In memory of LANCELOT ROLLESTON of Watnall in ye County of Nottingham Esq. who was one of ye
Branches of the family of the ROLLESTONS of ROLLESTON in STAFFORDSHIRE. Hee married
One of the Daughters of GEORGE POOLE of HEGE on the County of Darby
Esq. With whom Hee Liv’d very happily many years until his Death
And for his knowne and Steddy Loyalty to his PRINCE he was made High
SHERIFF of this County in the yeare 1682.
A Gent Generally belov’d in his Country but especially by his particular acquaintance
Hee was A great Lover of the Person yet once he Contracted friendship wth
And not given to Change
His Carriage was Affable and his Conversation Ingenious and pleasant very Courteous &
Friendly to his Neighbours & Charitable to all that he knew in want
Hee Dyed in the yeare 1685 in the 35th Yeare of his Age
Making his loving Cousen EDWD. ROLLESTON of Toynton in ye County of LINCOLN Esq.
His Executor: Who Erected this Monument.
Sterling work by family genealogist Ken Rolston confirms that Lancelot was the end of the direct line and that the Lincolnshire Toynton branch takes over Watnall from here.
Christopher 1 - son of Lancelot Rolleston of Toynton and his wife Hester, b.22 Aug 1670 at Revesby, Lincolnshire. Christopher inherited the joint family estates, incl. Toynton and Watnall, while still a minor, aged 17, when his uncle Edward died in 1687. As a young man, from 15 to 21 years old, he was placed under the care and tutelage of John Bellamy of Worksop and would have grown up in rarefied aristocratic surroundings of Welbeck Abbey.
John Bellamy was well known to the Rollestons of Watnall. Alongside John Rolleston of Soukholme⁷, he was a secretary to the
flamboyant horseman, patron of the arts & extravagant bon viveur
William Cavendish of Welbeck Abbey and
Bolsover Castle, Marquis and later Duke of Newcastle. They were all staunch Royalists, supporters of King Charles I through the civil war. William spent time at Charles I's court teaching the future king Charles II to ride and John Rolleston went to London with him. When Cavendish was defeated and went into self-imposed exile after the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644 there is evidence⁷ that John Rolleston (from the Rolleston-On-Dove branch of the family in Staffordshire) took ownership of Cavendish's north Nottinghamshire estates. The Duke was allowed to return home after the Restoration of 1660. Typical of his loyalty and long service to his master, the estates were sold back to the Duke in 1685 for just 10 shillings.
John Rolleston was rewarded with a manor house at Sookholme near Warsop when he married and left the Duke's household around 1670. He died in 1681 after a long life and has a handsome marble tablet in the tower of Warsop Church...
"well born and well bred. Well knowne and therefore well beloved." What he valued above all was
the honour of having been highly trusted, and the comfort of having honestly discharged the trust when he was in the service of the Duke of Newcastle, and preserved the Welbeck estate while the Duke was in banishment during the Commonwealth. He
"lived to the age of 84 years, a long, but to him a glorious tyme of tryal."
Marriage and a new Watnall Hall
On 23 Sept 1693, at age 23, Christopher married at Weston upon Trent, Hannah Holden, daughter of prosperous barrister Samuel Holden⁶ of Aston on Trent. It was an excellent prestigious marriage for the Rollestons who featured in Samuel Holden's will. They resided at Watnall, where they produced a substantial family of 6 sons and 4 daughters, of whom their eldest son Lancelot Rolleston succeeded to the estates. His children were - Lancelot, Mary, Hannah, Christopher, Rev. John (married
Dorothy Burdett), Edward, Robert, Elizabeth, Thomas & Frances. Surprisingly, he was also a trustee of the Rolleston on Dove almshouses that his benefactor Lancelot 3 had tried so hard not to build.
Watnall Hall was substantially extended around this time and transformed into the Queen Anne period building familiar from pictures.
 |
New Watnall Hall built c.1700
with old hall to the left |
His wife died aged 59 years on 29th April 1725. For some reason, in 1734 Christopher Rolleston (of Kirkby) and Lancelot Rolleston (of Watnall)
surrender all their lands in the manor of Mansfield to the Lords of that manor¹¹
"upon the trusts contained in an indenture dated 16 Aug. 1729".He died aged 67 years on 21 March, 1736/7. He was resident at Kirkby-in-Ashfield prior to his death. His will was dated 13 Oct 1735 and proved 22 June 1737. His sons John, Frances & Lancelot, who
were the only ones who survived him, erected this monument in Greasley church, made of marble with the Rolleston coat of arms top and bottom. The inscription reads as follows:
Near this place Remain
The bodys of Christopher Rolleston
Of Watnall Esq and Hannah his Wife
Daughter of Samuel Holden of Aston
In the County of Derby Esq
She departed this Life on the 29th April 1725
In the 59th year of her Age
He dyed on the 21st March (illegible date)
In the 67th year of his Age
They had issue Lancelot Mary Hannah
Christopher Frances Edward Robert
Elizabeth John & Thomas
Of which are living
John, Frances & Lancelot who out of
A Gratefull Respect to his Parents
Erected this Monument
Ann. Dom. 1749
Here also Lye the Bodies of
Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall
Esq. and Rosamund his Wife
One of the daughters and
Coheirs of Daniel Greenwood
Doctor of Physick by whom
He had one Son Lancelot who
Dyed young. He departed this Life
April the 27th 1751 Aged 57
Lancelot Rolleston 4 - b.1699 d.1751 1st son of Christopher 1, brother of
John, Thomas & Francis. He married, firstly, Isabella Ferne, daughter of Henry Ferne of Snitterton in Derbyshire. Then about 1712, he married Rosamund Greenwood, the
daughter of Daniel Greenwood, a Doctor of Physic. According to his memorial plaque "
He had one Son Lancelot who Dyed young". He expanded the family estates when he purchased lands at Riddings in Derbs & Mansfield, Notts He was made High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1743. In 1748 there's a letter from J. Sargent thanking him for game & advising him to go to France.
In his will of
1751, the year he died without issue, he bequeathed Watnall and Toynton to his nephew Lancelot, eldest son of John 3. He also gave £300 to
teach 15 poor children of
Watnall. Perhaps he decided to do this for other people's children as he no longer had any of his own or as a legacy for his dead boy Lancelot. Be that as it may, with the money his widow built
Bog End
School. His widow was aged 57 years when she died, but as there is no memorial
in Greasley, the date is unknown. The school building still exists as a private
house and a
large stone plaque on the wall commemorates the founders...
LANCELOT ROLLESTON of WATNALL Esq. Left
three Hundred pounds in the Year 1751 for Teaching
Fifteen Poor Children of
this Parish to Read Write & Acct. [account]
Mrs. ROSAMUND ROLLESTON, Widow of the said
LANCELOT ROLLESTON Esq. Built this School
House 1752 & obliged the Master to Teach two
poor Children of the Said Parish to Read Write & Acct.
Mrs. FRANCES ROLLESTON Gave one Hundred
Pounds 1757 to the Said School to teach Five
Poor Children of the Said Parish to Read
Write & Acct.
His widow Rosamund outlived him for at least 20 years and evidently stayed in charge of the family estates. During Hucknall's common land enclosure in 1771, as one of the parish freeholders, she is awarded 82 acres of land, second only to Hucknall's ancestral landowner Lord Byron¹. This Rolleston land was sold off early in the 19th century. Rosamund is also a good candidate for the "Old Madam" ruling the roost at Watnall referred to in the Lancelot 5 story below.
Reverend John Rolleston 3 M.A. - according to his Memorial he
was the 4th and last surviving son of Christopher 1. He was born about
1705.
He married
Dorothy Burdett of Foremark, Derbyshire, in about 1737 and had 6
sons & 1 daughter. His marriage into the prestigious Burdett family was a significant step up for the Rollestons in the social pecking order. His sons now had family ties into real aristocracy. He was minister at Aston-on-Trent, Derbyshire, for 41 years. He
died 13th June
1770 aged 65 years. His Memorial states that
"This small
tribute to his nature and worth is paid by his truly affectionate and sorrowful
Widow". In spite of these sentiments she remarried the following year,
when on 25th December 1771 she wed Francis Seddon of Nuthall. However, as she
was already an elderly lady, this must have been for either companionship or
the security of lands. She died three years later, aged 79, on 20th October
1794 and her second marriage is not mentioned on her Memorial.
In 1772 a lot of the Rolleston family's land in Kirkby was sold¹². The document confirms that John's sons Robert and Christopher had careers as merchants in London.
