Rev. John Conant D.D. (18 October 1608 – 12 March 1694) was an English clergyman and theologian. He was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, and later archdeacon of Norwich.
Life
Conant was born at Yettington, Bicton, in the south-east of Devon, England, the eldest son of Robert Conant, son of Richard Conant, and his wife Elizabeth Morris. He was educated first in the free school at Ilchester, Somerset, and then under the instruction of the schoolmaster Thomas Branker, with additional instruction by his uncle John, rector of Limington in Somerset. Taken by his uncle to Oxford in 1627, he was enrolled on 18 February as a commoner of Exeter College, Oxford. There he was tutored by Lawrence Bodley, nephew of the benefactor of the Bodleian Library. Conant quickly gained a mastery of Greek, debating publicly in that language, and also excelled in Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. His potential was recognised by John Prideaux, the anti-Arminian rector of Exeter, who commented that he found nothing difficult. John Conant graduated BA on 26 May 1631, and MA on 12 January 1634; on 30 June 1632 he was chosen a probationer of Exeter College, and on 3 July 1633 made a fellow. He was ordained deacon and tutored pupils until 1642, when the disruption of Oxford by the Civil War forced him to depart, abandoning valuable books, which he never regained.
Conant intended to join his uncle at Limington but found by the time he arrived that his uncle, a supporter of the parliamentary cause, had gone to London. There his uncle preached to the House of Commons on 26 July 1643, calling on it to reform the church, and he was a member of the Westminster Assembly (not the nephew, as some sources incorrectly assert). Remaining for a while at Limington, Conant preached and carried out parish duties, until so menaced by royalist troops that he joined his uncle in London and began to assist him in the parish of St Botolph, Aldersgate. He soon took up residence with the family of Lord and Lady Chandos at Harefield, Middlesex, whom he served as chaplain. Lady Chandos, the daughter of Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester, was his patron, awarding him an annual stipend of £80, much of which he used to relieve the poor and needy of the parish, and provide them with bibles and schooling.
Meanwhile, he gave a weekday lecture for several years at nearby Uxbridge. On 20 December 1645 the committee for plundered ministers offered him the rectory of Whimple, Devon, but Conant refused it. When in 1647 subscription to the Solemn League and Covenant was required of college fellows, Conant refused to take it, writing a letter from Harefield dated 27 September 1647, resigning his fellowship at Exeter College.