Record

Entry Type	Person
Surname	Rolle
Forenames	John
Pre Title	Lord
Epithet	Baron Rolle of Stevensone, Devon, MP
Dates	1756-1842
Biography	Information taken from the University College London's 'Legacies of British Slave-ownership' website, 18 Feb 2021 John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle of Stevenstone, MP for Devon 1780-1796, son of Denys Rolle (1725-1797) of Stevenstone, the latter a landowner and MP and 'major colonial landowner in Florida'. The family was later granted land in the Bahamas as American loyalists. John Rolle left £300,000 in personalty. His heir was his second wife's nephew, Hon. Mark George Kerr Rolle (ne Trefusis) of Stevenstone. Baron Rolle was a title created twice, once for Henry Rolle (d. 1750) and a second time for John Rolle of this entry. John Rolle has an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as 'politician.' As well as describing Denys Rolle as a 'major colonial landowner in Florida', the entry says of John Rolle in relation to slavery: 'Except on parliamentary reform, he almost invariably backed Pitt, whose opposition to the slave trade he approved, even though he was heir to his father's plantation in the Bahamas which was compensation for the loss of his Florida estates in the American War of Independence...At first peeved [in the 1830s] by the effect on his Bahamas plantation of the anti-slavery campaign, he became reconciled to it.'
Key Events	1780-1796 MP for Devon 1796 Ennobled as Baron Rolle 1797 inherits extensive estates, particularly in Devon
Family Tree	Son of Denys Rolle
Authorised Form of Name	Rolle; Lord; John (1756-1842); Baron Rolle of Stevensone, Devon, MP

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