George Rolle

Who is George Rolle?

George Rolle of Stevenstone was the founder of the wealthy, influential and widespread Rolle family of Devon, which by 1873 in the person of Hon. Mark Rolle, the adoptive heir of John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle, had become the largest landowner in Devon with about 55,000 acres. He was a Dorset-born London lawyer who became in 1507 Keeper of the Records of the Court of Common Pleas and sat as MP for Barnstaple in 1542 and 1545. He became the steward of Dunkeswell Abbey in Devon, and following the Dissolution of the Monasteries he purchased much ex-monastic land in Devon.