37. Roger Conant and Sir Walter Raleigh: The Book

Statues of Sir Walter Raleigh in East Budleigh, and Roger Conant in Salem. Note Raleigh’s headless shadow!

 

For those who know East Budleigh it’s extraordinary that such a tiny village was the birthplace of two very different pioneers of modern America.

 

Artist John Washington at work on his painting of Roger Conant

Much has been written about Sir Walter Raleigh and of course he’s been the subject of various paintings. Roger Conant is less well known, but now we have Budleigh artist John Washington working on his splendid portrayal of the 1625 scene at Fishermen’s Field on Cape Ann. That was when Roger’s intervention helped to avoid bloodshed in the confrontation between West Country fishermen and Captain Miles Standish, military advisor to the Plymouth Pilgrims.   

A further 400^th anniversary tribute to Roger Conant is now being considered by members of the Conant 400 group, who are planning to publish a book about him and his achievements, including an insight into his origins in East Devon.  Inevitably, Raleigh will feature in the story.

 

Engraving of Roger Conant meeting Sir Walter Raleigh. Conant family tradition says that as a boy young Roger met Sir Walter Raleigh.  Image credit: www.lyndon-estate.co.uk

 

But did he and Roger Conant ever meet? It’s one of the questions being considered by the book’s authors, along with other aspects of the two men’s Devon background.   

 

Three celebrated bench ends in All Saints’ Church, East Budleigh, dated 1537: the ship, the 'Red Indian' (or a Green Man), and 'the man eating a banana' (or 'a man with a swollen tongue)

Could those celebrated bench ends in All Saints’ Church really have inspired the pair to explore the exciting and mysterious New World of the 16^th and 17^th centuries? Some believe that the carved oak image of a ship was an obvious influence. Some East Budleigh people are convinced that one of the bench ends portrays a Native American Indian. There’s even one historian who believes that a third bench end shows a man eating a banana.

 

Raleigh’s letter to Richard Duke of Otterton, seeking to buy Hayes Barton. Copy of the 1671 petition from Roger Conant and other Beverly residents seeking to change the name to Budleigh, with a note stating that the Magistrates ‘see no cause to alter the name of the place as desired.’  

Image credit: Beverly Historical Society and Prof Donna Seger

 

One definite and documented link between Raleigh and Conant is their affection for their home village. We know that Raleigh at the height of his power at court in 1584 wanted to buy his birthplace of Hayes Barton. And almost a century later, finally settled in the Massachusetts community of Beverly, Roger Conant petitioned to change its name to Budleigh. Both men were unsuccessful in their wishes.

 

Beverly Freemasons’ Budleigh Lodge seal  

But it’s nice to know that there is a Budleigh Avenue in the city of Beverly.  And at 134 McKay Street in Beverly, the local Freemasons meet at Budleigh Lodge! I learnt that in 1920 it was thought fitting to perpetuate the name of Roger Conant’s old home in England by naming the new Lodge after it.

 

Hayes Barton Cafe and Dessertery

Equally, further south in the city of Raleigh in North Carolina, two districts were named Budleigh and Hayes Barton at around that time, the latter being described as the city’s ‘first twentieth century upper-class neighborhood’ in the words of a 1992 official survey. ‘Hayes Barton was and is an area of impeccably manicured landscapes, and pristinely maintained residences which still house some of the capital city's political and social leaders.’

You could say that it was in East Budleigh that the fondly named Special Relationship between our two countries took root!   

36. Painting Budleigh history: East Budleigh’s Roger Conant the Peacemaker

A work in progress - Roger Conant the Peacemaker: How John Washington's painting of the 1625 scene at Fishermen's Field, Cape Ann, was looking by 3 September

Local history is often better told in pictures than in words. A visual impact is more engaging, and artistic licence means that a controversial slant can be introduced – which is always good for enjoyable and balanced discussion.

There are very few paintings inspired by Budleigh’s history, and yet our area is crowded with fascinating events and people who would make good subjects.  Sir John Everett Millais’ 1870 painting ‘The Boyhood of Raleigh’ was surely the first and the best known.

Then a century or so later we have Peter Goodhall’s 1983 depiction of smuggler Jack Rattenbury’s escape from the excise officer Captain Stocker – now in Fairlynch Museum. That painting was followed by the more recent one of the German Heinkel bomber strafing Budleigh High Street during WW2

And now local artist John Washington is working on a painting based on events even further back in history, but relevant to this year’s 400^th anniversary of the arrival of the Plymouth Pilgrims in America, and the Mayflower 400 celebrations.

Dedication of the Tablet Rock plaque in 1907 at Fisherman’s Field, with, below the inscription: ‘Here in 1625 Gov. Roger Conant by wise diplomacy averted bloodshed between contending factions one led by Myles Standish of Plymouth the other by Capt Hewes. A notable example of arbitration in the beginnings of New England. Placed by the Citizens of Gloucester 1907’. Photo credit: Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester MA, and  Mary Ellen Lepionka

His subject is the peace-making role of East Budleigh-born Roger Conant in the 1625 confrontation between West Country fishermen and the Plymouth Pilgrims’ military adviser Captain Miles Standish. The event took place in Fishermen’s Field at Cape Ann, near the present-day city of Gloucester in Massachusetts.

Since the first sketches back in May this year good progress has been made. Originally, the concept was a simple representation of Roger Conant himself, but over time John has found himself excited by the historical background and by the interaction between the characters of the 1625 story.

Giving the central figure a sufficiently authoritative but friendly pose faced with the notoriously fiery Miles Standish - known by his enemies as Captain Shrimp because of his small stature – has been a challenge. ‘The content of the painting has developed significantly from what I initially thought would be a quite straightforward portrait, he says.

Budleigh artist John Washington at work 

Accuracy of historical detail has been to the forefront of John’s thinking and he is pleased with the reception that the painting has had from experts in the USA, notably from Gloucester historian Mary Ellen Lepionka who has offered her congratulations on the depiction of the stand-off on Fishermen’s Field – ‘nice job’ was her comment.   

Recently, John has worked mostly on the background - the sky, the sea, the grass and rocky path. Conant’s clothes have also received more attention. ‘I shall be working my way through the various images in the same way over the next few weeks,’ he says. ‘The fishermen are looking a bit light in colour but as I overpaint them, they’ll tone down and the painting will gel much better.’

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