George Rolle of Stevenstone in the parish of St Giles in the Wood near Great Torrington in Devon, was the founder of the wealthy, influential and widespread Rolle family of Devon, who by 1842 had become the largest landowners in Devon with about 55,000 acres according to the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 in the person of Hon. Mark Rolle, the adoptive heir of John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle. He was a Dorset-born London lawyer who in 1507 became Keeper of the Records of the Court of Common Pleas and was elected as a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1542 and 1545. He became the steward of Dunkeswell Abbey in Devon, and following the Dissolution of the Monasteries he purchased much ex-monastic land in Devon. Not only was he the founder of his own great Devonshire landowning dynasty but he was also an ancestor of others almost as great, including the Acland baronets of Killerton, the Wrey Baronets of Tawstock and the Trefusis family of Trefusis in Cornwall now of Heanton Satchville, Huish, later Baron Clinton, heirs both of Rolle of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe and of Rolle of Stevenstone.
Monumental brass of Honor Plantagenet, Viscountess Lisle (died 1566) one of a group of nine purchased by George Rolle, of which eight survive on the chest-tomb of Sir John Basset (1462–1529) in Atherington Church.
Letter written by George Rolle to Lady Lisle dated 28 February 1539, Lisle Letters, National Archives
Small monumental brass of John Rolle (died 1570), St Giles in the Wood Church
Small kneeling effigy of Elizabeth Rolle, on monument to her second husband Sir John Acland (died 1620) of Columb John, in Broadclyst Church
Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, North Devon. It was the chief seat of the Rolle family, one of the most influential and wealthy of Devon families, from c. 1524 until 1907. The Rolle estates as disclosed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 comprised 55,592 acres producing an annual gross income of £47,170, and formed the largest estate in Devon, followed by the Duke of Bedford's estate centred on Tavistock comprising 22,607 with an annual gross value of nearly £46,000.
Stevenstone House, built by Hon. Mark Rolle between 1868 and 1872 to design of Charles Barry Jr. Now a largely demolished ruin. Surviving today is the Palladian library outbuilding, visible to the left, built by Lord Rolle's grandfather John Rolle (died 1730). The contemporaneous orangery behind it also survives, both now the property of the Landmark Trust. Published in Morris, Rev. F.O. Picturesque Views of Seats of Noblemen & Gentlemen of Great Britain & Ireland, London, 1880
The ivy-covered ruins of Stevenstone House in 2012. Hoskins described it in 1954 as "A villainously ugly house whose present dereliction need bring no tears", and "An ugly ruin in a naked and devastated park". To the left is the Palladian Library Room and behind it the Orangery, built c. 1715–30
Arms of Rolle: Or, on a fesse dancetté between three billets azure each charged with a lion rampant of the first three bezants
1602 escutcheon within a strapwork surround, showing the arms of Sir Henry Rolle (1545–1625) impaling Watts, of 6 quarters, the family of his first wife. Abbots Lodge, Cathedral Close, Exeter (destroyed in WW II)