About 20 years ago, in a deep research dive into my paternal grandmother's Hackett line, I discovered one of my 256 eight-great-grandparents was Roger Conant, who arrived in the Colonies in 1623, served as the first governor of Massachusetts, and founded the towns of Salem, Peabody, Beverly and Danvers, Massachusetts.
Born in April 1592 in East Budleigh, Devonshire, England, to Richard and Agnes Clarke Conant, the colonist died in Beverly on Nov. 19, 1679. He arrived in the Pilgrim settlement of Plymouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1624, possible aboard the Charity. A year earlier, his brother Christopher Conant arrived on the Anne. Some historians mistakenly believed the two men arrived on the Anne.
Roger Conant married Sarah Horton in London in 1618; the couple had about nine children; Roger outlived his wife and four of his sons, Caleb, Lot, Roger, and Joshua.
The sculpture was commissioned in 1913 by the Conant Family Association, which selected the design created by Henry Hudson Kitson, sculptor of the Lexington, Massachusetts Minuteman Memorial.
The plaque set in a stone on which the bronze likeness stands reads:"I was a means through grace assisting me to stop the flight of those few that then were here with me, and that by my utter denial to go away with them, who would have gone either for England, or mostly for Virginia."
The sentiment refers to, in part, a dispute over fishing rights between Miles Standish and Capt. Hewes of Fisherman's Field that was peacefully setted by Roger Conant, though blood had been shed before his intervention, according to an article written by another Conant descendant, Earl Varney.
My Descendancy
I discovered that I am descended from Roger's son Lot Conant on my father's side. Lot married Elizabeth Walton (see Side Note 2), and I am descended from their son John and his son, Benjamin, through the latter's daughter Abigail, who married Josiah Hackett, my fourth-great-grandfather, born in 1754 in Middleboro, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Though they were Quakers, Josiah served a 26-day stint in Col. Samuel Ashley's New Hampshire Regiment, sent to reinforce the Continental Army at Fort Ticonderoga.
Josiah and Abigail moved to Westmoreland, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, where they raised ten children, including my third-great-grandfather, also Josiah Hackett. (see Side Note below). His son Samuel Rathbon Hackett was the father of my great-grandfather, Josiah Peter Hackett, my Civil War soldier. His daughter, Lovina Amanda, married my grandfather, Charles Cicero Codling, and their youngest son, Paul Emmitt Codling, was my dad.
Whew.
A Cautionary Tale
So, it's extremely important to take notes when one does their family history research. We all know this, but today that lesson hits hard for me. Because I know that somehow, one of my mother's family lines also descends from Roger Conant's son, Lot.
For the life of me, though, I can't recall how. As I've been writing this, I've also been poring through my twisted family tree and have had no luck retracing those steps to determine how I came to that conclusion.
So, take notes! You never know when you will need that important kernel of information!
Side Note 1: My Revolutionary War veteran Josiah Hackett should not be confused with another Revolutionary War veteran, also named Josiah Hackett, who was born a few years later in Connecticut and died around the same year as my ancestor. His line probably connects somehow to my Hacketts, but I have not been able to dig into that question very much. This Josiah Hackett, while he led a similar life, was married to a Mary Booth and settled in Oxford, Chenango County, New York, where he died. He is mentioned frequently in the 1906 book, Annals of Oxford, New York, by Henry Judson Galpin.
Side Note 2: Fun fact. While I was looking back through my Conant line I became curious about Lot's wife Elizabeth Walton. I wrote a blog post for Historic Eleutherian College about one of the founding families of the Neil's Creek Anti-Slavery Society; Abraham Walton's family also went back to colonial Massachusetts, where Elizabeth Walton married Lot.
Now, I have to fully document this, but looking back on the Walton tree, it turns out that Abraham's third-great-grandparents were the Rev. William and Elizabeth Cooke Walton. Their son Samuel and my Elizabeth Walton appear to have been siblings! And if that's the case, I'm Abraham's third cousin, six times removed!
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