Thomas Rolleston 3 - 3rd and youngest son of Christopher 1. He
was in residence at Watnall in 1723. His will of Jan 1744 says : "Testator: Thomas Rolleston of Watnall in the parish of Greasley, Nottinghamshire, gent. Devises to his brother the Rev. John Rolleston, Rector of Aston in Derbyshire, a half-share of all his lands in Kirkby in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, in trust to sell the same and use the proceeds to pay the following legacies: £4 each to the servants of his brother Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall; £100 to his sister Frances Rolleston of Watnall; £10 each to his brother Lancelot Rolleston and to Rosamund his wife for mourning; £10 each to his brother John Rolleston and to Dorothy his wife for mourning; £20 to Thomas Hooley of Bulwell Forge in Nottinghamshire, victualler; and £10 to William Chappell of Nottingham, gent. Lists debts to be paid out of the money; devises all the residue of the money to his brother John Rolleston in trust for John's younger child or children; devises his 'horses guns and pointing bitch' to his brother Lancelot. Executor: his brother John Rolleston. Will dated 12 Jan. 1744."
- 4th son of Christopher 1. He was at Watnall
in 1723. His wife gave £100 to
Bog End School in 1757 to teach 5 poor children. She (or maybe the widdowed Rosamund Greenwood) was possibly the '
Old Madam' in the story below about the young Lancelot 5. Frances has no memorial. Note he spells his name "Frances", not
"Francis". Or is this Frances the sister mentioned in Thomas's will?
Lancelot Rolleston 5 - 1st son of Rev John 3 and Dorothy, born in 1738. His mother was from the prestigious Burdett family so Lancelot gained access to elevated social circles. In 1762-3 Francis Noel Clarke Mundy commissioned a set of six portraits of his friends and relations in the private Markeaton Hunt and one of these was Rolleston. Each of the subjects was in the distinctive dress of the Markeaton Hunt, consisting of a blue coat over a scarlet waistcoat and yellow breeches. He is remembered by his young niece Miss Frances Rolleston (daughter of Robert below) from family visits to the hall as her old "nervous uncle". She also relates an amusing tale about him...
"The old squire of Watnall, when a young sportsman, heir expectant at the death of 'Old Madam', then in possession of the estate, was roused early one fine morning by shoutings and huzzaing in the fore-court of his hunting-box. “Long live the young squire, give you joy, sir, old Madam’s gone at last.” He threw up his window, put his head out, no handful of silver as they expected, but “get along ye ungrateful rascals, my aunt spent her life in doing good to you, and do ye come here to tell me you are glad of her death, get home with you and be ashamed of yourselves,” so they slunk away. Now I call that good English feeling".
He is mentioned in 1764 when he was due to be paid damages for a broken fence on his land adjacent to Turnpike Road. He held the office of High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1781. Lancelot 5 died on 25th April 1802, aged 64
years, apparently without issue, and was succeeded by his younger brother Christopher
2.
Christopher Rolleston 2 - b.
1740? bapt 28 Dec 1738, 2nd son of Rev John 3 & Dorothy, and, as mentioned above, became Lord of the Manor of
Watnall after the death of his elder brother Lancelot in
1802. Prior to that in 1772 he is
mentioned¹² alongside his brother Robert both as "merchants in London". His brother Robert's business career is written about at length below. Christopher became a
prosperous merchant in London on Gracechurch St in 1773 and Tokenhouse Yard in 1791
and was a prominent investor in canal construction. He's also mentioned as a lender on mortgages of the
Wetherall family in London.
He married 1st Ann Nesbirt with no issue and 2nd married Anne Nicholas (sometimes spelled Ann Nicholls. Even her grave memorial below spells her name inconsistently),
daughter of a Royal Navy Captain Nicholas around 1779-1785, and had 3 sons - Christopher 3, Lancelot 6 and
John 4, and a daughter Ann in 1793, possibly one more daughter.
Of Ann(e)'s early life we know (thanks to Lynn Henstock), she was the daughter of Daniel (the RN Captain) and Amelia Nicholls of Saffron Hill and was baptised in 1747 in Camden. She married John Duncan in January 1767 and was widowed six months later in July 1767.
Illigitimate son?
Ann(e) and Christopher had a son (Christopher 3) in 1773, six years before their marriage. This is confirmed in the will of Ann's sister, Hannah Nicholls, who died in 1777 - and names Christopher, son of Christopher and Ann Rolleston of Watnall as a beneficiary. This could explain why "illegitimate" Christopher 3 always seemed to be second in the family pecking order behind his "legitimate" younger brother Lancelot 6. Christopher lived on an estate cottage in Watnall while his younger brother occupied the hall with his family.
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| Hannah Nicholls's will |
In 1802 he is mentioned as having
issued a Game Licence at Watnall. He was "seized" in 1803 (a stroke
?) He held the office of High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1805. He signed lucrative deals with fledgling coal and iron companies for the mineral rights on his Riddings estate.
He died on 3rd April 1807 aged 67 years. His wife Anne followed him two
years later for she died on 4th February 1809 aged 60. His daughter Ann did not
survive much longer than her parents dying on 16th February 1813, aged 30
years. Their memorial in Greasley church has a black marble surround with white marble inset and says :
Sacred to the Memory of
CHRISTOPHER ROLLESTON
Of Watnall Esq.
Second son of
The Revd. John Rolleston,
And Dorothy his Wife;
He died April 3rd 1807;
Aged 67
Also to the Memory of
ANN ROLLESTON
Relict of Christopher Rolleston Esq.
She died February 14th 1809;
Aged 60
Also to the Memory of
Ann Rolleston
Daughter of
Christopher and Anne Rolleston
Who died February 16th 1813
Aged 36.
Robert Rolleston - was born in 1747 in Aston-on-Trent, Derbyshire. As 3rd son of the Reverend John Rolleston he could not realistically hope to inherit the family estate at Watnall but his father, in his will of 1770, left him £1000 to
go off and seek his fortune which he very successfully did. He used the money as capital to establish himself within a select group of
London merchants and ship owners operating in the choppy waters of international commerce. Young Robert and his associates were ambitious men, the
early visionaries of a truly global,
international economy. It was a critical time in the development of the fledgling colonies of the British Empire creating lucrative opportunities for enterprising traders but the ongoing wars with France and America meant the
high seas were filled with risk. American privateer pirates and bounty hunting French captains were eager to capture the richly-laden British vessels as prizes. The well-armed British trading ships were
capable of fighting back though and often captured prizes of their own including, if they were lucky, rum shipments from Jamaica. On the 14th of October 1778, the cooper on the Rolleston-owned ship Brilliant (20 guns) wrote from New York...
"We arrived here on the 26th of September, after a passage of ten weeks. On the 16th of Sept. in lat. 38 N. long. 65 W. We had a very hard engagement with an American privateer of 28 guns, which lasted for nine glasses [4½ hours], when the privateer ran away; and being a faster sailing vessel than ours, we could not come up with her, having great part of our rigging shot away, and our masts wounded. I believe she was much worse shattered than us. We had three people wounded. I was shot in the hand by a piece of cross-bar shot, but am mending fast. On our passage, we saw several privateers, but none durst engage us but the one mentioned before. We were dogged two days by two privateers and sloops, but imagine they did not like our appearance, as they would not come near us. Our ships of war and cruisers are bringing in here French and American prizes daily.”
.jpg) |
1778 Lady Selkirk foils
Jones' raiding pirates |
The newly-established American Continental Navy were proving a formidable foe. It was roughly formed with "privateer" ships which acted more or less as state-sponsored pirates. On 24 February 1779 its ships Ranger, Queen of France and Warren set out to prey on British shipping in the North Atlantic. Seven prizes were captured early in April, and brought safely into port for sale. On 18 June, Ranger was underway again with Providence and Queen of France, capturing two Jamaicamen in July and nine more vessels off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Of the 11 prizes, three were recaptured by the British, but the remaining eight, with their cargoes, were worth over a million dollars when sold in Boston. Even the home shores of England were not safe. Raids along the east coast by American privateer John Paul Jones in 1778 led to the deployment of the Nottingham Militia to help defend the important port of Hull. Their first deployment outside their county.
The risks for the London merchants were high but could be managed by using Royal Navy convoys, sharing vessel ownership and using the new Lloyds maritime insurance. Rolleston and his associates worked together creating numerous overlapping partnerships for specific ventures or overseas investments; some partnerships lasted for years, others for just a single transatlantic voyage. Many were originally
outsiders, socially-mobile, wannabe nouveau riche - young men who came to London from Scotland, Ireland, or outlying areas in England. Without an inheritance or influential connections, they typically started in
entry-level positions at other merchant houses with foreign contacts and steadily moved forward in their careers. Most eventually
married well, meaning their wives brought with them substantial financial assets, but none came from fabulously wealthy aristocratic families. They often married into each other's families reinforcing their bonds. Once established, they concentrated on foreign trade, serving Britain’s expanding and
prospering overseas empire.
Robert married heiress Margaret Thornhill in 1777 and they lived in a court-yarded mansion in the heart of the City of London, part family home, part great commercial counting house shared with his trading consortium partners. Benjamin Disraeli's novel "Tancred" supposedly used the Rolleston house as inspiration for the merchant Sidonia's London residence. According to a contemporary account...
