498 CRANWORTH CRANWORTH BARONY. Robert Monsey Rolfe, ist and only surv. s. of the Rev. Edmund R., Rector of Cranworth, Norfolk, by I. 1850 Jemima, da. of William Alexander (and Charlotte, da. of to the eccentric Messenger Monsey, Physician to Chelsea 1868. Hospital, 1738-88). He was/-. 18 Dec. 1790, at Cranworth Rectory; ed. at Bury Grammar school, and (1803) at Winchester College, and at Trin. Coll. Cambridge, 1 7th Wrangler and B.A. 1 8 1 2 ; Fellow of Downing Coll. and M. A. 1 8 1 5 ; Barrister (Line. Inn) 1 8 1 6 ; Recorder of Bury; K.C., 1832; M.P. (Liberal) for Penryn, 1832-39; Sol. Gen., 6 Nov. 1834, for about a month, and again 30 Apr. 1835, for about 4 years, being knighted 6 May 1835; °"^ °^ ^^^ Barons of the Exchequer 1839-50, acting, from 19 June to 15 July 1850, as one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal; one of the Vice Chancellors 2 Nov. i850,andP.C. 13N0V. 1850. On 20 Dec. 1850, he was cr. BARON CRANWORTH of Cran- worth, Norfolk.(^) One of the two Lords Justices of Appeal, 8 Oct. 1851, being the next year, 28 Dec. 1852, appointed Lord Chancellor ;(•■) resigned 26 Feb. 1858, on the accession of the Derby ministry, and was not re-ap- pointed (June 1859) by Lord Palmerston, till after the resignation of Lord Westbury, when, for the 2nd time, he became Lord Chancellor 7 July 1865 to 6 July 1866. He m., 9 Oct. 1845, at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Laura, yst. da. of Thomas William Carr, of Frognal, in Hampstead, Midx., and of Esholt Heugh, Northumberland, Solicitor to the Excise, by Frances, da. of Andrew Morton, of Ouzeburne, Northumberland. She, who was k in London, 30 Mar., and i>ap. 27 Apr. i 807, at St. George's, Bloomsbury, (/. 15 Feb. 1868, at 40 Upper Brook Str., Midx., in her 8ist year. He J. there, s.p., within 5 months' time, 26 July 1868, in his 78th year, when his Peerage became extinct.(^) Will dat. 23 Apr., pr. 15 Sep. 1868. Both were bur. (from his seat at Holwood) at Keston, Kent. (") The first and only instance of a Vice Chancellor being so honoured. C') For this and other great offices of state see vol. ii, Appendix D. (■=) " He had good practical sense and a sound knowledge of the law, if not in its great and leading principles, at all events in its minutia and technicalities. He had good connexion among the Solicitors: he had also the highest reputation for honour, integrity and good faith, and, above all things, great faith in himself." [Annual Register, 1868). G.E.C. "Nobody is so agreeable as Rolfe ... a clear head, vivacity, information, an extraordinary pleasantness of manner, without being either soft or affected, extreme good humour, cheerfulness and tact, make his society on the whole as attractive as that of anybody I ever met." {Greville Memoirs, 18 Jan. 1845). " Our Chancellor, Cranworth, was personally a most excellent and honest man. He had been a successful lawyer and an efficient judge. His charge to the jury in the case of the famous Norfolk murder by Rush was the admiration of all England at the time. . . . Nevertheless, Cranworth as Chancellor was not a very strong man. He was a great friend of mine, and on one occasion I ventured to advise him to show his teeth a little more to the aggressive lawyers round him in the House, who treated him sometimes with but scant respect." (Eighth Duke of Argyll: Auto-
