The Conant Courier

  Conant family members including descendants of Roger Conant surely have a great debt to Frederick Odell Conant, pictured left. A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family in England and America, Thirteen Generations, 1520-1887 , containing also some genealogical notes on the Connet, Connett and Connit Families was the mammoth 640-page book that he wrote, aged only 30 when the work was published in 1887 A resident of Portland, Maine, he had a successful career in the family grocery business.  What is not generally known is that his hobbies included mycology as well as genealogy.  He kept a handy and thorough record of some 46 species of mushrooms that he encountered in the summer of 1901, making sketches and taking notes as to the physical characteristics of the fungi.  The entire collection of sketches is being offered for sale by the Daniel Oliver Gallery.  The care and love, the curiosity is evident on every page, notes the Gallery, wit...

  Textile artist Brenda Thomas, who lives in Budleigh Salterton, designed this Christmas card specially for Fairlynch Museum.  She retired in 2010, bought a sewing machine in 2011 and began making textile pictures in 2012. ‘I like to depict my favourite places in Devon and Cornwall, often coastal villages, usually with our dog Murphy somewhere in the background,’ she says. ‘Sometimes I stray from this but always return to West Country scenes. My major influences are the naive artists of the South West.’   Her textile art was displayed at Fairlynch Museum from last April to the end of October. 

  This is a view of the landscape surrounding his birthplace of East Budleigh near the River Otter that young Roger Conant would have explored before he set out for the New World in 1623.  Golden Hour was the title chosen by John Wokersein for his entry in the Otter Valley Association’s photo com petition for 2025, winning 2nd place. The competition was judged by David R. White (Naturalist), Rick Lockwood (Lower Otter Nature Reserve Ranger) and Lucilla Phelps FRPS (Photographer).

  After the blue plaque, a room!  Roger Conant’s birthplace of East Budleigh will soon have yet another reminder of the local lad who crossed the ocean to found two cities and an impressive dynasty.  The Village Hall, pictured here, is due for a redesign in the not too distant future. In November 2025 its management committee agreed that the new look building will have a Roger Conant Room. Further details of the project will be published in due course.  An appeal has been launched for donors who would like to contribute to the creation of the Roger Conant Room. Names of donors would be dis played on the wall in the new room, either on a plaque or by other means. 

  Vanessa Brown, a resident of Montpelier, Vermont, is a direct descendant of Roger Conant.   She’s also a clearly talented knitter and aspiring designer of knitwear. Seen left is her first design in-progress, using a pattern of alternate colours every other stitch to make this knitted bonnet.   It caught the attention of Hazel Tindall in faraway Fair Isle, the southern most of the Scottish Islands, internationally celebrated as the World’s Fastest Knitter with 262 stitches in three minutes. ‘She called it Eetle Ottle from the old Scottish elimination rhyme. It was very encouraging,’ said Vanessa. ‘I was so honored.’   Vanessa is a 13th generation descendant through her grandmother Beatrice and through Roger Conant’s son Lot. ‘I’m especially interested in all things art and history associated with Roger,’ she told us. ‘I would like to design a Conant family sweater and am looking for inspiration.’ She would welcome feedback from Conant fa...

Roger Conant and his fellow settlers at Naumkeag in the 1620s have been recorded as enjoying a harmonious relation ship with the indigenous people of the area. Sadly, the state of harmony did not last.   In 1636, a decade after the founding of what we know as the cities of Salem and Beverly came the two-year Pequot War.  Image courtesy of www.salemstate.edu   Veterans Hall at the Ellison Campus Center at Salem State University was the setting last November for what was described as ‘an evening of reflection, history, and community’ inspired by the complex issues arising from such tragedies of America’s past. The two-hour program followed a dinner based on a menu inspired by ‘Indigenous foodways’, described as the holistic and interrelated cultural food systems of Indigenous peoples, encompassing traditions, beliefs, and practices connected to their local environments.   Salem was designated the birthplace of the National Guard in 2010 by Ma...