John Balch House, Beverly,
Massachusetts, as seen from Cabot Street in 2005. Image credit: Daderot; Wikipedia
Roger Conant is perhaps best known for founding the city of Salem, originally called Naumkeag. But he is also credited with establishing the nearby Massachusetts communities of Peabody, Danvers and Beverly. It was in Beverly that he spent his later years and where he died in 1679.
According to his biographer, Clifford K. Shipton, it was Conant who headed a petition dated 9 May 1659 addressed to the General Court at Salem. The petition sought permission for the founding of the new community which would become Beverly, formerly known as the area of Bass River. Or, in the actual wording, ‘that we may be a towneship or villedg of & by ourselves’.
By 1671 the petition had been granted, and Bass River had become Beverly, named after the English town in Yorkshire. It would finally become a city in 1894.
The copy of the 1671 petition addressed by Roger Conant to the General Court. Image credit: Dr Donna Seger
But for Roger Conant the new name had become a problem, causing annoyance and embarrassment to him and his fellow-residents. In another petition of 1671 to the General Court at Salem he wrote of ‘the great dislike and discontent of many of our people for this name of Beverly, because (wee being but a smale place) it hath caused on us a Constant nickname of beggarly’.
Roger’s request for a name change is shown in
the East Budleigh RC400 group's design for the blue plaque
Roger suggested an alternative name which reveals
his abiding attachment to his birthplace, and which he felt would be more
appropriate. As he pointed out, all those settlers who were with him when he
first arrived at Salem, ‘being all from the western part of England, desire
this western name of Budleigh’, the place ‘where myself was borne.’
Sadly for Roger this petition was not successful. A note of 1 June 1671 written on the document stated: ‘The Magistrates having pursued and considered this request, see no cause to alter the name of the place as desired, their brethren the deputies hereto consenting’.
Most citizens of today’s Beverly are probably quite happy with the name. But they are proud of their founder, and they approve of East Budleigh residents’ wish to honour him.
One of them wrote recently with a donation towards the blue plaque: ‘As a resident of Beverly Massachusetts I'm actually rather glad he wasn't successful in his name change attempt but to make [up] for that, I'm glad to support the addition of a plaque in his honor.
The cover of The Autobiography of Robert Rantoul, published
by Historic Beverly in 2018
In fact Beverly honoured its founder as early as 1838, when at the suggestion of one of its leading citizens, Robert Rantoul Sr, a main thoroughfare was named Conant Street.
Rantoul has been described as a significant player in local politics and had a special interest in Beverly’s street layouts and place names. He was a justice of the peace and an acting trial justice from 1808 to 1858, also serving in that period as the ‘overseer of the poor’. He was elected as a state senator of Massachusetts from 1821 to 1823. A transcription of his autobiography, with notes and index, was published by Historic Beverly in 2018.
The arms of Budleigh Lodge, Beverly, Massachusetts
The 20th century saw a partial granting of Roger Conant’s wish with the use of Budleigh’s name in the Beverly community. On 27 December 1920, Budleigh Lodge A.F. & A.M. – the A.F. & A.M. meaning Ancient Free and Accepted Masons – was instituted at 134 McKay Street in Beverly by the city’s Freemasons.
It was, we read, ‘dedicated to attracting good men who want to realize greatness through fellowship with like minded and principled men’. This was surely an aim which harmonized perfectly with what we know of Roger Conant, for, as his descendant Frederick Odell Conant had written in 1887, ‘during his whole life he bore a character of strict integrity and devotion to principle’.
A detailed history of the Lodge on the Masonic Genealogy website explained that it was named after the home town of Roger Conant in Cornwall, England, and how Roger, ‘leader of the first settlers in Gloucester, Salem and Beverly’ wanted Beverly to be called Budleigh. ‘It was thought fitting to perpetuate the name of his old home in England by calling the new Lodge Budleigh.’
My only quibble is with the statement that Budleigh is in Cornwall. It is of course in Devon! You can read the history here
A 1912 postcard showing Budleigh Hall, later destroyed by fire
Another
descendant of Roger Conant had commemorated his ancestor’s birthplace in the
previous century, when the inventor and philanthropist Hezekiah Conant* named
his summer residence in Dudley, Massachusetts, as Budleigh Hall.
But it was in the period following World War One that English traditions and culture became fashionable in America in a phenomenon described as Anglo-Saxonism.
At the Hayes Barton Café and Dessertery in Raleigh NC
In the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, for
example, two districts were named Budleigh and Hayes Barton – clearly associated
with Sir Walter Raleigh’s birthplace of East Budleigh, Hayes Barton being the
actual name of the house where he was born. Both districts were planned in the
early 20th century, Hayes Barton being designed by the landscape architect
Earle Sumner Draper.
The developers appealed to the Anglophile fashion of the times, reads the informative document published by the Raleigh Historic Development Commission. ‘Politicians and professionals - plentiful group in the state’s capital city - chose Hayes Barton as home in the 1920s, buying into the developers’ promise of exclusivity and separation from the urban ills of the center city.’
Hayes Barton was ‘the first real nice suburb that Raleigh had developed,’ as Draper himself stated according to a 2002 record in the National Register of Historic Places, published by the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service. ‘Therefore the neighborhood was complete with covenants protecting the racial and social values of its residents.’
But back to Beverly! At some point, perhaps in the 1920s, perhaps inspired by the city’s Freemasons, it was decided that a road should be named Budleigh Avenue. Roger Conant would indeed be pleased. However I wonder how many Beverly residents today are aware of the connection.
* For the story of Hezekiah Conant click here.
Contributions towards the cost of the blue plaque to commemorate Roger Conant in his home village of East Budleigh are most welcome. You can read more at
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