SWAN OR SEA SERPENT? YET ANOTHER YARN ABOUT A SEAL! (WINTER 2025)

 

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 family members, or indeed from anyone else, on what would be a harmonious design. 

 Mindful of Roger Conant’s reputation as a peacemaker, Vanessa is keen to support causes which help victims of oppression. In Haiti, discrimination, persistent violence, and chronic health challenges continue to block women and girls from reaching their potential. Vanessa would like to raise funds resulting from this project for the Haitian Women’s Collective. The organisations’s website is at www.thehwc.org 

 Vanessa could have chosen the heraldic stag shown above, the crest on the Conant coat of arms, as an emblem for her design. But she was intrigued by the sight of what she believed to be the legendary Cape Ann sea serpent on Roger’s seal, as used on his Last will and testament, dated 1 March 1677. 

 Dr Daniel Bottino, of Rutgers University, has made a special study of wax seals, examining hundreds of folders of legal records. His research has revealed how integral the practice of sealing was to colonial legal culture, and by extension, colonial society as a whole. In theory, the imagery of every seal was unique, providing a foolproof verification of identity. 

This image of Roger Conant’s seal is from F.O. Conant’s A History & Genealogy of the Conant Family in England & America, Thirteen Generations, 1520-1887, published in 1887. 

The earliest alleged sighting of this legendary creature was recorded by the English traveller John Josselyn. It’s worth noting that the 1901 Colonial Prose and Poetry: The Beginnings of Americanism 1650–1710 describes him as ’a writer of almost incredible credulity’. 

 The Gloucester sea serpent of 1817, drawing in 1994 book Monsters of the Sea. 

 However we do know that he visited New England in July 1638. There he met Governor John Winthrop and the Reverend John Cotton, the principal minister and theologian of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during a 15 month stay. Twenty-four years later, in 1663, he made a second visit. Following his return to England, in 1671 he published New England's Rarities, discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of that Country. 

We also know that in 1626 Roger Conant was chosen as the first governor of the English settlers on Cape Ann, location of the present-day city of Gloucester. It was there that occurred the celebrated encounter with Captain Myles Standish which has gained for Conant his reputation as a peacemaker. And there that he may have been sufficiently inspired by the legend of the sea-serpent to adopt it as the emblem on his seal. 

 Since her discovery of the creature, Vanessa has read the suggestion that the emblem might be a swan. She is keen to hear more opinions from Conant family members regarding the kind of creature represented. What do you think? You can email The Conant Courier with your view. 

 E: conantcourier@gmail.com 35