DID ROGER CONANT ENJOY A BIT OF MORRIS DANCING? (WINTER 2025)

 

Exeter Morris, the oldest established group of Morris dancers in Devon, put on a great display at Budleigh Salterton’s Late Night Shopping on 28 November. 

The group was formed in 1951, but Morris dancing in England goes back to at least the 15th century.  

It could have been a regular spectacle in Roger Conant’s early life, both in his birthplace of East Budleigh and in London where he moved before setting out for New England in about 1623. 


Right is a detail from a painting dated around 1620 from the Collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. It shows Morris dancers in a scene of the River Thames at Richmond, south-west of London.

But by the time of his arrival in America, dancing of any sort would have been actively discouraged. The Puritans who had sailed in the May flower three years earlier and settled in Massachusetts considered such practices disorderly, irreligious, and a threat to public morality.   

Following the trial and execution of King Charles I in 1649 and the Puritan-led government of Oliver Cromwell, Morris dancing was banned, along with Christmas. It was revived under the reign of King Charles II, sometimes known as the ‘Merry Monarch’. A truly vigorous revival took place at the beginning of the 20th century, both in England and North America, thanks to the interest of folklore enthusiasts like Cecil Sharp. The North American Morris Dance Organization has a web site at  https://morrisdance.org  

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