Baron Rolle

Arms of Rolle: Or, on a fesse dancetté between three billets azure each charged with a lion rampant of the first three bezants

Baron Rolle was a title created twice in the Peerage of Great Britain for members of the Rolle family, related as uncle and nephew. This family was established at the manor of Stevenstone in Devon in the 16th century. In the 17th century they acquired additional estates in Devon including Bicton when Sir Henry Rolle (d.1617) married Anne Denys, a co-heiress of Bicton and Holcombe Burnell. In 1748 Henry Rolle, previously Member of Parliament for Devon and Barnstaple, was made Lord Rolle, Baron of Stevenstone, in the County of Devon. The title became extinct on his early death in 1750. His nephew John Rolle inherited the family estates in 1779 and in 1796 was made Baron Rolle, of Stevenstone in the County of Devon. The title became extinct on his death in 1842. He bequeathed his estates, then some 55,000 acres (220 km²), to Hon. Mark Trefusis (d.1907), second son of the 19th Baron Clinton, the nephew of his second wife and widow, who was required by the will to adopt the surname and arms of Rolle, which he did by royal licence in 1852. In 1907 he too died without male progeny when, in accordance with the entail created by the will of Lord Rolle, the Rolle estates descended to his nephew Charles Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton (1863–1957) of Heanton Satchville, Huish. The Trefusis family had in 1791 inherited the great estates of the Rolle family of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, a junior branch of the Rolles of Stevenstone. This was due to the eventual heir of Margaret Rolle, suo jure 15th Baroness Clinton (1709-1781) having been her cousin Robert George William Trefusis (1764–1797), lord of the manor of Trefusis in Cornwall, who in 1794 successfully claimed the title 17th Baron Clinton. Trefusis and Margaret Rolle were both descended from the marriage of Robert Rolle (c.1622-1660) of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe and Lady Arabella Clinton, the younger daughter of Theophilus Clinton, 4th Earl of Lincoln, 12th Baron Clinton (d.1667). The 21st Baron Clinton sold Stevenstone in 1922, and concentrated his remaining still huge Devon estates in two areas, one in mid-Devon comprising the estates of Rolle of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, the other in east Devon comprising the Bicton and East Budleigh estates of Rolle of Stevenstone. All the estates are today managed by the Clinton Devon Estates organisation.

Barons Rolle; First creation (1748)

• Henry Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1708–1750)

Barons Rolle; Second creation (1796)

• John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1756–1842)

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland Bernard Burke (1855) p168/9 Google Books. (Rolle of Bicton House).