John Conant

Rev. John Conant D.D. (18 October 1608 – 12 March 1694) was an English clergyman, theologian, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.

Conant was born at Yettington, Bicton, in southeast 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 at Oxford. 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 B.A. on 26 May 1631, and M.A. 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.

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