Roger Conant was born around 1592 in Budleigh, Devonshire, England and was baptized on April 9, 1592 in All Saints' Church in East Budleigh. He was the youngest of the eight children of Richard and Agnes (Clarke) Conant. The family seems to have been of the lower middle class, in fairly comfortable circumstances.
Roger went to London when about eighteen years old, and there he became a salter. In 1623 he emigrated to Massachusetts with his wife and his son Caleb, the latter subsequently returning to England and dying there. It is probable that they sailed for America on the Ann, which carried Roger’s brother Christopher and which arrived at Plymouth Colony, with John Oldham, as “particulars, ” that is as independent of the “common stock” system of the first settlers. Before long, there was trouble between some of the newcomers and the original group. Oldham and Lyford were ordered out of the community, and Conant soon followed voluntarily.
In 1624 he settled at Nantasket and it was probably while there that he used the island in Boston Harbor which long bore his name. Becoming acquainted with the Reverend John White and other members of the Dorchester Company who had been trying to establish a settlement on Cape Ann, late in the autumn of 1625, at their request, he removed to their fishing settlement as manager or governor. He did not like the location and in the next autumn about forty of the settlers joined him in settling at Naumkeag (Salem). Conant continued as governor.
In 1627 the colonists sent an agent to England to solicit a patent. It was obtained, however, in March 1628, by an English group with more ambitious ideas, and John Endicott came over with about fifty settlers, superseding Conant as governor. There was much ill-feeling at first but Conant submitted and became a loyal member of the new organization. In 1634 he was elected to represent Salem in the General Court.
Two years later he moved to Beverly, He acquired a moderate amount of land, tried various adventures, such as trading with the Indians, and besides being for a while justice of the quarterly court, occupied many minor public offices, indicative of the deserved confidence and esteem of his neighbors.
In religion Conant was not a Separatist but merely a Non-Conformist and he seems not to have been altogether happy with the Pilgrims.
Conant was an honest, conscientious man who did useful work in the seedling days of the colony, and his self-control when Endicott arrived saved the colony from what might have been a ruinous struggle.
On November 11, 1618 Conant married a certain Sarah Horton of whose family nothing has been ascertained. By her he had at least nine children, the youngest being named Exercise.
