17. A Tale of Two Museums: how Conant 400 is starting transatlantic conversations

Todd Gray with guests at Fairlynch Museum's preview of the exhibition 'Devon's New World Explorers', 18 April 2019, including, top, Margaret Wilson who designed the exhibition with her husband Mike.  The exhibition will continue during the Museum's 2020 season

Last May, Fairlynch Museum was honoured by a visit from Exeter historian Dr Todd Gray FRHistS, MBE, who had kindly agreed to open the exhibition ‘Devon’s New World Explorers’. Naturally enough the displays included profiles of great Elizabethans like Sir Walter Ralegh and his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

Todd Gray cuts the ribbon to open  Fairlynch Museum's 'Devon's New World Explorers; right, in the background is the copy by Budleigh artist John Washington of a 16th century portrait of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Ralegh. The original painting is at Compton Castle, South Devon, home of the Gilbert family. Sir Humphrey's descendant, His Honour Judge Francis Gilbert QC, was one of the guests at the exhibition preview along  with his wife Sarah  

Todd has written and lectured on a wide variety of topics linked to the history of Devon. He seemed a most appropriate person to cut the ribbon at the museum opening, having been brought up in Massachusetts where many New World explorers had landed.

Fast forward a year or so and I found myself learning about more 17^th century New World pioneers and settlers, many of whom had been inspired by East Budleigh-born Sir Walter Ralegh and his efforts to pioneer English-speaking colonies in America in the previous century.

Roger Conant's birthplace: East Budleigh mill house

Frontispiece illustration from 'Upper Canada Sketches' by Thomas Conant  Toronto: William Briggs 1898. The mill house was demolished in the early 20th century 

By coincidence, one of  these – Roger Conant, founder of Salem Massachusetts – was born in East Budleigh a generation or so later. It’s unlikely that they met – but you never know.

Cape Ann   Image credit: Wikipedia

A second coincidence: Todd Gray turns out to be a native of Cape Ann in northeastern Massachusetts, where Conant landed nearly four centuries ago to set up a fishing station.

Todd’s research into aspects of Devon’s history is well known across the Atlantic. 'The Gloucester Times' – that is Gloucester in Massachusetts – reported on 30 November 2018 that he had been awarded the Freedom of the city of Exeter.*

Three of the ancient carved oak bench ends in All Saints' church East Budleigh: (l-r) The ship: did it inspire Sir Walter Ralegh and Roger Conant to cross the oceans?  The vandalised arms of the Ralegh family; A man depicted with a swollen tongue, or is he eating a banana?   

Among other activities Todd Gray directs the West Country Late Medieval Bench Ends project which aims to reduce the unnecessary destruction of this ancient woodwork in historic churches.

This project is the first in-depth study of this collection of carvings on the ends of seats. The region has, with its more than 5,000 bench ends, one of the two great national collections of such woodwork.

Meanwhile, thanks again to the internet, I am also in touch with Mary Ellen Lepionka, a retired publisher and author who lives in East Gloucester, on Cape Ann.    

A trustee of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, she is studying the history of the Cape from the Ice Age to around 1700 AD for a book on the subject, focusing particularly on Native American history in coastal New England, much of which she says has been lost or suppressed.

Among the records that she had studied were accounts of the abduction of Native Americans by European explorers.

In All Saints church, East Budleigh: the bench end which supposedly shows a Native American Indian. Or is it a Green Man? 

And another coincidence: she knew  that  in “East Budleigh the profile of a Native American was carved into the wooden end cap of one of the pews” although she admitted:  “There is some speculation as to the identity of that individual.”

It turned out that Mary Ellen had met Todd Gray on one of his return visits to his homeland. Seven years ago, on 17 November 2012, he was the guest speaker at Cape Ann Museum. The subject had been ‘Cape Ann Fishermen, the Pilgrims and England in 1623’.

With the approach of Mayflower 400, as today’s American descendants reflect on the troubled times in which their 17^th century ancestors embarked on the Great Puritan Migration England to America, I suspect that Todd will be very busy.    

Here’s a link to a subject on Mary Ellen’s ‘Enduring Gloucester’ blog which was inspired by his talk seven years ago in Cape Ann Museum.

https://enduringgloucester.com/2018/02/14/the-settlement-of-cape-ann-what-is-the-real-story/

Mary Ellen has kindly agreed to contribute forthcoming posts on this blog resulting from her  research into Roger Conant and Cape Ann.

* In passing, a little gripe from me. The news of Exeter UK’s award of the Freedom of the City to Dr Gray was reported in  https://www.gloucestertimes.com › news › english-city-honors-gloucesterman but when I clicked on to the link I received this message:

'451: Unavailable due to legal reasons

We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)' – “Oh Lord! That ghastly GDPR nonsense again” - 'and therefore access cannot be granted at this time'. 

What the hell is going on? Freedom of thought? This sounds more like the kind of censorship imposed by countries like China. Wake up world! Or is access to such websites going to be one of the few benefits of Brexit?

You can read the UK-published account of the award at https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_694924_en.html

You can access other posts on this blog by going to the Blog Archive (under the ‘About Me’ section), and clicking on the appropriate heading.