“From their [trading] house in Mincing Lane, Sargent, Stratton, Aufrere, Chambers, Cooke, Gardiner and Rolleston combined an India trade in cottons, a Hamburg trade in German linens and a Levant trade in Persian and Turkish silks.” Any opportunity for profit was exploited. After the War of Independence, America had a limited industrial capacity so merchants like Rolleston were eager to
supply anything in demand “cloths (and clothes) of all fibres, kinds and qualities; pottery ware useful and ornamental for every part of the American home ; metalware of every kind, size and shape; sheet glass; paint or white lead; and a motley of books and binoculars, guns and glue, sealing wax and slippers; beer, salt, coal, nails, cheese, playing cards and snuff..." and, like all trans-Atlantic traders of his day,
Negro slaves from the Guinea coast of West Africa. Indeed the
generous peace terms offered to the new American nation by the British were in large part driven by
commercial reasoning. The concession of the vast trans-Appalachian region was designed to facilitate the growth of the American population and to create lucrative markets for British merchants without any military or administrative costs to Britain. The point was the United States would become a
major trading partner. Rolleston's company had influential connections there. His associate John Sargent had been friendly with
Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, since the 1750's and acted as his banker and financier in England.
After making their fortunes in London, many merchants moved to country estates. Robert Rolleston bought a large newly-built house in rural Camberwell. Several served ably in Parliament and at the Bank of England, others carried out
civic and philanthropic activities. Some contributed to the development of their local rural economies by making investments in infrastructure projects and factories through charitable donations and others amassed extensive collections of art. In many ways their outlook reflected the optimistic values of the Enlightenment. The
glaring exception here was their
tolerant attitude toward slavery; indeed, some were deeply involved in the ownership of forts and stockades along the west African coast and in the shipment and sale of slaves to sugar, tobacco, and rice plantations. Robert Rolleston was the
elected representative of the London, Bristol and Liverpool
slave merchants on the board of the Africa Company, a government-funded trade association. It's a post he held 24 times in the 37 years between his first election in 1780 and his last in 1816.
Meanwhile his young family was growing. He was the father of Miss
Frances Rolleston (1781-1864). She became a scholarly
Victorian poet, writer, philanthropist and general do-er of good Christian deeds. In later life she was also a fervent
anti-slavery campaigner. Even as a small girl she showed her principled nature. Every November, from the age of 5 to 9, they'd visit her bachelor uncle Lancelot¹ at
Watnall Hall "the family home"... "I cared but little for my old uncle and godfather, a nervous invalid, who gave guineas when I should have liked smiles better". Her
mother died in childbirth in 1791 when Frances was just 9 years old. Her father took her and her sister Marianne to live with her mother's family at a parsonage in Kirby Underdale, near Hull, in the Yorkshire Wolds. Her elderly cousin Rev. John Bourne (who she calls "uncle") and his family cared for the girls. Frances remembered the journey there well...
"My dear father, in grief and deep mourning, took me down. [He] was terrified at the speed of the coach, ten miles an hour! he, a famous rider and fox-hunter in his day but a four-horse coach was his horror".
In her letters she paints an idyllic picture of her young life in the Yorkshire Wolds doted on by her newly married cousin Anne Bourne (Reverend Bourne's daughter) and husband John Sykes. The Sykes's were a wealthy merchant family from Kirk Ella near Hull who'd made their money in the Baltic iron ore trade. They had taken under their wing the young and precocious anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce. Joseph Sykes's daughter Marianne would go on to marry Wilberforce's cousin and great supporter Henry Thornton. Frances Rolleston's formative years were also spent amongst the extended Sykes, Bourne and Thornton families with their numerous children, Liberal views and pro-reform politics. Meanwhile her father had returned to London to resume his trading business and re-marry.
In Wilberforce's biography there is an intriguing story...
"in the summer of 1792, just months before the outbreak of war with France, Wilberforce was challenged to a duel by a slave-trading captain named Rolleston". The identity of this
mysterious Rolleston has never been firmly established (we examine the evidence in the notes below)² nor the exact cause of the spat but Rolleston no doubt saw Wilberforce as a threat to business. It's hard to prove whether or not he was Robert Rolleston but in the 1780's Robert, with his small consortium of other investors, had started financing slave ships on the notorious trans-Atlantic route. The journeys were triangular with
lucrative trading opportunities on each leg. The ships left Liverpool for the west African coast laden with British-produced goods (
textiles, pottery, firearms, alcohol) to be traded for what were euphemistically called
"African cargoes". After a few weeks in Africa they began the "Middle Passage" across the Atlantic bound for plantations in the Caribbean. The slaves were traded for plantation goods and the ships returned to England with the high value, exotic foreign merchandise
(sugar, coffee, cocoa, spirits, Madeira wine, Virginian tobacco, Tobago rum). Shipping records show that Rolleston helped finance 16 such voyages over the next 9 years while Wilberforce was trying to outlaw the trade. The voyages typically took around a year and were
often deadly for slaves and crew alike.
Tropical diseases picked up in Africa and
dysentery from the appalling conditions below decks, where the slaves were shackled, killed the most. The slaves were allocated a
ship's doctor whose thankless task was to keep the valuable "cargo" alive until they reached port. The mortality rate for the ship's crew was often as bad as that of the slaves.
However, they knew they could potentially
earn a lot of money if they captured a prize vessel en route but it was a
big gamble. In 1793 Rolleston's ship the Mermaid lost 11 of the crew of 41. Amazingly no slaves died on that passage. They also had to abide by the ship's rules. The Mermaid's articles stated that
"Disobedience of the Captain’s Orders, Cowardice or Mutiny, Embezzlement or Concealment of goods, or Plunder, amounting to Five Shillings or upwards” would result in sailors forfeiting their shares of the
“Prize money” and they would be
“punished as the Law directs”. That meant they would receive a flogging. Several dozen lashes of the cat-o-nine-tails at the very least. The punishment for theft was up to 300 lashes.
On 2 April 1792, Wilberforce sponsored a motion in the House of Commons
"that the trade carried on by British subjects, for the purpose of obtaining slaves on the coast of Africa, ought to be abolished." While Wilberforce led the
anti-slave trade campaign in Parliament, the Abolition society, a group of Evangelical English Protestants allied with the Quakers, collected evidence and organised petitions. Leaflets, songs and badges were distributed to rally public opinion. However, their opponents were also well organised and literally fought back. Wilberforce was offered
an armed bodyguard after death threats by a Capt. Kimber. Wilberforce had publicly sought Kimber's prosecution for brutal treatment of slaves on his ships. Kimber was also capitally indicted for the
murder of a slave girl. However when he was acquitted he came to Wilberforce's house and was only dissuaded from violence by the honourable Lord Sheffield
"terminating this annoyance". The progress of abolition was halted by the outbreak of the French revolution but in 1807 the Act to abolish the trading in slaves finally passed, a great victory for Wilberforce and his friends. However, it did not abolish slavery itself which continued in the British Empire so the anti-slavery campaign continued.
After 3 years in Hull, aged 13, Frances Rolleston returned to live with her father in London. Robert had remarried in 1793 to Jane Savage, a noted pianist and singer who provided Frances's musical education. They'd moved out to a smart villa on Grove Lane in leafy Camberwell a
"pleasant retreat for those citizens who have a taste for the country whilst their avocations daily call them to town."
New bridges over the Thames had opened up the villages south of the river for housing development. The clean air of rural Camberwell was very much in demand by the new middle classes. Her father liked to entertain
learned French priests and émigrés fleeing the aftermath of the Revolution who helped expand Frances's multicultural education. She was sent to boarding school and began a lifelong
interest in languages, science and astronomy. She also became deeply religious and, encouraged by her Quaker friends, in 1826 joined with William Wilberforce to campaign to
abolish slavery. Her father
Robert died the same year so perhaps she was motivated by a certain
guilt about his business. She never mentions it and it is perhaps conceivable she knew nothing of it despite her family links to Wilberforce and his friends.
Wilberforce died on 29 July 1833, believing the abolition of slavery to be within reach. On his deathbed he heard that the Slavery Abolition Act, which would free all slaves in the British colonies, had passed its second reading in the Commons on condition that slave owners got
financial compensation for freeing their slaves.
“Thank God”, he said “that I should have lived to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty millions sterling for the Abolition of Slavery.” A month after his death the Bill became law. Enforcement was difficult though and slavery goods continued to be sold in England.
In 1835 Frances went back to Yorkshire where she revived the Hull Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. There among her mother’s people, she wrote,
“My character took its bent here; they made me an anti-slavery enthusiast.” In 1839 she organized two anti-slavery addresses. She found someone to lithograph her petitions, and others to circulate them. She was in hopes of stirring the nation again. The strategy now was to convince British citizens to stop using products of slave labour. Frances
campaigned for free labour goods and tried to influence others to do the same. For cotton, she wanted them to speak to their local drapers to carry such goods. The purpose was to undercut the price of products produced by slaves, demonstrating that free labour was more profitable than slavery. Years later living in the Lake District she was still pioneering what we today call
fair-trade products “Drapers will evade it if they can, but I made the Keswick people do it. I am also careful to use free labour sugar; ask for Jamaica and Demerara, and refuse Cuba. Every little helps. I give the shops a stir up in Keswick every now and then”. She encouraged the Christian fight against slavery in America supporting Yankee pro-abolition ladies like Harriet Beecher Stowe who toured Britain in 1853 and writing anti-slavery letters to American newspapers during the American Civil War.
