Roger Conant, baptized 9 April 1592 in East Budleigh, Devonshire,^[2] was the youngest of eight children of Richard Conant and Agnes Clarke. The Conant family were well educated and religious; one of their sons and two grandsons became ordained ministers of some prominence. The family were Anglicans with some sympathies for puritanism.

As a young man, Roger. Following his elder brother Christopher, Roger moved to London as an apprentice working to become a merchant trading in salt, amongst other merchandise. He became a freeman of the  Worshipful Company of Salters.

Roger married Sarah Horton at St. Ann Blackfriars, London, on 11 November 1618 Sarah was the daughter of Thomas Horton and Catherine Satchfield and together they had at least nine children.

Roger was aware of the Mayflower’s journey and the establishment of New Plimouth in 1620. He knew Weston and his attempt to settle at Wessagusset. He was becoming increasingly interested to emigrating there with his family. Reports back from Wessagusset stated that a Governor was needed for the settlement. Roger was considered a ‘religious sober and prudent gentleman’ and offered the position. He accepted and he and his family sailed arriving in New England in the spring of 1623. There they found Wessagusset in a state of near destitution. Roger had no option but to stay in New Plimouth, in unhappy circumstances. He found the Separatists to be intolerant of his Anglicanism and sought to move elsewhere. The opportunity arose for him to move to Cape Ann, to take over the management of that settlement, which he did in 1625.