Denys Rolle was the second but only surviving son of Sir Henry Rolle of Stevenstone by his wife Anne Denys, a daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Denys of Bicton and Holcombe Burnell by his wife Anne Paulet, daughter of William Paulet, 3rd Marquess of Winchester. His father pre-deceased his own father Sir Henry Rolle of Stevenstone and thus Denys Rolle was heir to his grandfather. He was also heir to the large Denys estates of his mother, including Bicton.
Career
Rolle was according to most chroniclers a prodigy who died young at the age of 24 before his great potential was fulfilled. The Devon historian Tristram Risdon wrote of him: John Prince called him Prince then relates an event in his life which illustrated his honourable disposition. Rolle loaned a large sum of money to Sir Bevil Grenville in return for his written bond. Later when the two men were together in company, Rolle sent for the bond and threw it in the fire, stating that he had no need of a written bond and that
Marriage and issue
Rolle married Margaret Poulett, daughter of John Poulett, 1st Baron Poulett of Hinton St George in Somerset by his wife Elizabeth Kenn. On 1 September 1637 an agreement of mutual maintenance was signed by Rolle and his father-in-law and Elizabeth, Countess of Essex,, second wife of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex and Thomas Smyth, husband of Florence Poulett, sister-in-law of Rolle and mother of Sir Hugh Smith, 1st Baronet, which committed all parties to share a household for a period of seven years, stating the sums of money to be committed by each party. Each year's residence was to be divided between Hinton St George, Bicton and Ashton. He had by his wife the following issue:
Dennis Rolle, died an infant
Florence Rolle, eldest daughter, baptised at St Giles in the Wood, the parish church of Stevenstone, on 27 February 1631. She married her cousin Sir John Rolle, of Marrais, who eventually inherited under tail-male the vast Rolle estates including Stevenstone and Bicton.
Anne Rolle, 3rd daughter, married William Cooke of Highnam in Gloucestershire
Elizabeth Rolle, 4th daughter, married William Strode, son of Sir George Stroud of Sussex, possibly descended from the ancient Devon family of Strode of Newnham, Plympton St Mary.
Frances Rolle, 5th daughter, died an infant aged 7
Death and succession
Rolle was buried at Bicton on 13 June 1638. His elaborate tomb monument with heraldic achievement is contained within the Rolle Mausoleum, the remnant of the former Parish Church of Bicton to the immediate east of which stands the new church of St Mary built in 1850. The Mausoleum is the private property ofLord Clinton and is not open to the public. The inscription on his monument was quoted by Swete and included a wish from his widow that their son should not die young. His widow's wish as stated on the epitaph was not met and the couple's son Dennis died soon after his father, leaving only daughters who were excluded from the inheritance by entail. The manor of Bicton, together with all the other Rolle estates including Stevenstone then passed to Henry Rolle of Beam, near Great Torrington, the elder son of John Rolle, MP, the uncle of Sir Henry Rolle. He himself died without children and the Rolle estates, now increased by the addition of Beam, devolved following his death in 1647 upon his closest male cousin, 21-year-old Sir John Rolle, MP, of Marrais in the parish of St Mary Week, Cornwall. He was immediately thereupon married to his young cousin Florence Rolle of Bicton, one of the surviving daughters of Denys Rolle. Thus his claim to the Inheritance of Rolle of Stevenstone and Bicton was strengthened and consolidated.