Unlike Wilberforce, Frances also campaigned to put and end to
"industrial slavery" in the form of child labour. In her 40's she became an
infant school pioneer founding three of the first schools for poor infants in the country. She helped finance and run
Bog End school near Greasley Church in 1839 while living at Watnall Hall with her cousins Christopher 3 and Lancelot 6. She had a certain evangelical zeal about her and her cheeky young nephews secretly called her
"crazy Aunt Frances". That zeal was used to great effect to better the lives of her
poor factory children. She saw for herself the devastation brought to children and families by factory labour. She saw the sickness brought on by lack of fresh air and lack of sleep, and the use of laudanum to combat their suffering. The following description of Matlock is most moving...
"How often of late have I looked at its blue and graceful summits, from the door of my infant school, with a feeling of horror since I witnessed the sad suffering of the factory children there last summer! … Oh, the sad sight of the sallow, bending, rickety, dwarfish children, rushing out of the palace-like manufactory on a fine balmy summer’s evening, bringing a sickly pestilential taint to the air along with them! … A pale, wasted, lame mother, surrounded with distorted and sickly children, a miserable parchment-faced babe in her arms … “You are very ill!” said I. “I was a factory girl,” said she, with a half smile that might have spoken daggers to the hard hearts of those who grew rich on such destruction; but they, cased in gold, hear not, feel not."
She is best known today as a poet and the author of "
Mazzaroth, the Constellations" her magnum opus. It was the culmination of a
lifelong project, learning ancient Hebrew and Arabic and studying the heavens according to their ancient teachings and manuscripts. In particular, researching her deep conviction that
God's purpose with mankind was
written in the stars and constellations. Her final years were spent in Keswick in the Lake District where she carried on her life's work for the needy and became something of a
local hero. She died there in 1864 aged 83 and an ornate
public drinking fountain (renovated in 2000) was built dedicated to her memory by the side of the road between the town and the railway station. It is inscribed
'Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. John IV 14'. She is buried in St John’s churchyard in the town.
Robert Rolleston's legacy, from his first marriage, was a
distinguished branch of the Rolleston family based at Maltby Hall in Yorkshire. His descendants include Dr. George Rolleston, the first Oxford Linacre Professor of Anatomy and Physiology; William Rolleston a prominent New Zealand politician (after whom Mount Rolleston in New Zealand is named); eminent physicist Sir Humphrey Davy Rolleston and the current BBC security correspondent Frank Gardener³. In the 1880's Lancelot Rolleston 7, the new young squire at Watnall Hall, wrote about riding from the hall up to Maltby along the old bridleways of Sherwood Forest to visit his cousins there, George and William.
The Rolleston family line continues with...
Christopher Rolleston 3 - son of Christopher Rolleston 2 and Anne Nicholas, he inherited the family estates at Watnall and Riddings on his father Christopher 2's death in 1807. In 1806 he and his father leased out the mineral rights to their land at Riddings to the fledgling Alfreton Ironworks. He and his
brother Lancelot 6 then auctioned off the whole estate at Riddings including the
lucrative mineral rights in 1808 a year after their father’s death. It was a short-sighted and costly move. Oil was discovered on the estate and the world's first oil refinery opened there. The Rollestons had missed out on a fortune. Family finances seem to have taken a nose dive in the next few years. Lancelot's three daughter's all got married, an expensive dowry undertaking for him no doubt.
In 1836 Christopher's cousin Miss Frances Rolleston was staying with him at "Watnall Cottage" somewhere on the estate, probably where Crow Hill Farm is today. It sounds very cosy as she relates the local gossip and compares Christopher's habits and appearance to those of her late father Robert...
"If you could make me a morning call just now, you would almost fancy me still at Champion Grove [Camberwell] all my own peculiar comforts, and all my litters on my own side the room, and on the other, my good cousin’s books and writing-stand, snuff-boxes and spectacles, arm-chair &c., just like my father’s, whom you scarcely remember, but if you come and see me here, will see a living portrait of so like does he grow to my father."
In 1839 Christopher was living in another cottage on the Watnall estate at Crow Hill while his brother Lancelot 6 and his family occupied the hall. Narrow Lane from Watnall only went as far as Crow Hill back then (see 1826 map below). Frances was again staying with him and criticised his housekeeping as that of
"an old bachelor". He was
increasingly ill and the
spartan conditions at Crow Hill cannot have helped. In Sept 1840 Frances writes...
"Three winters at Crow Hill gave me enough of it...Last winter...the hurricanes we were subject to blew in four great panes in the drawing-room windows, and I think we were near a week before we could get a glazier. I thought myself in Australia with our contrivances to keep out the wind, and had to live mostly in my bedroom". She is also increasingly concerned with his health... "I fear every post to hear of the death of my dear cousin, so long its master, with whom I had such a happy home. He has been hopelessly ill for four months. When I left him he had recovered from some very severe attacks, and seemed likely to remain better, but they returned". Christopher died on 20 October 1840, unmarried. There is no memorial for him in Greasley church nor any date of birth that I've found so it is inconclusive whether he or his brother Lancelot 6 inherited first.
Burke's Peerage favours Lancelot 6 as the eldest.
 |
1824-26 map shows Crow Hill at the end of Narrow Lane so
within easy reach of Watnall Hall for visitors like Frances Rolleston.
Her school at Bogend is not shown but it does appear on the 1774 Chambers map below.
|
 |
1774 map shows Bogend school but no canals or Moorgreen reservoir.
They were built in 1777 and 1796.
The railways came later during the middle of the 19th century c.1850. |
Lancelot 6 & Lancelot 7 - As these are the last
two principle members of the Watnall Rollestons, more is known about them than their
ancestors so we'll briefly look at them here. They are dealt with in detail in several other articles in the Watnall Hall series including:
Mr.
Rolleston and the Pentrich Rebellion
Biography of Colonel Lancelot Rolleston MP (1785-1862)
The
Lost Fortune of the Rollestons, Lords of the Manor on a Shoestring…
Lancelot
Rolleston, the schoolboy squire - his formative years…
Lancelot Rolleston 6 - b. 20 July
1785 in Finsbury, London, son of Christopher 2 and Anne Nicholas. He married, firstly, Caroline Chetwynd, daughter of Sir George Chetwynd, 1st Bt. and Jane Bantin, on 17 November 1808. They had 3 daughters and a son Lancelot. He played a prominent role during the Pentrich Rebellion in 1817. However on 26th March 1826 tragedy hits the Rolleston family as only son and heir Lancelot dies aged 14 years. One can only wonder how he must have felt as his wife was then 41 years of age and he would have thought further children were probably out of the question. All they could do was to continue with their lives, which would be for him, a round of army duties, hunting, magisterial tasks, and later on politics. When his older brother Christopher 3 died in 1840 he had full control of the estate estates. Financially, things were tight for him. His 3 daughters all got married in quick succession, 2 of them remarrying not long afterwards. An expensive proposition for him. His wife Caroline died in 1844 aged 57.
He married, secondly, Eleanor Charlotte Fraser, daughter of Robert Fraser and Lady Anne Maitland of Ness Castle, Torbreck, Inverness in 1846 in London. He was 61 and she was 25, younger than his daughters, but
this was his second chance to produce an heir for the estate. It didn't take long. They had
3 sons, Lancelot 7 b.1847, Robert Sidney b.1849, Henry Edward b.1851 and a daughter Eleanor Anne b.1853. He died in
1862 aged 76 while the family had leased out Watnall Hall and were living in Brighton. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for South Nottinghamshire in 1837 until 1849. He gained the rank of Colonel in the Royal Sherwood Foresters and founded the
Watnall Troop of the South Notts Yeomanry. His memorial in Greasley church reads:
Sacred to the memory of
LANCELOT ROLLESTON of WATNALL Esq.
son of CHRISTOPHER ROLLESTON and ANNE his wife.
Daughter of CAPTAIN NICHOLAS R.N. Colonel of the Nottinghamshire
(Sherwood Foresters) Militia, Chairman of
Quarter Sessions, and from 1837 to 1849
Member in Three Successive Parliaments
for the Southern Division of this County.
He Died 18th May 1862, aged 76.
Also to the Memory of his wife
ELEANOR CHARLOTTE daughter of
ROBERT FRASER ESQ. of Torbreck, Inverness,
and of LADY ANNE his wife
Daughter of JAMES 8th EARL of LAUDERDALE,
who died 2nd June 1894.
