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Journal
Two voyages aboard the Swift sloop of war
in 1795
by Midshipman John Edward Conant
In 2004 BBC Television featured the Journal
on The Antiques Road Show. Mrs. Rosemary Bartlett had found it amongst her late
husband's possessions and took it to the Roadshow at The Royal Hospital,
Haslar, Hampshire. The Conant family subsequently aquired the two hundred year
old journal .
John Edward was born in 1777, married
Catherine Brown in 1817 and died in 1848. There were three children from the
marriage; Catherine born 1818, Edward Nathaniel born 1820 and John William born
1824.
John Edward Conant was made Lieutenant on
18th July 1801 (Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815) and
finished his Naval career as a Commander. (See the scan below of the Admiralty
document.) He later became a Police Magistrate at Marlborough Street in
London.
The 18 year old Midshipman who wrote the
journal is the great, great, great, great grandfather of Matilda Conant (born
in 2003) and Nathaniel Conant (born in 2007) who now live at Lyndon Hall.
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The journal is in two parts:-
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Pages 1 to 18
"Of a
Voyage into the Red Sea"
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Pages 21 to 48
"An
Expedition against The Moluccas by the Squadron Of Admiral Ranier in
1795"
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O'Byrne's
Naval Biographical
Dictionary Of 1849
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The
journal was printed in the
Gentleman's Magazine of 1806
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In 1816 John
Edward Conant was
"appointed to the Rank of Commander in Her Majesty's
Fleet" 
Battle of Waterloo 18th June 1815.
Invitation to John
Conant and his wife Catherine from the Duke of Wellington
two months after
the Battle.
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