Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rolle, John (1750-1842)
ROLLE, JOHN, Baron Rolle of Stevenstone (1750–1842), eldest son of Denys Rolle of Bicton, Devonshire (d. 1797), by Anne, daughter of Arthur Chichester of Hall in the same county, was born on 16 Oct. 1750, the same year in which his uncle Henry, created Baron Rolle of Stevenstone, 8 Jan. 1747–8, died without issue. Returned to parliament for Devonshire on 4 Jan. 1780, Rolle retained the seat at the general elections of April 1784 and June 1790. He was a staunch adherent of Pitt, held somewhat coarse ‘common-sense’ views, and spoke frequently, but made no great figure as a debater. Having rendered himself obnoxious to the opposition by the severity of his comments upon Fox's recall of Rodney in 1782, and the levity with which he treated Fox's complaints touching the violated rights of the Westminster electors, Rolle was made the hero of the ‘Rolliad,’ in which he was gibbeted as the degenerate descendant of Rollo, though the satire was principally aimed at Pitt and Dundas. By patent dated 20 June 1796 the revived title of Baron Rolle of Stevenstone was conferred upon him; and on 5 Oct. he took his seat in the House of Lords, in which, except to second the address to the throne on 26 June 1807 and that to the prince regent on 30 Nov. 1812, he hardly spoke. He voted against Earl Grey's reform bill on its second reading, 13 April 1832, and remained a strong conservative throughout life. He was colonel of the South Devon Militia and Royal Devon Yeomanry, an active county magistrate, a good landlord, and a liberal benefactor to the church. He died at Bicton House, near Exeter, on 3 April 1842. He married twice, viz. first, on 22 Feb. 1778, Judith Maria (d. 1820), only daughter of Henry Walrond of Bovey, Devonshire; and, secondly, on 24 Sept. 1822, Louisa Barbara, second daughter of Robert George William Trefusis, seventeenth baron Clinton, who survived him. He left issue by neither wife.
A bust of Rolle was exhibited in the Royal Academy exhibition in 1842; an engraving of his portrait by Cruickshank is in Ryall's ‘Portraits of eminent Conservatives and Statesmen,’ 2nd ser.
[Memoir in the work by Ryall above mentioned and Gent. Mag. 1842, ii. 201; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, viii. 528; Pole's Description of Devonshire, pp. 163, 414; Hansard's Parl. Hist. vol. xxiv.–ix., and Parl. Debates, ix. 580, xxiv. 19, and 3rd ser. xii. 459; Lords' Journ. xli. 12; Wraxall's Posth. Memoirs, ed. Wheatley; Greville Memoirs, Geo. IV and Will. IV, iii. 107, Vict. i. 108.]