Touchingly, there's also a memorial to his first wife Caroline and 14-year-old son and heir Lancelot set high up between the Servant and Harrison windows in Greasley church, a classical urn with drape in white marble on black slate support with the following inscription :
SACRED
To the Memory of
CAROLINE
Wife of Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall Esq.
And daughter of
Sir. George Chetwynd Bart. Of Grendon Hall
In the County of Warwick
She died March 10th 1844
Aged 57 years.
Also in memory of
LANCELOT
Son of Lancelot and Caroline Rolleston
He died March 26th 1826
Aged 14 years.
His second wife Eleanor Charlotte lived on with her daughter in Brighton and London until her own death in 1894. The sons were at boarding school or away in the Navy and Watnall Hall was leased out for a number of years until Lancelot 7 returned to his Watnall estate c.1880. An account of her funeral at Greasley from the Nottingham Guardian on June 9th 1894 is below. It was the last time the Rolleston burial vault at Greasley church was used. After that the new graveyard by Watnall Hall was used.
Reverend John Rolleston 4 - youngest son of Christopher 2 and Anne Nicholas, young brother of Lancelot 6, he was born on 22 February 1787 in London. He married Elizabeth Smelt, daughter of William Smelt and Lady Margaret Stanhope, on 21st March 1814 at Gedling, Nottinghamshire. He was vicar of Burton Joyce until his death on 17th Nov 1862 aged 75 (just 6 months after his older brother Lancelot L6). He had a large family of 7 sons and 2 daughters who went onto diverse careers - explorers, soldiers, sailors, an Admiral and in the Church. They lived and settled in various parts of the world including British Guyana, Sri Lanka, Burma, India, Australia and America particularly around New York.
Lancelot Rolleston 7 - Colonel Sir Lancelot Rolleston KCB DSO was born on 19 August
1847 in Greasley, Nottingham (Watnall Hall is in Greasley parish), 1st son of Lancelot 6 and Eleanor Fraser. He married Lady Charlotte Emma Maud Dalzell, daughter of Colonel Hon. Robert Alexander George Dalzell and Sarah Bushby Harris, on 25 February 1882. He was educated at Wellington College and Christ Church College, Oxford University. He held the office of High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1877.
In 1889
moved to Edwinstowe House after becoming Master of the Rufford Hunt then to Wellow Hall where he remained until his return from the Boer War in 1900. His wife Lady Maud started the tradition of
underground balls in the enormous subterranean ballroom at nearby Welbeck Abbey.
The 1901 census shows his mother-in-law Sarah Dalzell still at Wellow Hall but not him or his wife.
He gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel between 1896 and 1908 in the South Nottinghamshire Hussars Yeomanry. He fought in the Boer War, where he was badly wounded and was mentioned in despatches. He was Second in command of the 3rd Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.) of Nottinghamshire. He held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Nottinghamshire. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.) in 1902. He was Colonel of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Mounted Brigade, Territorial Forces between 1908 and 1912. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration (T.D.) in 1909. He was appointed Knight Commander, Order of the Bath (K.C.B.) in 1911. Most importantly he was a well-loved local squire, particularly by his local villagers and tenant farmers. Amongst his many schemes, he set up a farming cooperative to help them get their goods to market. He died aged 93 on 26th March 1941.
He was the last of the Watnall Rollestons. After his wife's death in 1949, Watnall Hall was sold off and slowly fell out of use. It was demolished in 1962. All that remains is a gatehouse and the family graveyard, where the Colonel lies, perched atop the hill sadly overlooking the site of the old hall.
His wife Lady Maud, his siblings and their spouses lie with him in the graveyard. You can read more about them and their lives in this article
More detailed tales about Lancelot 7 can also be found here
All his other tales are here
Sources : “Watnall Hall and the Rollestons” - RA Horton
2000; Nuthall & District Local History Society; Nottingham Journal
23/11/1936 - E.E.Neale article; Letters of Frances Rolleston - Caroline Dent 1867; Frances Rolleston biography - Jane Poole 2017; "Repository GB 0157 Nottinghamshire Archives. ReferenceNo DD/1355/102. AccessionNo 3605. Title Bond. Date 29 Mar 1684. Date 15 Apr 1684."; Rolleston Almshouse Charity; Nottingham Hidden History; "A History of Nottinghamshire" by Cornelius Brown 1896; The Hull History Centre; Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade - Database; Citizens of the World: London merchants and the integration of the British Atlantic community, 1735-1785 - David Hancock 1997 and review of by Christopher L. Brown; The Life of William Wilberforce 1883 by his sons.; The Cecil Papers Jul-Sep 1571 https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-cecil-papers/vol1/pp507-531; Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, from the Year 1581 Till Her Death ...By Thomas Birch;
Story of Lea Wood https://www.archaeologicalresearchservices.com/Lea%20Wood%20Booklet.compressed.pdf;
Notes :
Lancelot 1
1 - J H Beardsmore, The History of Hucknall Torkard, (1909) - "It has often been remarked that the pages of Hucknall history have been free from records of murder; however, human skeletons have been found in the Watnall Road cutting, just beyond the top pit gates, and near the Great Central Roalway station, and others were turned up by excavators near the Station Hotel as well as in the trenches on Carlingford Road, near the Catholic Church site, which was waste land in the 18th century. Most of these remains were probably those of parishioners who succumbed to some of the visitations of the plague, especially the severe epidemic in 1603." Enclosure Act at Hucknall http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/hucknall1909/hucknall16.htm
2 - Statutes merchant bonds registered at Nottingham - from website of Dave Postles, Research fellow University of Leicester - http://www.historicalresources.myzen.co.uk/BONDS/statutes1.html
Date - 15/7/1592; Obligor (bound) - Wm Ballard, Wymeswold, Leics, gent; Obligee (bound to) - Lancelot Rolleston, Watnall, Notts, gent; Amount (£s) 1000; Due - Michaelmas; Reference (CA) - 3372, f5a v
7 - Oxton and its church 1912 http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/oxton1912/oxton1.htm
Oxton used to possess two considerable halls or family seats, the property of the Sherbrooke's, who have settled here ever since about the eighth year of Elizabeth's reign. Robert Sherbrook, second son of Robt. Sherbrook, of Derbyshire, purchased lands in Oxton, of Lancelot Rolleston, of Hucknall. This Robert had a son who purchased other lands here (14 Elizabeth), of one George Purefoy, of Drayton, in the county of Leicester, and subsequent members of the family added to the estate in the reign of James I. and Charles I., and eventually it passed to Margaret, one of the daughters and co-heiress of the late Henry Sherbrook. She married Henry Porter, of Arnold, who took the name of Sherbrook, and died without issue. There were two other daughters of Henry, Elizabeth and Sarah, one of whom married William Coape, of Arnold, and the other Samuel Low, of Southwell. The elder son of the former of these marriages is now in possession of the family property. The present mansion house has been improved, and the inferior one demolished.
Anthony Rolleston
1 - main sources - The Cecil Papers Jul-Sep 1571 https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-cecil-papers/vol1/pp507-531; Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, from the Year 1581 Till Her Death ...By Thomas Birch;
Robert Rolleston
1 - Her "nervous" uncle was Lancelot Rolleston 5 (1738-1802). Shown here looking rather nervous in Joseph Wright of Derby's painting "Portrait of Launcelot Rolleston of Watnall Hall" of March 1762. 1 of 6 portraits of hunting companions who were all Markeaton Hunt members and shown in their livery of blue velvet coat, scarlet waistcoat and yellow breeches. "They were linked by education or by marriage." Commissioned by Francis Noel Clarke Mundy of Derbyshire and were all hung together in Markeaton Hall.
2 - Who is the unknown "Captain" Rolleston? If we concentrate on primary sources, Wilberforce’s own journal never explicitly calls Rolleston a captain. The challenge to a duel with "Rolleston" comes in a letter that has followed him from Bath, where he was staying, to London where he has just arrived. He writes about it 4 years later in his journal when reflecting on some dangers in his life that he has been providentially saved from “How often protected from evil and danger I kept from Norris's hand, and Kimber's . . furious West Indians . . two whole seasons together. Rolleston and my coming away from Bath so providentially the challenge never cleared up. My illness in the spring, which might have been fatal, well recovered from.” It is only his sons who wrote his biography who stated “The summer of 1792 had exposed him to two more such assailants. He had just returned to London upon Mr. Henry Thornton's summons, when the challenge of a West Indian captain, which had been delivered at his Bath lodgings, followed him by post to town.” It’s possible his sons were mixing up the nature of the assailants. Could he have been referring to Robert Rolleston?
