Relationship Report for
Governor Roger CONANT-26181 b.1592 and
Pamela Ruth STREETER-32 b.1947
Governor Roger CONANT-26181 is the 10th great-grandfather of Pamela Ruth STREETER-32.
Lines of Descent from Governor Roger CONANT-26181
Governor Roger CONANT-26181 b.1592
Lot CONANT-26179 b.1626
John CONANT-26177 b.1652
Elizabeth CONANT-6069 b.1681
Berthia COBURN-6067 b.1713
Berthia RICH-3748 b.1746
Perley STREETER-1211 b.1766
Rev. Randolph STREETER-1201 b.1796
Harmon DaZue STREETER-28 b.1828
Thomas Randolph STREETER-9 b.1859
Alger Randolph STREETER-7 b.1887
Harold Rex STREETER-17 b.1926
Pamela Ruth STREETER-32 b.1947
Immigration: 1623 Roger Conant emigrated to the Plymouth Colony with his brother (Christopher), his wife and first son, Caleb, aboard the "ANNE" in 1623. He served as governor of the Dorchester Company at Cape Ann From 1623 to 1626.
Occupation: He served his apprenticeship in London, England as a salter.
Migrated 1624 Removed to Nantasket (now Hull, MA) because he was uncomfortable with the strictness of the Puritans. He founded Salem, MA, and was it's 1st governor, but in 1627 he was replaced by John Endicott.
Roger Conant (c. 1592 – 1679) was the leader of the company of fishermen who founded Salem, Massachusetts (then called Naumkeag) in 1626. He was later supplanted by the governor sent by the Massachusetts Bay Company, John Endicott. He nevertheless remained in high standing with the community, giving long service as a juror and member of the Board of Selectmen, with duties including the establishment of boundaries for new communities.
He married Sarah Horton in 1618 in London. He immigrated to Plymouth Colony in 1623 or 1624 with his wife and his son Caleb, possibly aboard the ship 'Anne' with his brother Christopher.[3] In 1624, he relocated to Nantasket because he was uncomfortable with the strictness of the Puritans.
In 1625, he went to Cape Ann to assess the struggling colony that had been overseen by Thomas Gardner (planter) since 1624. By 1626, he had obtained permission from the Dorchester Company to move the colony to the mouth of the Naumkeag river. This settlement, that was successfully established by some of the "old planters", became Salem, Massachusetts and, in Conant's words, laid the "foundation" for the Commonwealth. Conant was its first governor but, in 1627, was replaced by John Endicott. He remained active in town affairs and is today memorialized in a statue across from the Salem Common.[4][5] He diedon November 19, 1679 in Beverly, a nearby town which he also helped found.[6]
One of the earliest known genealogies of Roger Conant and his descendants is the volume written by his descendant E. W. Leavitt and privately printed in 1890: "A Genealogy of One Branch of the Conant Family, 1581-1890."[7] An earlier Conant genealogy, published in Portland, Maine, in 1887 and written by Frederick Odell Conant also delved into the English origins of the Conant family.[8
Source: Wikipedia
A handsome statue of Roger Conant, the founder of Salem, stands outside the Salem Witch Museum. Because of the statue's proximity to the museum and because of his cloak and hat and generally impressive appearance, Roger Conant is often mistaken for a participant in the Salem witch trials. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
We know that Roger Conant was baptized in All Saints Church in the parish of East Budleigh, Devonshire, England on April 9, 1592. His father was the leading merchant of Clayton, a neighboring parish. Family tradition says that as a boy young Roger met Sir Walter Raleigh. Later Conant and his young family came to New England probably arriving in Plymouth in 1622.
| The Dorchester Company established a fishing settlement on Cape Ann during the winter of 1623-24 under a charter with England. Located at Stage Point, now Gloucester, the company invited Roger Conant to join them in 1625 as their governor "for the management and government of all their affairs at Cape Ann". |
| After a year's residence, Conant became convinced of the need for a more permanent settlement and found an ideal site at the mouth of the Naumkeag River (now the City of Salem). There the settlement thrived and grew by farming as well as fishing. When Governor Endicott arrived in 1628, he incorporated Conant and his men into the new government. (The Dorchester Company went into bankruptcy in 1627 and became the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 under charter from England). Known as the Old Planters, Conant and his followers lent continuity to the new settlement and can be considered the founding fathers of Naumkeag, renamed Salem for "Shalom" or Peace on June 29, 1629. Roger Conant died on November 19, 1679 considering himself "...an instrument, though a weak one, of foundering and furthering this colony..." |
| After Conant's death, the colony suffered through the witch trials of 1692. |
