Robert Rolle (d. 1710)

Robert Rolle (c.1677-18 November 1710) of Stevenstone, in Devon, was a Tory MP for Callington (twice in 1701) (a pocket borough of the Rolle family) and for Devon (1702–1710).

He was the eldest son of John Rolle (d.22 April 1689) (son and heir apparent of Sir John Rolle (1626–1706), KB, of Stevenstone) by his wife Lady Christiana Bruce, daughter of Robert Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury and 2nd Earl of Elgin (c. 1626 – 1685), whom he had married in 1677. She survived her first husband and married secondly Sir Robert Gayer, KB, of Buckinghamshire. Robert's father died vivente patre and thus he was heir to his grandfather Sir John Rolle on his death in 1706. The Rolle family was one of the richest and most powerful in Devon and owned several dozen manors, their most ancient holding being Stevenstone near Great Torrington in the north of the county, whilst Bicton in the east was the centre of another large block of territory.

He married on 19 March 1705 Elizabeth Duke (died 1716), daughter of Richard Duke (1652–1733), MP, of Otterton, Devon, which manor adjoined the Rolle seat of Bicton. They had no children. Like the Rolles, the Duke family came to prominence during the reign of King Henry VIII and had also acquired manors in Devon at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Richard Duke's children all predeceased him without issue and his estates were inherited by a distant cousin whose own male line was also rapidly extinguished. Robert Rolle's nephew Dennis Rolle (died 1797) of Stevenstone, later purchased in 1785/6 the manors of Otterton and East Budleigh from the heirs of the last male of the Duke family. On his marriage Robert received an annual settlement of £1,500 from his grandfather Sir John Rolle (died 1706).

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