It's unlikely Robert Rolleston was a sea-going Captain in 1792. He was firmly established in the rich, merchant class. It’s hard to believe he would risk his life on the high seas on a disease ridden slave ship. At 45 his adventurous years would be behind him, even if he had any at all. However he did have a vested interest in the slave trade but he was several rungs up the maritime commerce ladder from mere Captain. A captain of industry is a more apt description of him. He acted as representative of the London, Liverpool and Bristol slave merchants on the board of the Africa Company, a government-funded trade association. It's a post he held 24 times in the 37 years between his first election in 1780 and his last in 1816. Wilberforce rejected the challenge but he was no coward. He said he was opposed to duelling on moral and religious grounds and Rolleston seems to have made no more of it. The following Rolleston references are taken from Wilberforce's multi-volume biography written by his sons and from his own journal quoted in Vol II.
Vol I - The life of William Wilberforce
The summer of 1792 had exposed him to two more such assailants. He had just returned to London upon Mr. Henry Thornton's summons, when the challenge of a West Indian captain, which had been delivered at his Bath lodgings, followed him by post to town. He marks in his Journal his sense of God's goodness in so ordering this business, that he was thus allowed leisure to reflect upon the line of conduct which it became him to adopt. " Talked," says his Diary at this time, " with S. about duelling. He says he should fight, though disapproving. I deprecated. My plans uncertain. I rather think of re- turning to Bath, perhaps partly from a desire of not appearing to be deterred thence ; and partly from thinking, that a proper and easy explanation of my determination and views in respect to duelling, might be in all respects eligible. At all events, I will enter now upon a more diligent course, which may suit any plan. I often waste my time in waiting for suitable seasons ; whereas I ought, as a single man, to be at home every where ; or at least, to be always at work." This affair was carried no further; but he was, at the very same time, brought into collision with another assailant, to whose threatened violence he was exposed for more than two years. Kimber, another West Indian captain,
Vol II - The life of William Wilberforce
On the 26th of June 1796 he was established for a time at Buxton...writing, taking the waters, having visitors,..His Sundays were spent in comparative retirement ; and before he quitted Buxton, more than one was specially devoted to a thoughtful review of " the notables in my life, for which I should return thanks, or be otherwise suitably affected." (Journal, Sept. 4.) " The singular accident, as it seemed to me, of my asking Milner to go abroad with me in 1784. How much it depended on contingencies ! his coming to Hull with his brother ; being known to my grandfather ; distinguishing himself, &c. If he had been as ill as he was afterwards, or if I had known his character, we should not have gone together. Doddridge's ' Rise and Progress ' having fallen in my way so providentially whilst abroad, given by Unwin to Mrs. Smith, thence coming to Bessy, and by her taken abroad. My being raised to my present situation just before I became acquainted with the truth, and one year and a half before I in any degree experienced its power. This, humanly speaking, would not have taken place after- wards. What a mercy to have been born an English- man, in the eighteenth century, of decently religious parents, with a fortune, talents, &c. Even Gibbon felt thankful for this ; and shalt not thou praise the Lord, O my soul ? My being providentially engaged in the Slave Trade business. I remember well how it was what an honourable service. How often protected from evil and danger I kept from Norris's hand, and Kimber's . . furious West Indians . . two whole seasons together. Rolleston and my coming away from Bath so providentially the challenge never cleared up. My illness in the spring, which might have been fatal, well recovered from.
3- Frank Gardener did a BBC "Who Do You Think You Are" about his Rolleston ancestors occasionally available here
Arrival in Watnall
4 - The murder of William de Cantelupe - "Murder, mayhem and a very small penis, the twisted history of Greasley Castle" available here
5 - Nottingham Archives Ref DD/FM/80/1. Description: Indenture, demise, lease for lives.1) Sir John Savage of Rock Savage Ches., knt. John Savage, Esq., his son and heir. Edward Savage, another son. 2) Henry Poole of Greseley Castell, gent.
For surrender of lease of premises by (1) to Bonaventure Eyton for life, later assigned to (2), and for £140, (1) to (2) castle or capital messuage called Greseley Castell, with Christall Wood (formerly occupied by John Eyton), excepting mines of coal, lead, iron and stone, existing or proposed, and liberty to dig same, for lives of Ambrose Poole, and Ann Poole, children of (2), and of Anthony, son of Andrewe Poole, brother of (2); £3 p.a.; reciting that as castle "is nowe in some decay for defaults of coveringe and other necessary reparacions and so was in decaye longe tyme before ye said Henry Poole or, Bonaventure Eyton... Surrendred... And cannot be repayred w'thowt great Chargs and expense", (2) may "alter and transforme anie of the partes of the said decayed buildings and to builde them in anie other Manner and forme so yt thereby the Compase and foundacion of the said buildings be not abridged or altered"; covenant by (1) for peaceable possession against E.S., Polexena his wife, and Roger his son; (2) to have "howseboote, hedgeboote, fireboote, ploughboote, and Carte boote" ; on death of each tenant (1) to have best beast as a "heryott" or £4; if (1) summoned to provide soldiers for royal service, then (2) to find "an able and sufficient man with all convenient armor and furniture fytt for a Musketyre" ; William Poole to be attorney of (1) to deliver seisin.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/58fc3ff4-d125-48bd-90cf-363b45285f59
Rolleston and Babbington families of Lea and Ashover commemorated in Ashover church https://medievalart.co.uk/2016/07/18/over-my-dead-carkas-you-will-not-dismantle-my-tomb/
6 - Murder trial of Sir William de Cantelupe - Murder During the Hundred Year War: The Curious Case of Sir William Cantilupe Hardcover – 30 Sept. 2020 by Melissa Julian-Jones
7 - From the Calendar of Close Rolls 1440 - "John Wollaton of Notyngham, cousin and heir of William Amyas late of Notyngham, to John viscount and lord Beaumont, John la Zouch, Thomas Rempston knights, John Cokfelde, John de Leek of Landforde, Bartholomew Brokesby esquires, John Bowes, William Babyngton esquire, Robert Clifton esquire, Richard Byngham, Ellen his wife and Richard their son, their heirs and assigns. Quitclaim with warranty of the manor of Watnowe Chaworth co. Notyngham and all lands there late of William Wollaton his brother. Dated 20 November 19 Henry VI. Witnesses: Robert Cutwolf prior of Newstead in Shirwode, William Babyngton knight, Robert Strelley esquire, Hugh Teverey." CCR, Hen VI, v. 4, p.29
Lancelot 3
6 - The will of Lancelot 3 is summarised below. This is the crucial piece of evidence that shows the break in the direct line of descent of the Watnall Rollestons and the provisions made for Christopher who would go on to be the main ancestor for the remaining Watnall family tree descendants. Thanks to Ken Rolston. With no heirs in his direct line, Lancelot (III) bequeathed all of his estates to his “cousin” Edward Rolleston of Nether Toynton. The will (Notts Archives: DD R/22, in Rolleston of Watnall family papers) is summarised as follows:
- All manors & lands in Watnall, Greasley, Hucknall Torkard, Mansfield, Riddings (Derbs),Greenhill Lane, Alfreton (Derbs) & Acton (Middx) to my first son with entail [This was a precautionary clause in the will, in case his wife Elizabeth should conceive just before his death]. If default of heirs male then to cousin Edward Rolleston of Toynton (Lincs) esquire for life with entail. If default of heirs male, then to Christopher, son of Lancelot Rolleston of Toynton for life with entail. If default of heirs male, then to the first son of late Edward Rolleston of Stubbs (Yorks) gent with entail [This is young John Rowlston at Hampole Stubbs]. If default of heirs male, to Alured Rolleston of Paplewick gent with entail [Alured was distantly related, son of John Rolleston, late secretary to William Cavendish, Marquis of Welbeck and Duke of Newcastle]. If default of heirs male, to cousin Francis Rolleston now in Ireland with entail [Francis was very distantly related, of the Rolleston branch recently created in Ireland under King James's Ulster Plantation scheme.]. If default of heirs male, to John Rolleston son of widow Rolleston of Nottingham with entail [This John and his mother are unidentified.]. If default, to any heirs of Lancelot Rolleston who may claim it. If default, to King James II and his successors.
- Edward Rolleston of Toynton, appointed executor, to have all residue of personal estate; if he refuses or acts negligently, all bequests to him to Christopher Rolleston.
- John Bellamy [John Bellamy was a employee of the Marquis of Welbeck, working with John Rolleston, the secretary.] to be guardian of Christopher until 21 years old.
- The will to remain in custody of John Bellamy until proved. When writing the will, Lancelot knew that Edward was unmarried and might not produce a male heir, and he specified that the lands would then go to Christopher, still a minor at that time. Lancelot made provision for the keeping and education of Christopher by a family colleague, John Bellamy.
John Bellamy's colleague John Rolleston is mentioned in Lucy Worsley's book on William Cavendish "Cavalier" and also in the Notts Archives seemingly holding estates that probably belong to his employer Cavendish and that are sold for "10s" to Cavendish by Rolleston in1685. Perhaps Rolleston held them while Cavendish was in exile after his defeat in the Civil War.
Bargain and Sale: for 10s: John Rolleston to William, Duke of Newcastle:-- manors of...
