Denys Rolle

Denys Rolle ( – 26 June 1797) was a British politician and landowner who was an independent member of parliament for Barnstaple between 1761 and 1774. He inherited a large number of estates and by the time of his death he was the largest landowner in Devon. He was a philanthropist and generous benefactor to charities and religious societies.

Rolle spent much of his life in Florida attempting to establish an "ideal society", a utopian colony of British settlers named Rollestown or Charlotta. The project was a failure and Rolle recorded his colonial adventure in great detail in a lengthy official complaint made in 1765 to the British government entitled The Humble Petition of Denys Rolle, Esq., Setting Forth the Hardships, Inconveniences, and Grievances Which Have Attended Him in His Attempts to Make a Settlement in East Florida, Humbly Praying Such Relief as in their Lordships Wisdom Shall Seem Meet.

His colonists having failed to live up to his ambitious expectations and having largely deserted him, he turned to slave labour and following the loss of Florida as a British possession in 1783 he moved his colony to a smaller site on Exuma in the Bahama Islands.

Life and family

The Rolle family was one of the richest and most powerful in Devon and owned several dozen manors, their most ancient holding being Stevenstone near Great Torrington in the north of the county, whilst Bicton (inherited from the Denys family, after whom he was named) in the south-east was the centre of another large block of territory.

Early life Denys Rolle was the youngest of four sons of John Rolle (1679–1730), of Bicton and Stevenstone, by his wife Isabella Charlotte Walter, daughter of Sir William Walter, 2nd Baronet of Sarsden, Oxfordshire. His eldest brother was Henry Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (died 1759) of Stevenstone, whose heir was his next younger brother John Rolle Walter (c. 1714 – 1779), who was a Tory MP. Denys was baptised on 19 July 1725 in St Giles's Church, St Giles in the Wood, the parish church of Stevenstone. He matriculated at New College, Oxford on 19 January 1742, at the age of 16.

He was named after his cousin Denys Rolle (1614–1638), of Stevenstone, who had inherited Bicton and other lands from his mother Ann Denys, a co-heiress of the ancient Devon family of Denys of Holcombe Burnell.

Marriage and children On 22 May 1750 in East Down, Devon, a daughter (by his second wife) of Arthur Chichester (1670-1737/8) of Hall, Bishop's Tawton, Devon, a junior line of the ancient and prominent Chichester family of Raleigh. By Anne he had the following children:

John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1751–1842), eldest son and heir, baptised at Chittlehampton Christiana Philippa Maria Rolle (1759–1831), died 3 February 1831, Aged 72.

Parliamentary career Rolle was elected MP for Barnstaple in 1761 but after 1764 most of his time was occupied by his colony in Florida rather than Barnstaple or national politics. He was re-elected in 1768. Although not attached to any party, Rolle voted with the Opposition when he was at Parliament but seems not to have spoken in the House. He lost his seat at the general election of 1774 being defeated by William Devaynes, a supporter of the government. However he received a three-fold inheritance which, together with his own land purchases around Otterton in South Devon, meant that on his death he was the largest land owner in the county of Devon, the second largest county in England, with a rent-roll of £40,000 per annum.

His eldest brother Henry Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (died 1759) had inherited his paternal estates in 1730 but died childless in 1759. His younger brother John Rolle Walter (c. 1714–1779) was his heir. In 1731, at the age of 17, John inherited the Oxfordshire lands of his childless uncle Sir Robert Walter, 4th Baronet (1680–1731), of Sarsden in Oxfordshire and had changed his name to Walter, as required by the bequest. The third brother, William Rolle (1720 – c.1747) of Beam, died childless some time after 1747 which left Denys Rolle as the heir to the Rolle and Walter lands.

Denys also inherited the estate of Hudscott in the parish of Chittlehampton, Devon, from his distant childless cousin Samuel Rolle (1704–1747) son and heir of Samuel Rolle (1669–1735) of Hudscott, MP for Barnstaple. This inheritance included a moiety of the manor of Countisbury in North Devon. He also inherited the manors of East Tytherley in Somerset and Shapwick in Somerset, which had been acquired by his cousin Henry Rolle (1589–1656), Chief Justice of the King's Bench, descended from the most junior Rolle line. Thus at the age of about 21 Denys Rolle had inherited Hudscott, where he lived during most of his life and where several of his children were baptised.

In 1779, at the age 54, following the death of his brother John Rolle Walter, he inherited the paternal Rolle estates of Stevenstone and Bicton.

Otterton and East Budleigh In 1786 he purchased for the huge sum of £72,000 the manors of Otterton and East Budleigh, situated adjacent to Bicton in south-east Devon from the heirs of the Duke family, descendants of Richard Duke (died 1572) who in 1540 had purchased the former lands of Otterton Priory following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The properties acquired included:

Capital messuage, barton farm and demesne lands of Otterton and the manors and lordships of Otterton, Little Otterton, Budleigh Poleslow (otherwise Higher Budleigh), Budleigh Syon (otherwise Lower Budleigh), Collaton Rawleigh (otherwise the Lower Manor), Dukes-Collaton, (otherwise Collaton Abbott otherwise The Higher Manor), Dotton (otherwise Docton) and Hays (otherwise Powershays otherwise Dukes Hayes); 4 water grist mills in Otterton and the advowsons of the churches of Otterton, Budleigh and Harpford with the free chapels of Withecombe, Fen Ottery, Rectory and Sheaf of Otterton and a fee farm rent of £13. 10s., payable out of the sheaf of Sidmouth, etc.

Land sales Rolle sold his Somerset estate of Shapwick in 1786/7 to George Templer (1755–1819), of the East India Company, 4th son of James I Templer (1722–1782) of Stover, Teigngrace.

North American plantations Florida In May 1764 Rolle obtained a grant from the crown of 20,000 acres of land for a plantation in St Mark's in East Florida, His vision was to establish an "ideal society", a Utopian colony for poor, homeless or criminal English persons. He returned to England again in January 1768, and again complained to the Board of Trade.

Rollestown was visited in December 1765 by the naturalists John Bartram and his son William Bartram, and again in 1778, the latter who recorded his observations in a journal which survives. Rolle's activities were also recorded in the diary, correspondence and official reports of the Governor of Florida James Grant, who became increasingly infuriated by Rolle's constant demands, complaints and disputes

When the slaves (about 400 at this time) of his son and heir, Lord John Rolle, were officially declared free on 1 August 1838, many of them adopted the surname of Rolle. The slaves then took over the Rolle lands on Exuma and ran them communally although there was no formal deed of conveyance to them. Today, there are still five Lord John Rolle Commonage Estates on Exuma including the village of Rolle Town. These have been passed down to the descendants of the former slaves and cannot be sold.

Although the name Rolle died out in England on the death of Lord Rolle in 1842 (revived for a while in the person of his heir Mark Rolle), the surname Rolle is still a common name in the Bahamas.

Death Rolle died on 26 June 1797, aged 72, of angina during one of his habitual long walks between his manors of Hudscott and Stevenstone,

In St Giles Church, St Giles in the Wood, there is a mural monument to Rolle, erected by Anne, his second daughter.