The seals of the Massachusetts cities of Salem and Beverly
Salem
in Massachusetts is not the only American city which is looking forward to
celebrating the 400th anniversary of its founding in 1626.
A short
distance further north was the Bass River settlement, later to be named Beverly.
Roger Conant and his family moved there a few years later, having been succeeded as Governor of Salem by John Endecott, a fellow Devonian.
Beverly would be his
last resting-place when he died at the grand age of 87, and it is the year 1626
which confirms on the city’s seal that it too will be celebrating its
quatercentenary in 2026.
North-east
of Salem and Beverly is another community associated with the name of Roger
Conant. This is the city of Gloucester, where they are already planning their 400th anniversary in 2023. In fact a public meeting took place
at Gloucester City Hall on 27 April 2019 when local residents were invited to
participate and contribute ideas.
Another meeting took place on 24 November later that year at the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church to
focus on the community's first century – 1623-1722. The search is on for descendants of the early settlers
to assist with the program. Contact Glou400outreach@gmail.com
We
are delighted to welcome Gloucester resident Linn Doyle Parisi to the Conant
400 Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2603367279712361/, and impressed to learn that it was she who designed the Gloucester 400 logo that you see here.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2603367279712361/, and impressed to learn that it was she who designed the Gloucester 400 logo that you see here.
I found
the story of the logo online:
‘The theme
of the quadricentennial is Gloucester: Our People, Our Stories™. And, like the
city itself, the Gloucester400 logo has a story of its own. The story begins
back in 2013 when Ms. Parisi first began thinking about the city’s big
anniversary and discussing it with friends and associates in the community.
Like so much of Gloucester’s progress through the centuries, the final logo was
the result of the collaboration between Gloucester newcomers and long-time
residents alike.
“Before
the planning for Gloucester400 began, I had read Gloucester Historical Timeline
1000-1999, by Mary Ray and Sarah Dunlap,” said Ms. Parisi. “Thinking about the
waves of immigrants who settled in Gloucester over the centuries intrigued and
inspired me. The image stuck with me as the town began to organize for our
400th-anniversary celebration. In my imagination, symbolic waves would be a
prominent feature in the logo. I'm not an artist or a graphic designer but my
dear friend, Linda Stockman, is. So I asked for her help to make my design come
about."
Image credit: Bobak Ha'Eri
In
addition to Ms. Stockman’s help, Ms. Parisi received input from other members
of the community who suggested adding an element that would evoke Gloucester’s
renowned Fisherman’s Memorial, seen above.
The resulting picture became her anonymous submission
to the logo contest that integrates iconic imagery with a symbolic homage to
Gloucester’s diversity and tradition of inclusion.
“My vision
for our logo was to honor the generations of immigrants who built our city. The
teachers, fishermen, artists, innovators -- all the citizens since 1623 have
added their culture to make us who we are,” Ms. Parisi explained. "Each
citizen and their family, past and present, owns their spot on Gloucester's
400-year timeline; and each has a story to tell and celebrate. I could not be
more pleased that my entry was selected to represent our 400th anniversary.”’
Image credit:
In
the late summer of 1623, as you can read in detail in Mary Ellen Lepionka’s account here, a
small group of fishermen arrived from England in a 50-ton fishing vessel called
The Fellowship and proceeded to set up camp on Cape Ann.
It was here that Roger
Conant was asked by the Dorchester Company’s Rev John White to go and supervise
the enterprise. And it was here at Cape Ann that his reputation for “wise
diplomacy” and, in the words of Beverly historian Alice Lapham, an “attitude of
tolerance and conciliation”, was established.
On
the gigantic bronze plaque on ‘Table Rock’ you can read how “On this site in 1623 the Dorchester
Adventurers founded the nucleus of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the
fishing industry. Here Roger Conant averted bloodshed between two factions
contending for a fishing stage, a notable example of arbitration in the
beginning of New England.”
Seal of the city of Gloucester
Modern Gloucester is
quite a bit bigger than the village of East Budleigh – over 28,000 population
as opposed to around 700. I’ll be reading a lot more about the city, starting
with, as usual, the wonderful Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucester,_Massachusetts
Our
Conant 400 project is based on the theory that Roger Conant landed in the New
World in 1623, a date which is widely accepted.
Hard evidence for that is
lacking: however it is known that his brother Christopher sailed to America as
a passenger on the Ann. So, in the Conants’ birthplace of East Budleigh we’re
sticking with 2023. It sounds like a good year!
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