This record is held by Nottinghamshire Archives
Reference: 157 DD/P/29/18
Description:
Bargain and Sale: for 10s: John Rolleston to William, Duke of Newcastle:-- manors of Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Clipston, Edwinstowe, Carberton and Kirkeby. Granges called Bellhouse Grange, Gleadthorpe Grange, Hurst Grange, Hardwicke Grange and Normanton Grange. Woods called Mansfeild woods, Mansfield Woodhouse woods, Sutton woods, Lindhurst woods, Normans woods, Lyndhurst Playne, Clipston woods, Edwinstowe woods, Burnhagg, Butterworth Hagg, Burthastinges, the two Keepers Wastes and Redlodgewood. Farm in Annesley Woodhouse, Fulwood Moore. And all other property of J.R. within Sherwood Forest, at any time belonging to the Duke. Witn. Richard Neale, Robert Bayly. Endorsement of production to Richard Neale in Henry, Duke of Newcastle v Joseph Hall and others (11 Jan. 1682/3).
Date: 17 Dec. 1665
Christopher Rolleston - The Holden marriage
SAMUEL HOLDEN, of Aston, was born in 1636, and succeeded his father. His elder brother HENRY apparently received only a minor portion of the estate, for some unexplained reason. SAMUEL was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 3rd
Sept. 1651, and matriculated the same year. On 26th Nov. 1651, he was admitted to Gray's Inn, and practised as a Barrister for several years. In 1668 he was occupying chambers on the West Side of Coney Court. He was called to the Bar, 25th Nov. 1661,
the entry in the Pension Book being as follows :-
" Ordered that those gentlemen whose names are under written when they shall have deposited fowre pounds apeece for the performance of their Barr moots be called to the Barr to be sworne at the next Reading according to the custome Tllllt these shalbe the first put up to moote the next terme according to their antiquity and upon performance of their moote the ffowre pounds deposited to be repaide to them and to pay all duties to this very day. William Mann, Henry Best, Samuell Houlden, ........ "
His name is again mentioned in 1676, when at a Pension of 17th April a list of 104 men called to be Ancients includes " Houlden Sam." He married first, in 1665,t Mary, daughter of Edmund Lath well of Ruislip, a City merchant, by his wife Hannah.* By her he had issue:-
i. A SON; d. an infant, and was buried at Aston, 23rd July 1671. No name is given in the Register, ,vhere he is entered as "a son of Samuel Holden.''
i. HANNAH. She m., at Weston, 29th Sept. 1692, Christopher Rolleston, of Watnall, Notts, Esq. She d. 29th Ap. 1725, having had issuet. Her descendants are the present Rolleston family of Watnall. Monument in Greasley Church, Notts.
- Her fourth son, John Rolleston, was Rector of Aston for 4 I years. According to F amiliae
Minorum Gentiztm, she m., 2nd., a Captain Bonner.
- From The Derbyshire Holdens and their Descendants
https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G003048.pdf
7 - The Bulwell Forge is vividly described by Thomas Baskerville on a tour of the Midlands. This is from the Transactions of the Thoroton Society. Vol LXIV, p.44-46, 1960.
17th CENTURY IRON WORKS AT BULWELL AND KIRKBY By R. JOHNSON
DURING the last quarter of the 17th century, Thomas Baskerville, who was making the " Grand Tour” of England, wrote:
"From Nottingham to Mansfield is accounted twelve miles ; the way leads through Shirwood, by a forge driven by water, where with weighty hammers, bigger than men can handle, they knock or beat out long bars of iron when they are made red hot in that great fire or forge blown up by those mighty bellows. In these dams or pools of water that forge the iron, for here are many in this country, are great store of trout. As we rode through this forest we saw many old decayed oaks of which abundance were cut down by the Duke of Newcastle's order to make charcoal. They told me one Mr. Jennings was the chief master or overseer of these charcoal works (H.M.C. Portland Papers, vol. 2, p. 309).
This interesting reference to an industry, which has not received from local historians the attention it merits, prompted the writer to make further investigations, which produced the following information found in the Kerry MSS. in the Derby Borough Reference Library. From the original Deed in his possession the Rev. Chas. Kerry made the following transcript:
1st April, 1615.
Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall-Chaworth to Sir John Byron the Younger of Builwell Parke.
LEASE for 21 years of Broome Hill in Hucknall Torkard at a rent of £6 per annum.... and if the forge called Bulwell Forge and now used and imployed for the makinge and fininge of Iron do at anie time hereafter decaie and be laide downe and not used for the makinge of iron it shall be lawful for the said Lancelot Rolleston to re-enter the said close and have the same ”.
This ancient Bulwell Forge which stood by the River Leen was in all probability the one so vividly described by Baskerville later in the same century. His route from Nottingham to Mansfield was via Bulwell Forest, Papplewick and Larch Farm on the ancient road which followed the east bank of the Leen. The forge stood about 200 yards from the highroad " and ¾ ml. east of Bulwell Parke”, the site being on National Grid Line 67, eight hundred yards E. of 00. (1' O.S.). The “weighty hammers” to which he referred were tilt hammers operated by a water wheel of large diameter. The head of water necessary for the purpose was obtained by constructing a dam or pool, hence the term "hammer-pond”; and the same wheel actuated “those mighty bellows” This forge-mill is said to have been erected as such by the Canons of Newstead and since the day it ceased to function as a forge the mill has been put to varied uses.
Nearby Papplewick church has memorials to the ironworkers "Over the doorway into the church is a small figure of St James with his pilgrim's staff; he is at any rate as old as Norman. The shallow battered bowl of the font, thought by some to be Saxon, was restored to the church a few years ago from the churchyard. Other interesting relics are a number of coffin stones showing the occupations of the men they commemorate. One in the nave floor has the bow and arrow, the belt and hunting horn of the forester; and another has a cross and billhook. Two in the porch are rare for having a pair of bellows, the symbol of the ironworker. They are perhaps 700 years old, and are believed to have marked the graves of officials who had charge of the mill erected by the monks of Newstead on the outskirts of Bulwell, which was used as a forest smithy. Known as the Forge Mill, this stone mill was still grinding corn in 1938." http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/books/mee1938/papplewick.htm
8 - University of Nottingham archives MD 585/1 = 16th century copy of evidence taken from an old parchment book sometime belonging to Beauvale Abbey, concerning its lands in Watnall Chaworth and 'Brokesbrystyng', Nottinghamshire, comprising a cartulary abstracting 21 medieval deeds. MD 585/2/1-9 = Loose paper sheets containing copies of court rolls from the manor of Watnall Chaworth containing evidence relating to Beauvale Abbey and its possessions in Watnall and 'Brokesbrestying': Courts Baron of Richard Byngham, gent., on Thursday next after the feast of St Peter ad Vincula, 13 Edward IV [1473], Monday next after the feast of St Luke the Evangelist 11 Henry VII [1495], 9 December 15 Henry VII [1499], Wednesday after the feast of St Michael the Archangel 17 Henry VII [1501], 12 May 17 Henry VII [1502], and Thursday after the feast of St Juliana the virgin, 23 Henry VII [1508]; Rental of Richard Byngham's tenants in Watnall, n.d.; View of Frankpledge and Court Baron of Thomas Rolston and Elizabeth his wife, 5 November 3 and 4 Philip and Mary [1556]; Presentment or deposition concerning William Byngham of Watnall Chaworth, n.d., used as wrapper for the bundle with 'Old Court Rolls, Watnall Chaworth' written on the outside in an 18th-century hand.
https://nusearch.nottingham.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44NOTUK_CALMMD%2F489-701%2F489-588%2F585%2F585&context=L&vid=44NOTUK&lang=en_US&search_scope=44NOTUK_COMPLETE&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=44notuk_complete&query=any,contains,watnall&facet=rtype,exclude,reviews,lk&pfilter=pfilter,exact,archival_material_manuscripts&offset=0
9 - University of Nottingham archives
Title - Copy of agreement between Simon [Digby] and Richard Byngham and wife for marriage between Mergery ... and Thomas Dygby; Location: Watnall, Chaworth, Shelton, Nottinghamshire;
Publication date
16th century
Language
English
Description
c. temp. Henry VIII Copy of Agreement between Simon Digby and Richard Byngham and Anne his wife for a marriage between Margery Byngham and Thomas Dygby Settlement in Wattenow Charworth and Shelton, county of Nottingham, and Ryddyngg, county of Derby
Fragile and unsuitable for production; top badly damaged
Source
Manuscripts and Special Collections online catalogue
Identifier
Mi 6/170/152
Title - Final concord (2nd part): William Meryng, knight, and others against Richard Byngham and wife; Location: Watnall Chaworth etc., Nottinghamshire. Michaelmas term 1515
Publication date 1515
Language Latin
Description - Michaelmas Term, 7 Henry VIII, 1515 Final Concord, second part Subject: manors of Watnow Chaworth and Shelton, messuages and lands in the same, county of Nottingham, mediety of the manor of Ryddynges, messuages and lands, etc, in the same, county of Derby Parties: 1a William Meryng, knight, plaintiff; 1b Rouland Dygby, esquire, plaintiff; 1c Everard Dygby, esquire, plaintiff; 1d Willm. Dygby, esquire, plaintiff; 1e Nich. Strylley of Lymby, esquire, plaintiff; 1f Nich. Strylley of Strylley, esquire, plaintiff; 1g John Dygby, gentleman, plaintiff; 2a Richard Bungham, esquire, deforciant; 2b Anne his wife, deforciant Consideration: £300
Fragile and unsuitable for production; damaged; one end torn away
Source
Manuscripts and Special Collections online catalogue
Identifier
Mi 6/177/82
Title - Articles in cause churchwardens of Greasley v. Rolleston (not paying church dues); 24 Jan. 1664/65
Publication date 24 January 1665
Format 2 ff
Language Latin
English Description
Promoted Office cause, promoted by Thomas Leadbeater and William Kirkby, churchwardens of Greasley, against Elizabeth Rollston, widow, of Watnall in the parish of Greasley.
