John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle

For other people named John Rolle, see John Rolle (disambiguation).

John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle
John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1750–1842) in his peerage robes. Portrait by Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830). Collection of Great Torrington Almshouse, Town Lands and Poors Charities, displayed in Great Torrington Town Hall. Donated by Lord Clinton.
Member of Parliament for Devon
In office
1780-1796
Personal details
Bornc. 1750 (1750)
England
Died3 April 1842 (aged 91–92)
Bicton, Devon, England
Spouse(s)Judith Walrond (d. 1819)
Louisa Trefusis
​
(m. 1822)​
Parent
RelativesHenry Rolle (uncle)
John Rolle Walter (uncle)
John Rolle (grandfather)
EducationEmmanuel College, Cambridge
Military career
RankColonel
CommandsSouth Devon Militia
Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry
North Devon Yeomanry
Sculpture of Lord Rolle (died 1842), inscribed on plinth: "E.B. Stephens sculp. London 1844", in entrance hall of Bicton House, Exeter, Devon. By Edward Bowring Stephens (1815–1882); exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, as: "A marble statue of the late Lord Rolle in the robe worn at the coronation of Her Majesty the Queen". An identical earlier version dated 1843 exists in the entrance hall of Lupton House, Brixham, the home of John Yarde-Buller, 1st Baron Churston (1799–1871)
Arms of Rolle: Or, on a fesse dancetté between three billets azure each charged with a lion rampant of the first three bezants

John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1750[nb 1] – 3 April 1842) was a British politician and peer who served as a Member of Parliament in general support of William Pitt the Younger and was later an active member of the House of Lords. His violent attacks on Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox in the early 1780s led to his being the target for satirical attack in the Rolliad. He was colonel of the South Devon Militia and was instrumental in forming the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry and the North Devon Yeomanry.

He was a slave owner. At Emancipation he presented his estate on the island of Exuma in the Bahamas in perpetuity to his freed slaves, whose descendants still lived in what became known as Rolleville as late as the 1920s.[2]

He was the largest landowner in Devon, with about 55,000 acres centred on his seats of Stevenstone in the north and Bicton House in the south-east,[nb 2] and thus was highly influential in that county. He promoted and financed several large engineering projects, including the Rolle Canal in North Devon, Rolle Quay in Pottington, Barnstaple, and two road bridges over the River Torridge near Torrington, at Town Mills and Weare Giffard and the sea-wall at Exmouth.[nb 3] He was an active donor to charitable works in Devon, being patron of his family's almshouses at Livery Dole, Exeter, Otterton, Great Torrington and St Giles in the Wood[3] and of two schools in Otterton.[nb 4] Physically he was a large man, and made no pretension to an intellectual approach. Nathaniel William Wraxall wrote of him: "Nature had denied him all pretension to grace or elegance. Neither was his understanding apparently more cultivated than his manners were refined. He reminded me always of a Devonshire rustic, but he possessed plain common sense, a manly mind, and the faculty of stating his ideas in a few strong words." In later life he caused a disturbance at the coronation of Queen Victoria when he fell on the stairs of the throne.

  1. ^ a b http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukdevon/StGilesInsideMIs.htm#MarkRolle1907[full citation needed]
  2. ^ Alan Burns Colonial Civil Servant, p.96. Allen and Unwin
  3. ^ The report of the Commissioners concerning charities; containing that part which relates to Devon (With) Appendix and index, By Commissioners for inquiry into charities, 1830[full citation needed]


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