John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle
Encyclopedia
John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (16 October 1756 – 3 April 1842) was a British
peer
who had served as a Member of Parliament
(MP) in general support of William Pitt the Younger
and was later an active member of the House of Lords
. His violent attacks on Edmund Burke
and Charles James Fox
in the early 1780s led to his being the target for satirical attack in the Rolliad
.
Physically he was a large man, and made no pretension to an intellectual approach. Nathaniel William Wraxall
wrote of him "Nature had denied him all pretension to grace or elegance. Neither was his understanding apparently more cultivated than his manners were refined. He reminded me always of a Devonshire rustic, but he possessed plain common sense, a manly mind, and the faculty of stating his ideas in a few strong words." In later life he caused a disturbance at the coronation
of Queen Victoria
when he fell down the stairs.
. He was educated at Winchester College
and Emmanuel College, Cambridge
, and became a country gentleman in Devon
. When his uncle John Rolle Walter died in November 1779, he was put forward to fill the vacancy. At this time, Devon was controlled by a group of large landowners principally in the Courtenay, Bampfylde and Rolle families who had so many supporters that no other challenge was possible; due to the expense, the county had not seen a contested election since 1712. Rolle was duly elected unopposed on January 4, 1780.
. He sometimes supported the government but just as often opposed it. However, following North's resignation, Rolle developed a vehement dislike of Charles James Fox for recalling George Rodney
to a Naval command. When Fox, attempting to delay Parliamentary proceedings to get more of his supporters, put off the Call of the House, Rolle attacked his supporters' unpunctuality.
He supported the Shelburne
government's peace proposals in 1783, although he had not been a consistent supporter of that ministry (being rated by Robinson, the Parliamentary manager, as 'doubtful'). During the Fox-North Coalition, Rolle was appalled when Edmund Burke
reappointed two Pay Office officials called Powell and Bembridge who were under suspicion of embezzlement, and made vituperative attacks until Burke agreed to accept their resignations.
For all that Rolle seemed an opponent of Fox, he was not a true supporter of Pitt. He opposed Pitt on Parliamentary reform and on the Duke of Richmond
's fortifications plan, and was a member of the St. Alban's Tavern group
which tried to create a united Ministry involving both Pitt and Fox. He consistently described himself as an "independent country gentleman".
relations with Maria Fitzherbert which was thought inappropriate by the Whigs; Rolle responded by saying that he would have made the same speech if the whole House was against him. In the general election in 1790 he was forced into a token contest against a Bampfylde Whig and declared his "firm attachment to Mr Pitt, founded on personal esteem as well as public principles", and was returned with a healthy majority.
His opposition to Parliamentary reform continued and intensified due to the French revolution; he spoke against Thomas Paine
's doctrines and supported the repressive legislation aimed at damping down revolutionary sentiment in Britain. He supported moves to abolish slavery and campaigned for a reduction of duty on horses (suggesting a heavy tax on the employment of foreign servants be used to replace the revenue).
In 1797 Rolle's father died and he inherited all of the family's extensive estates, which were reckoned in 1809 to be worth £70,000 per annum. He was an active member of the House of Lords, and became increasingly Conservative: he was one of 22 'stalwarts' to vote against the Third Reading of the Reform Bill
of 1832. During a parliamentary debate in July 1834 the Lord Chancellor
, Lord Brougham
, attacked Rolle in a speech. When Brougham sat down, Rolle came up to him at the Woolsack
and told him: "My Lord, I wish you to know that I have the greatest contempt for you both in this House and out of it".
. What happened was later described by the Queen in her diary:
The diarist Charles Greville, who was present at the coronation, described the scene:
The incident is also included in the latter part of the tenth verse of Richard Harris Barham
's Mr. Barney Maguire's Account of the Coronation:
Rolle died four years later at Bicton House
in Devon
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
peer
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
who had served as a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) in general support of William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
and was later an active member of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. His violent attacks on Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
and Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
in the early 1780s led to his being the target for satirical attack in the Rolliad
Rolliad
The Rolliad, in full Criticisms on the Rolliad, is a pioneering work of British satire directed principally at the administration of William Pitt the Younger...
.
Physically he was a large man, and made no pretension to an intellectual approach. Nathaniel William Wraxall
Nathaniel William Wraxall
Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall, 1st Baronet was an English author-Life:He was born in Queen Square, Bristol, the son of a Bristol merchant, Nathaniel Wraxall, and his wife Anne, great niece of Sir James Thornhill the painter...
wrote of him "Nature had denied him all pretension to grace or elegance. Neither was his understanding apparently more cultivated than his manners were refined. He reminded me always of a Devonshire rustic, but he possessed plain common sense, a manly mind, and the faculty of stating his ideas in a few strong words." In later life he caused a disturbance at the coronation
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
of Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
when he fell down the stairs.
Early life
Rolle was the son of Denys Rolle, who owned large estates in FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. He was educated at Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
and Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...
, and became a country gentleman in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
. When his uncle John Rolle Walter died in November 1779, he was put forward to fill the vacancy. At this time, Devon was controlled by a group of large landowners principally in the Courtenay, Bampfylde and Rolle families who had so many supporters that no other challenge was possible; due to the expense, the county had not seen a contested election since 1712. Rolle was duly elected unopposed on January 4, 1780.
House of Commons
Because of the control of his county, Rolle was not under any political obligations. Although his family were traditionally Tory, Rolle was not a reliable vote for the Tory Prime Minister of the day, Lord NorthFrederick North, Lord North
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, KG, PC , more often known by his courtesy title, Lord North, which he used from 1752 until 1790, was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most of the American War of Independence...
