General Notes

ROGER CONANT was baptized 9 Apr. 1592 in All Saints Church in the parish of Eas t Budleigh, Devonshire, England. He apparently served a seven year apprenticesh ip in London as a salter. He married 11 Nov. 1618, in St. Ann's parish (or St.  Annis) of Black Friars, London, SARAH HORTON, daughter of Thomas and Margaret ( Culverwell) Horton. He came to Plymouth, New England in the ship named Ann in  1623 with his brother Christopher, his wife Sarah and his son Caleb. He removed shortly to Nantasket. In 1624/5, he was chosen by the Dorchester Company to go vern their colony at Cape Ann. It was an unruly bunch at Cape Ann with little d iscipline and little profit was made for the company. In 1626 the company paid  the men their wages and offered transportation back to England. It was the unru ly bunch that returned to England but Roger and several others, free of the scu m, decided to stick it out. From that time they were free of any obligation or  control of the company and were entitled to no aid from it. Roger and his faith ful companions soon removed to a place the Indians called Naumkeag which later  became Salem. He is listed as the first governor of Mass. Roger died 19 Nov. 16 79, in his eighty-eighth year.  Sarah was living in 1666 but probably died shor tly thereafter.  The Chronological History of Massachusetts relates the role  that Roger played in early New England:  "1623 - Myles Standish successfully c onducted the first organized war against the Indians who had been stirred to fo rm a conspiracy against the English by the behavior of Andrew Weston's men in J une of 1621 and other troublemakers among the colonists. It was another lean ye ar but boats came over from England every season.  Some 200 or more separatists would join the group on four different ships. Meanwhile, in England, a group o f wealthy English merchants formed the Dorchester Company of Adventurers, of wh om the less-radical Puritan conformist clergyman John White was prominent.  Ano ther member was Mistress Elizabeth Poole of Taunton, Somerset, who later founde d Taunton, Massachusetts.  With a patent from the council of New England, a gro up of fishermen and planters took the Fellowship to Cape Ann, where they constr ucted a house and fishing stage at Stage Fort Point.  Sometime during the year, non-Separatist Roger Conant and his wife arrived in Plymouth.  As noted above, the early Cape Ann settlement was funded by John White's Dorcester Company of  Adventurers.  In 1622/3 fourteen hardy souls were sent by the Company to winter there. The company sent supplies including some cattle and more settlers in 16 23/4. They specified that John Tilley was to oversee the planting, and Thomas G ardiner had charge of the fishing operations.  "1624 - Plymouth colonists, ti red of their 'common course and condition,' convinced Bradford to end the annua l practice of drawing for plots of land and, instead, to grant permanent allotm ents. Later expanded, the new practice spurred colonists to work harder and pro duce more as they were assured of enjoying the fruits of their own labors. In J uly, when a fierce drought threatened to destroy the crops, the colonists were  driven to "seek the Lord in humble and fervent prayer," according to Bradford,  "and He was pleased to give them a gracious and speedy answer, both to their ow n and the Indians' admiration that lived among them." The gentle rains came and stayed so that, as Bradford wrote, "instead of famine now God gave them plenty ... so as any general want or famine has not been among them since to this da y  (1644)." Excluded by the Separatist Pilgrims, a disgruntled Roger Conant dre w a number of non-Separatists to himself and removed up the coast to found Nant asket.    "1625 - In England, Charles I succeeded the wildly extravagant and  scandalous James I whose reign had encouraged a rampage of the rich and opportu nistic, unsettling the balance of the economy.  Now Charles gave ear to the hig hly ritualistic, anti-Puritan, Anglican Bishop Wil