Roger Conant's Ancestors
3 Generations of Roger's Ancestors going back to 1480
All of Roger's identified ancestors lived within 17 miles in Devon, England!
Good Genes
Roger Conant's Immediate Family
John Conant (Roger's Great Grandfather) b. 1480 in Honiton, Devon, England, lived to age 79Dr. John Conant (Roger's Grandfather) b.1520 in Gittisham, Devon, England, lived to age 76Richard Conant (Roger's Father) b. 1548 in East Budleigh, Devon, England, lived to age 82Roger Conant b. 1592 in East Budleigh, Devon, England 2, lived to age 87
In the centuries between 1200 and 1745, English male aristocrats who made it to their 21st birthday were generally expected to live to an age between 62 and 72 years old!
Where Roger's Ancestors Lived
Roger's Great Grandfather, John Conant
John Conant b 1480 died 1559 at age 79! Born in Honiton, Devon and buried in Gittisham, Devon. He is the earliest recorded Conant ancestor before the chain disappears into the Middle Ages
Modern day Gittisham
Gittisham Website
John was born 80 years after Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales which were written in Middle English. During that time, English morphed into Modern English and the great vowel shift occurred. John probably spoke an English that was in transition from Middle to Modern English. See the excerpt from the Canterbury Tales Miller’s Tale for a comparison of Middle English to Modern English.
From Wikipedia, “The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through this vowel shift, the pronunciation of all Middle English long vowels was changed. Some consonant sounds changed as well, particularly those that became silent; the term Great Vowel Shift is sometimes used to include these consonantal changes.”
John was also alive for the end of the Middle Ages and for the beginning of the Elizabethan Age and the renaissance in England. He lived under the reign of four monarchs: Richard III, Henry VII, Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth. Exciting times.
In 1523, John Conant, senior was assessed for £7 in goods and John Conant junior for £4 in goods by Henery VIII. Junior may have been this John Conant, b 1480, and Senior may have been his father. Some records seem to indicate that the Conants lived in Devon before this John, but it is difficult to tell since everyone seemed to be named John back then.
John would have been raised Catholic and became Anglican after Henry VIII divorced the Pope and became the head of the Church of England.
It has been suggested that John Conant b. 1480, my 15th generation grandfather, was the inspiration for the invention of the internet.
John and Son from Frederick Conant
See our old verbose friend, Frederick Conant. His account of John's and son lives seems to become lost in the fog of the Conant habit of naming everyone John.
Roger's Grandfather, Dr. John Conant
Dr John Conant b 1520 in Gittisham, Devon died 1596 in East Budleigh, Devon (about 12 miles apart).
John Conant lived in the parish of East Budleigh, Devonshire, England, was probably born about the year 1520 at Gittisham, some ten or twelve miles north-east. John "was descended from ingenuous parents of Gittisham, near Honiton, whose ancestors for many generations had been fixed here but were most likely originally of French extraction from the Brittany Region of France." , according to The Life of Dr. John Conant, written in 1700. Gittisham (pronounced Gitsham) is a small parish on the river Oter, between Honiton and Ottery St. Mary, and about fourteen miles from Exeter, the capital city of the country. In the 13th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1571), he was assessed for goods of the yearly value of £4. In 1581 he was still taxed at East Budleigh, but in 1588 the tax was paid by his son, Richard, and it is probable that between those dates a transfer of property had taken place. In 1577, John Conant and Edmond Fowler were church wardens of East Budleigh. In those days the office of church-warden was of considerable importance, and only members of the leading families and such as were of recognized ability were elected to this important office.
John would have been raised Catholic and became Anglican after Henry VIII divorced the Pope and became the head of the Church of England.
When John Conant was born on 8 January 1520, in Gittisham, Devon, England, his father, John Conant, was 40 and his mother, Alice Brown, was 24. He married Marie Budeley on 9 April 1544, in East Budleigh, Devon, England. They were the parents of at least 4 sons. He died on 27 March 1596, in East Budleigh, Devon, England, at the age of 76, and was buried in East Budleigh, Devon, England.
He lived under the reign of two monarchs: Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth. Exciting times.
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Roger's maternal grandfather, John Clarke
Roger’s grandfather on his mother’s side, John Clarke, was a leading merchant from the nearby rich market town of Colyton. John Clarke was a notable figure; a wealthy man, he, along with nineteen other townspeople, petitioned King Henry VIII in 1539 for the right to purchase the lands of Colyton for 1,000 marks (roughly £200,000 today) – lands which until that point had been in the hands of the then-recently beheaded Marquis of Exeter. John was a member of this ‘feoffment’ – which along with owning the land included the right to manage local fairs and markets
Roger's Father, Richard Conant
Richard Conant was born in East Budleigh on May 16, 1548 and died in East Budleigh on Sept 21, 1630 at the ripe old age of 82!
In 1588, Richard was assessed for lands in East Budleigh of the yearly value of £4, Richard Conant and Henry Cowde were church-wardens of the parish in 1606, and in 1616 Richard Conant again filled the office. In the year 1600 he paid a "malt rate" of 4s. In 1630 he is rated at 2s 6d., his rating being next to the highest in the parish, which was paid by a member of the Arscot family, and the only other who paid over one shilling.
The Marriage Registers of East Budleigh lack the names of females from the beginning to 1605; but the date of Richard Conant's marriage is given: "4 Feb., 1578." Luckily this omission is supplied by theRegisters of Colyton where the marriage took place. There it is recorded that "Rychard Counnett, the sonne of John Counnuett, of Easte Budleye, was wedded unto Agnes Clarke, the daughter of John Clarke, senior of Collyton, the iiij. daye of ffebruary, 1578." Colyton is a market town of Devonshire, twenty-two miles east of Exeer and about eight miles east of East Budleigh. Richard and Agnes Conant were buried on the same day, 22 Sep., 1630*. Both are spoken of in the Life of Dr John Conant as persons of "exemplary piety," and judging from what is known of the character of their children this was undoubtedly the case. His will, which is printed in full, is preserved in the Archdeaconry Court of Exeter, and was proved 13 Oct., 1631.
*"Richard and Agnes Conant were buried on the same day, 22 Sep., 1630." How can this be? No records found for cause of death for either Richard or Agnes.
When Richard Conant was born on 16 May 1548, in East Budleigh, Devon, England, his father, John Conant, was 28 and his mother, Marie Budeley, was 23. He married Agnes Clarke on 4 February 1578, in Colyton, Devon, England. They were the parents of at least 6 sons and 2 daughters. In 1616, at the age of 68, his occupation is listed as church warden. He died on 21 September 1630, in East Budleigh, Devon, England, at the age of 82, and was buried in East Budleigh, Devon, England. He was a Church Warden in 1606-1616, by then the church in England was Anglican since Henry VIII had earlier split with the Pope.
The clerical tradition was prominent in the Conant family. Richard Conant – Roger’s father – had been a churchwarden at All Saints’ Church just as Sir Walter Ralegh’s father had been. Three Conant family members served as ministers of religion.
The caption seems wrong; Richard Conant owned (or leased?) the mill and house
Roger's father, Richard, was fairly wealthy; did his house have a privy or bathing facilities?
See our old verbose friend, Frederick Conant. His account of Richard's will and list of belongings. Richard seems to have been very wealthy for the times and Roger would have had a comfortable life growing up in East Budleigh.
Richard lived under two monarchs, Queen Elizabeth and King James I
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