52. Budleigh and Beverly: what's in a name?

 

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 20^th 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 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/michael-downes-1

22. Another 400th - Gloucester, MA

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 400^th 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 400^th 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. 

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: https://enduringgloucester.com

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 

https://fotw.info 

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!

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.  

 

3. An Almost Forgotten Hero of Devon

Roger Conant is barely mentioned in books about his home county. The only family member listed in Prince’s 1810 'Worthies of Devon' is Roger’s nephew, the clergyman and theologian John Conant (1608-1694).  

Etching of Hayes Barton, by the American artist Francis Kelly (1927-2012)

In the 1930s, visiting Raleigh’s birthplace of Hayes Barton which is just a mile or so to the west of East Budleigh, the author and journalist  Arthur Mee, in typically patriotic vein, told readers of his book about Devon in his celebrated series 'The King's England': ‘Here the dream began which has become the British Empire.’

 

In East Budleigh’s  All Saints Church  Mee was struck by the sight of the stained glass window in memory of Admiral Preedy, captain of HMS Agamemnon. This was the ship which in 1858 laid the first Atlantic cable uniting England to America, the subject of Fairlynch Museum's 2017 exhibition. 

‘Strange it is that it should be here in the village of Raleigh’s boyhood dreams,’ he mused, ‘for who can think of America without thinking of Raleigh’s Virginia?’ 

Other writers, including local author Eric Delderfield in his book 'The Raleigh Country' (1949), were drawn to write about the better known Devonian.

But of Roger Conant they wrote not a word!

Yet both Devonians retained a deep affection for their birthplace. Long after he had left East Budleigh, in 1584, Raleigh tried unsuccessfully to buy Hayes Barton, ‘for naturall disposition I have to that place, being borne in that howse.’

Seal of the city of Beverly, MA

Similarly, some 48 years after leaving England, Roger Conant petitioned to change the name of the Massachusetts coastal community of Beverly, where he had settled. He preferred ‘this western name of Budleigh, a market town of Devonshire and near unto the sea as we are here, in this place and where myself was born.’  

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.