John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle

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)

John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1750 How comes it, Rolle, at seventy two Hale Rolle, Louisa to the altar led? The thing is neither strange nor new Louisa took the Rolle for want of bread. A marble bust of Louisa exists in the Orangery at Bicton House. Louisa and Rolle shared a love of gardening and created the grand landscaped garden at Bicton, now open to the public as Bicton Park Botanical Gardens. An American traveller, Elihu Burritt, visited Bicton in 1864 and described her hostess in terms of great praise: "This lady is a remarkable woman, without equal or like in England...she is a female rival of Alexander the Great. The world that the Grecian conqueror subjugated was a small affair in space compared with the two hemispheres which this English lady has taken by the hair of the head and bound to her chair of state. It seems to have been her ambition for nearly half a century to do what was never done before by man or woman in filling her great park and gardens with a collection of trees and shrubs that should be to them what the British Museum is to the relics of antiquity and the literature of all ages".

At the time of her death in December 1885, the New York Times obituary reported:

"Lady Rolle was a very clever woman, wonderful to the last in her capacity for business, and for her strong, shrewd common sense, and always resolute to have her own way in everything."

Louisa built several buildings in Devon including: The China Tower at Bicton, built by Lady Rolle in 1839 as a birthday present for her husband, restored in 2013 by its new owners the Landmark Trust. Almshouses at Livery Dole, Heavitree, Exeter, re-built in 1849 as a pair on an adjacent site to the previous buildings, inherited from the Denys family of Bicton by the Rolles. Bicton Church, built anew in 1850 on a site adjoining the old church. It incorporates a north transept containing several pews reserved for herself and her guests at Bicton, invisible to the general congregation in the nave and entered through a private north porch. The seating in the nave was occupied by estate staff, each pew being inscribed with the job-title of the staff member in strict hierarchical order. Rolle Mausoleum, Bicton, built in 1850 within the ruins of Old Bicton Church, containing her monument to her husband Lord Rolle and an existing monument to Denys Rolle (1614–1638). St Michael's Church, Otterton, remodelled 1869–71.

Adoptive heir Hon. Mark George Kerr Rolle (1835–1907), drawn aged 35 in 1870, by Joseph Brown, National Portrait Gallery, NPG D10788 Rolle's second marriage also produced no children. It had been thought that his heir presumptive was his next-of-kin, Rev. John Moore-Stevens (1784–1865), Archdeacon of Exeter, younger brother of Thomas Moore-Stevens (1782–1832), JP, of Cross, Little Torrington, appointed by Lord Rolle in 1822 as vicar of Otterton, a manor adjoining Bicton purchased by Rolle's father Denys Rolle (died 1797). Rev. Moore-Stevens's grandmother was Christiana Maria Rolle (1710–1780), Lord Rolle's aunt, who had married Henry Stevens (1689–1748) of Cross. He married Anne Eleanor Roberts, daughter of Rev. William Roberts, fellow and vice-provost of Eton College. An inscribed white marble tablet exists to the memory of his wife and himself in Exeter Cathedral. His son was John Moore-Stevens (born 1818), JP, DL, MP for North Devon, High Sheriff of Devon 1870, who rebuilt Winscott House, Peters Marland, in 1865. Lord Rolle however had decided to appoint as his heir Louisa's younger nephew, the six-year-old Hon. Mark George Kerr Trefusis (1835–1907), the younger brother of Charles Trefusis (1834–1904) 20th Baron Clinton. Whether his marriage to Louisa had been by chance or dynastic design, in fact the Trefusis Barons Clinton would have had an excellent claim to be his closest kin and legal heirs. Thus Rolle had followed his family's ancient practice of keeping the estates "in the family". His will required his young heir to change his name to Rolle, which he duly performed, and to adopt the Rolle arms in lieu of those of Trefusis. However, his design to revive the Rolle family was ultimately unsuccessful as Mark Rolle produced only two daughters and no son, and the Rolle inheritance passed to his male heir, his nephew, Charles John Robert Trefusis (1863–1957), 21st Baron Clinton. The Trefusis family had several generations before inherited the estates of the Rolle family of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, the most junior line of the family descended from the patriarch George Rolle (died 1552), and thus added to those large landholdings the huge Stevenstone and Bicton estates. However, liquid funds were not available to meet the large death duties, and much of the Stevenstone estate was sold to meet the tax liability.

Death and burial Rolle died in 1842 at Bicton House in Devon. As part of her re-building of Bicton Church as St Mary's Church, completed in 1850, his widow Louisa retained as a Rolle mausoleum part of the ruins of the ancient Church of the Holy Trinity on the site and erected therein an elaborate monument to the memory of her husband, designed by Pugin and sculpted in the London workshop of George Myers. It consists of a Gothic-style chest tomb in front of a high arch filled-in with Gothic-style tracery and sculpted figures. In the same mausoleum is the baroque monument to his distant cousin Denys Rolle (1614–1638), who had inherited Bicton from his mother Anne Denys. He was third in descent from John Rolle (died 1570), the eldest son and heir of the patriarch George Rolle (died 1552) of Stevenstone, MP for Barnstaple. The Rolle Mausoleum is the private property of Lord Clinton and is not open to the public as from 2012.

Monument in St Giles Church

The text of the Mural monument in St Giles Church, St Giles in the Wood is as follows:

"This monument by the directions of the undermentioned ANNE ROLLE of Hudscott is erected in the memory of DENYS ROLLE of Stevenstone in this parish, Esquire who died the 24th of June 1797 Aged 72 and ANNE, his wife daughter of ARTHUR CHICHESTER of Hall in this County, Esquire who died the 24th May 1781 Aged 64. ISABELLA HENRIETTA CHARLOTTA ROLLE their eldest daughter died in the lifetime of her parents aged 16. ANNE ROLLE above mentioned, their second daughter, died the 16th of June 1842 Aged 87. CHRISTIANA PHILIPPA MARIA ROLLE the youngest daughter, died the 3rd of February 1831 aged 72. Lucilla ROLLE died the 24th of July 1851 aged 94. The Remains of the above lie interred in the Family Vault in this Church. JOHN, BARON ROLLE, of Stevenstone son of the said DENYS and ANNE ROLLE, and the last male descendant of the family died without issue the 3rd of April 1842, Aged 92, and was buried in the Family Vault in Bicton Church in the County. LOUISA LADY ROLLE, second wife of the above, died Nov 20th 1885, Aged 91, and was buried in Bicton Church Yard"