizing nation’. What is your view on this vexed issue?

As a New Englander, I must admit to being a tad out of the loop when it comes to the debate around re-evaluating the UK’s history. That said, I do have some strong thoughts on what is going on in the United States these days on re-evaluating our own history, and if that perspective can be insightful or helpful to you I’m happy to share it.

Overall I have a lot of sympathy for those who seek to re-examine and re-evaluate what we as a society choose to celebrate with monuments and memorials. The History of History is a fascinating subject, and the sad and harsh reality is that for most of the history of the United States from about 1878 (the election of Rutherford B Hayes) until the 1990s a mythic American Exceptionalism was actively promoted alongside of what’s come to be known as ‘The Lost Cause’ myth that sought to square perceived American ideals of Liberty and Equality while embracing the legacy of the Confederacy.

The Confederacy was a truly awful institution, and its successor terrorist spin offs (like the Ku Klux Klan, White Citizens Councils, etc) that flourished through much of the 20th Century were arguably worse.

The early 20th century was for many Americans (most notably African Americans, but also immigrants and white Trade Unionists like me) a time of lynchings and other extreme violence perpetrated by those who wanted to maintain the old racial and class order that existed under slavery, while an organization called ‘The United Daughters of the Confederacy’ (basically the civic arm of the KKK for all intents and purposes) went to great efforts to both erect monuments to the Confederacy and make sure that the official histories taught in American schools and universities were sympathetic to the Confederate cause by actively engaging in politics around education and local school boards (our local governing body for local schools).

The result was a very cherry picked narrative rather than an actual history that often left out whole populations of Americans.

For example: During the time period of the American Revolution, if you were a person of color in New England, chances were you sided with the Revolutionaries. 20% of the New England forces that besieged the British Army in Boston in 1775 were free people of color, and the first person to die for American Independence was a black man named Crispus Attucks. Conversely, if you were a person of color in Virginia you probably flocked to British forces for freedom, enlisted in the Ethiopian Regiment (a unit of liberated slaves who fought with the British Army) and waged a very righteous war for your own Liberty against these American Revolutionaries.

None of this nuanced history made it into American popular history or monuments or classrooms due to a concerted effort by the United Daughter of the Confederacy, because the notion that slaves were not content to be slaves and would fight for their freedom was just as problematic to the myth they were trying to foster as was the notion that black people in New England were actively engaged as citizens in the fight for independence.

So, with all that said, I am a firm believer that often it is not only appropriate to challenge the established narrative, but that it is also respectful to the actual history to do so.

So what’s this all have to do with First Nations Peoples and Roger Conant?

Throughout the American South and Mississippi Valley there exists truly massive and astonishing mounds built by the civilizations that came before us here. Most Americans have no idea they exist, but many are just as remarkable as Stonehenge or the Pyramids of Giza (one such mound is actually larger than the Pyramids of Giza in square footage).

Archaeologists today refer to these people as the Mississippian and Hopewell Cultures and they were nearly completely wiped out in the 15th-16th Century (mostly due to disease introduced by Europeans…but also due to the conscious efforts of Ponce De Leon). It’s hard to fathom the extent of the genocide that occurred in North America during the colonial era without seeing these sites for yourself.

What’s worse is that many Europeans after encountering the shattered remains of these First Nations peoples concluded that it was impossible for Native Americans to have constructed such monuments and concocted all sorts of nonsense tales of biblical giants, lost European pre-Columbus contact, and (more recently) ancient Aliens being responsible for it. Thus a cultural genocide actively compounded a physical one here in America…and that is doubly awful.

Roger Conant did play a role in all of this. His efforts did lead to the establishment of a successful colony here in America and a political body that is still with us today: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. However Roger Conant himself does appear to be that rare colonial figure who isn’t very problematic: he maintained good relationships with the Native People he encountered, he was a leader of marginalized people within the Plymouth and later Massachusetts Bay Colonies (namely the working folks who were not necessarily puritans), he succeeded through peaceful means and compromise, and more. He is a man that I think any generation can celebrate for all of that.

But, that said, it must be remembered that the other person who was so essential to the success of the founding of Naumkeag/Salem and the Massachusetts Bay Colony is someone whose name has been completely lost to history: the woman who led the Massachusett People at Naumkeag, who was recorded by the English chroniclers of her time as just ‘Squaw Sachem’.

‘Sachem’ is an Algonquin word for leader or chief, but ‘Squaw’ is either a French corruption of an Iroquoian word for women’s genitalia or a French corruption of a derogatory Algonquin word for ‘women’s work’. Squaw was certainly not a name she used for herself or her people referred to her as…but it was what the English of the 17th century (following the practice of French Fur trappers) used to label all native women.

I mention all of this, and especially the woman known as ‘Squaw Sachem’, to point out that there is a huge blank void in our history when it comes to the experiences of people of color. I cannot deny that my own early fascination with history developed because as a white man I saw myself reflected in the history that was popularly taught.

We need to do a lot more to promote the contributions and stories of women and people of color if we want history to be valued in the future. That’s something I actively try and promote here in Salem, and soon we will be erecting a monument here to a remarkable black woman named Charlotte Forten who was our first black school teacher and a devoted Abolitionist, and recently we commissioned a painting in city hall to depict the woman described above who led the Massachusett during Conant’s time.

So yes, I am sympathetic to those that question whether figures like Roger Conant should be honored and celebrated. But after thoroughly researching and exploring the history I also think that it’s totally right and appropriate to celebrate Roger Conant in his home town so long as we make a conscious effort to elevate the stories of people like the woman recorded as ‘Squaw Sachem’ who’s actual name has been lost to us (and acknowledge that it’s pretty messed up that no one of that time bothered to record her actual name)

And if upon learning more we discover that maybe something we once cherished is something that perhaps we need to have a more frank discussion about how we honor it then we should embrace that conversation and any potential consequences of it.  (…)

Thank you Michael Downes for asking such a sensitive question. I think these conversations are extremely important to have and ones we shouldn’t shy away from if we truly value history and want to understand our ancestors, their legacy, our children’s future, and our current place in the never ending story of humanity.


 


Benjamin’s book, The Founding of Salem, City of Peace, was published in 2022 by The History Press 

ISBN:  9781467152136