Source Manuscripts and Special Collections online catalogue
Identifier AN/LB 229/3/20
Description
Promoted Office cause, promoted by Thomas Leadbeater and William Kirkby, churchwardens of Greasley, against Mrs Elizabeth Rollston, widow, of Watnall in the parish of Greasley. Personal answers of Mrs Rollston.
Source
Manuscripts and Special Collections online catalogue
Identifier
AN/LB 229/2/56
10 - Adrian Gray has written about Greasley's rebellious religious nature...
https://www.academia.edu/44597818/John_Robinsons_Country
"Nowadays Greasley is deceptively rural, the church standing on a beautiful hilltop close to a site which once boasted a castle – nature and modern building are now covering over the remains of the coalmining that once scarred this landscape at a time when novelist D H Lawrence roamed the fields and woods. The church appears as ‘Greymede Church’ in The White Peacock and ‘Minton Church’ in Sons and Lovers. However, the church itself was largely rebuilt in 1896 after subsidence from coal mining caused it to start falling apart.
But before this, Greasley attained a special status as a puritan and flagrantly nonconformist church of some significance – a fitting place for Robinson to marry Bridget White. Aside from Robinson’s marriage, Greasley is significant because of its depth of puritan history. In 1574 its vicar Elias Oakdene was the first minister in Nottinghamshire to be cited for not wearing a surplice. In February 1607 John Smyth, the future separatist and Baptist, preached here without a licence – probably when he was staying with Thomas Helwys nearby at Broxtowe or Basford. One of his friends, Richard Jackson, also preached here without authority. It is also likely that Brian Barton, the perpetually nonconformist vicar of South Collingham, preached here also illegally, and so did John Darrell in 1607 – best known for the exorcisms he was involved with. All were radical puritans and no doubt all were favoured by the churchwardens.
Rebel preaching continued after Smyth, Helwys and Robinson had gone to Amsterdam in 1608. John Herring preached here in 1609 – he had been linked with Smyth in a ‘riot’ at Marnham church and had got the living of Basford instead.
Lemuel Tuke was ordained in 1623 and then appointed as vicar of Greasley in 1628. A later critical account, perhaps not to be entirely believed, alleged that he was a weaver with no university education and ‘had intruded into a cure of souls in Nottinghamshire, for which ever since the Parliament began he has been a non-resident.’ He was cited for Prayer Book issues repeatedly and suspended in 1638 and 1639. The same account alleges that his parishioners accused him of ‘battery, drunkenness and ‘whoredom.’ One offence was administering communion to ‘strangers’ while they were sitting – two puritan offences at once! We do not know how long he was at Greasley after that, but by about 1641 he was down in Essex and preaching at Bocking where he was cited for being ‘derogatory’ about the Prayer Book.
Then the Civil War broke out and Tuke was in the right place. He preached against the King – he ‘laboured to poison his people with sedition and rebellion, affirming openly that in some cases it was lawful not only to resist but (which I tremble to relate) to kill the King.’ Tuke secured the living at Rayne as the previous vicar, Edward Simmons, had been ejected in 1642 for his Royalist views, somehow having then ousted Thomas Atkins who was intended for the living. Tuke moved North in about 1650 to Sutton-in-Ashfield, just a few miles from Greasley, where he seemingly ran the parish and also a ‘gathered congregation’ at the tail end of a long puritan career. Inevitably he was ejected in 1662 when said to have been ‘old and blind’, dying in 1670.
The influential Robert Smalley, a ‘winning preacher’ was forced out of Greasley in 1662 but took refuge in Mansfield – known as the ‘Zoar’ of Nottinghamshire; he still managed to develop an independent congregation here – it was fertile ground and there had been an ‘independent’ chapel at Moor Green since 1652. In 1669 meetings of around a hundred Presbyterians were taking place at a tanner’s house in nearby Newthorpe, addressed by Smalley. He also held meetings in his own house in Mansfield. Smalley had a ‘presage’ of his own imminent death and so met other godly men in Mansfield to pray, apparently dying later the same day."
11 - Uni of Nottingham archives
Title -Attested copy surrender of copyhold land in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, belonging to Christopher and Lancelot Rolleston, to their trustees, 23 May 1734; 21 Jun. 1848
Publication date 23 May 1734
Format 2 ff
Description - Forms part of the archival bundle Pl E12/6/19/169. First Party: Christopher Rolleston of Kirkby, Nottinghamshire, Esq.; and Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall, Nottinghamshire, Esq. Second Party: Job Staunton Charlton Esq.; Alexander Holden Esq.; Edward Munday Esq.; and John Chambers, gent. Surrender by (1) into the hands of the Lord and Lady of the Manor of Mansfield, of all of their lands lying within the manor. Lands surrendered to the use of (2) and their heirs and assigns, upon the trusts contained in an indenture dated 16 Aug. 1729. Attested as a true copy as compared with the Court Rolls of the Manor of Mansfield, by John J. Handley and Robert White, clerks to Mr Walkden of Mansfield, 21 Jun. 1848.
Source Manuscripts and Special Collections online catalogue
Identifier Pl E12/6/19/169/1
12 - Title - Lease and release of land belonging to the Rolleston family in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire; 31 Mar. 1772
Publication date - 31 March 1772
Format 2 items, 1 and 4 membranes
Description - Forms part of the archival bundle Pl E12/6/18/7. First Party: Lancelot Rolleston of Aston upon Trent, Derbyshire, Esq. (eldest son and heir of the late Rev. John Rolleston and nephew of the late Thomas Rolleston of Watnall, Nottinghamshire, gent.; John and Thomas being sons and devisees of the late Christopher Rolleston of Watnall) Second Party: Dorothy Rolleston now of Derby, widow and relict of the late John Rolleston; Sir Robert Burdett of Foremark in Derbyshire, Baronet; and Robert Holden of Aston upon Trent, Esq. (devisees in trust under the will of the late John Rolleston). Third Party: The Rev. William Chambers of Derby, D.D., and Dorothy Chambers his wife; and Christopher Rolleston and Robert Rolleston both of the City of London, merchants (Dorothy, Christopher and Robert being younger children of the late John Rolleston). Fourth Party: John Bakewell of Castle Donnington, Leicestershire, farmer; Thomas Carr of Castle Donnington, farmer; William Hall of Diseworth, Leicestershire, farmer; and Jacob Kirkby of Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire, farmer. Fifth Party: James Foxcroft of Nottingham, gent.
Lease and release from (1) to (4) and (5), and lease and release from (2) to (4) and (5), confirmed by (1), of (1) and (2)'s moieties or half-shares in the following premises in the parish of Kirkby in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire: a capital messuage; closes of land called the Paddock, the Pond Croft, the Goosewell Croft, the Square Close, the Little Croft, the Middle Croft, the Great Barn Close, the Little Barn Close, the Pingle, the Long Close, the Pudding Tomrose, the Middle Tomrose, the Upper Part, and the Nether Part; a messuage, garden and close; a messuage divided into two cottages with a yard; closes of land called the Rushy Close, the Upper Close, the Little Hay Close, the Nether Close and the Millwood Closes; and two other messuages (acreages and tenancies specified). To be held by (5) in trust for and to the use of each of the parties in (4) and their heirs in four equal shares. Quit claim by William and Dorothy Chambers, Christopher Rolleston and Robert Rolleston to (4) of their interest in the lands. Consideration: £1,575 paid by (4) to (1), and £1,575 paid by (4) to (2). Recites the wills of Christopher Rolleston, Thomas Rolleston and John Rolleston [Pl E12/6/18/7/1-3].
Source - Manuscripts and Special Collections online catalogue
Identifier
Pl E12/6/18/7/4/1-2
13 - Cornelius van der Strete and his twelve colleagues travelled to Nottingham Castle in August 1511 to mend and line tapestries, table carpets, and counterpoints. The tapestries, described as verdure and 96 pieces of hawking and hunting, were lined with canvas and mended with woollen yarn.
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