. He sometimes supported the government but just as often opposed it. However, following North's resignation, Rolle developed a vehement dislike of Charles James Fox for recalling George Rodney
George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney
George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB was a British naval officer. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782...
to a Naval command. When Fox, attempting to delay Parliamentary proceedings to get more of his supporters, put off the Call of the House, Rolle attacked his supporters' unpunctuality.
He supported the Shelburne
William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne
William Petty-FitzMaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, KG, PC , known as The Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history, was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first Home Secretary in 1782 and then Prime Minister 1782–1783 during the final...
government's peace proposals in 1783, although he had not been a consistent supporter of that ministry (being rated by Robinson, the Parliamentary manager, as 'doubtful'). During the Fox-North Coalition, Rolle was appalled when Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
reappointed two Pay Office officials called Powell and Bembridge who were under suspicion of embezzlement, and made vituperative attacks until Burke agreed to accept their resignations.
The Rolliad
The violence of his attack led the supporters of Fox and Burke to make him the chief object of the Rolliad, which purported to be a criticism of an epic poem but actually allowed the authors to insult all their opponents. The dedication of the Rolliad read:- Illustrious ROLLE! O may thy honour'd name
- Roll down distinguish'd on the Rolls of fame!
- Still first be found on Devon's county polls!
- Still future Senates boast their future ROLLES!
For all that Rolle seemed an opponent of Fox, he was not a true supporter of Pitt. He opposed Pitt on Parliamentary reform and on the Duke of Richmond
Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond
Field Marshal Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 3rd Duke of Lennox, 3rd Duke of Aubigny, KG, PC, FRS , styled Earl of March until 1750, was a British politician and office holder noteworthy for his advanced views on the issue of parliamentary reform...
's fortifications plan, and was a member of the St. Alban's Tavern group
St. Alban's Tavern group
The St. Alban's Tavern group was an informal association of 78 British Members of Parliament who aimed to bring about a reconciliation of William Pitt the Younger and Charles James Fox in a unified Ministry. They were named after the St...
which tried to create a united Ministry involving both Pitt and Fox. He consistently described himself as an "independent country gentleman".
Regency crisis
Rolle backed Pitt on the regency crisis in 1789, making a direct attack on the Prince of Wales'George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
relations with Maria Fitzherbert which was thought inappropriate by the Whigs; Rolle responded by saying that he would have made the same speech if the whole House was against him. In the general election in 1790 he was forced into a token contest against a Bampfylde Whig and declared his "firm attachment to Mr Pitt, founded on personal esteem as well as public principles", and was returned with a healthy majority.
His opposition to Parliamentary reform continued and intensified due to the French revolution; he spoke against Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
's doctrines and supported the repressive legislation aimed at damping down revolutionary sentiment in Britain. He supported moves to abolish slavery and campaigned for a reduction of duty on horses (suggesting a heavy tax on the employment of foreign servants be used to replace the revenue).
Peerage
The 1790s saw him attempting to obtain a peerage for himself or his father who had returned to the life of an English country gentleman after the failure of his American colonisation schemes. His father was uninterested but in Pitt made a firm promise to Rolle himself, so long as a problematic byelection in Devon was not thereby caused. At the dissolution of Parliament in 1796, Rolle was duly ennobled as Baron Rolle, of Stevenstone in the County of Devon.In 1797 Rolle's father died and he inherited all of the family's extensive estates, which were reckoned in 1809 to be worth £70,000 per annum. He was an active member of the House of Lords, and became increasingly Conservative: he was one of 22 'stalwarts' to vote against the Third Reading of the Reform Bill
Reform Act 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales...
of 1832. During a parliamentary debate in July 1834 the Lord Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
, Lord Brougham
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux was a British statesman who became Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.As a young lawyer in Scotland Brougham helped to found the Edinburgh Review in 1802 and contributed many articles to it. He went to London, and was called to the English bar in...
, attacked Rolle in a speech. When Brougham sat down, Rolle came up to him at the Woolsack
Woolsack
The Woolsack is the seat of the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords, the Upper House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From the Middle Ages until 2006, the presiding officer in the House of Lords was the Lord Chancellor and the Woolsack was usually mentioned in association with the office of...
and told him: "My Lord, I wish you to know that I have the greatest contempt for you both in this House and out of it".
Coronation accident
At the age of 82, the infirm Lord Rolle attended the coronation of Queen VictoriaVictoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
. What happened was later described by the Queen in her diary:
The diarist Charles Greville, who was present at the coronation, described the scene:
[Lord Rolle] fell down as he was getting up the steps of the throne. Her first impulse was to rise, and when afterwards he came again to do homage she said, “May I not get up and meet him?” and then rose from the throne and advanced down one or two of the steps to prevent his coming up, an act of graciousness and kindness which made a great sensation. It is, in fact, the remarkable union of naïveté, kindness, nature, good-nature, with propriety and dignity, which makes her so admirable and so endearing to those about her, as she certainly is.
The incident is also included in the latter part of the tenth verse of Richard Harris Barham
Richard Harris Barham
Richard Harris Barham was an English cleric of the Church of England, novelist, and humorous poet. He was known better by his nom de plume Thomas Ingoldsby.-Life:Richard Harris Barham was born in Canterbury...
's Mr. Barney Maguire's Account of the Coronation:
Rolle died four years later at Bicton House
Bicton House, Devon
Bicton House is a late 18th or early 19th century country house, which stands on the campus of Bicton College, Bicton, near Exmouth, East Devon. It is a Grade II* listed building....
in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
.