Denys Rolle

Denys Rolle (1725 – 1797) of Hudscott, Beam, Stevenstone and Bicton in Devon and East Tytherley in Hampshire, was an independent Member of Parliament for Barnstaple, Devon, between 1761 and 1774. He inherited a large number of estates and by the time of his death he was the largest landowner in Devon. He was a philanthropist and generous benefactor to charities and religious societies. He spent much of his life in Florida attempting to establish an "ideal society", a Utopian colony of poor, homeless or criminal English persons named Rollestown or Charlotta. The project was a failure and Rolle recorded his colonial adventure in great detail in a lengthy official complaint made in 1765 to the British government entitled The Humble Petition of Denys Rolle, Esq., Setting Forth the Hardships, Inconveniences, and Grievances Which Have Attended Him in His Attempts to Make a Settlement in East Florida, Humbly Praying Such Relief as in their Lordships Wisdom Shall Seem Meet. His colonists having failed to live up to his ambitious expectations and having largely deserted him, he turned to slave labour and following the loss of Florida as a British possession in 1783 he moved his colony to a smaller site on Exuma in the Bahama Islands. Life and family 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 (inherited from the Denys family, after whom he was named) in the south-east was the centre of another large block of territory.