Draft:Robert Rolle (fl. 1549--1597)

Robert Rolle (fl. 1549—1597) was a Tudor poet and churchman. He wrote Latin verses for the volume commemorating the reburial of Katherine Martyr, the wife of Peter Martyr Vermigli, in 1562. He held offices in Wells Cathedral and in the parish of Stoke Climsland, Devon. He was the step-brother of the poet Anne Locke

Family

Robert Rolle was the fifth son of George Rolle of London and Stevenstone, Devon, and his second wife, Eleanor, daughter of Henry Dacres of London and Mayfield, Staffs. George Rolle was a man of some account in Devon and the West Country. He was a lawyer, and had dealings with several monastic houses as well as private clients. He also owned and leased property in London. His third wife was Margery Brinkelow, whose first husband of the author Henry Brinkelow (“Roderick Mors”). He died in 1546, and Margery married Henry’s friend Stephen Vaughan, the father of the poet Anne Locke who was thus Rolle’s step-sister. Her husband, the poet and churchman Edward Dering was his step-brother-in-law. Vaughan died in 1549, and Margery seems to have married George Rolle around 1550. After his death in 1552, she married sir Leonard Chamberlain of Woodstock, Oxford.

Winchester, Oxford and Westminster

Rolle was sent to Winchester College, and was elected scholar in 1549. He duly went up to New College, Oxford, where he held a fellowship between 1550 and 1560. When he arrived he was described as of Mark Lane, London (Foster 1250—1277). Presumably this is where George Rolle had his residence in the capital. Robert took his B.A. on 26 June 1555, and the M.A. followed on 26 July 1560. By October of 1562, he was the master of Westminster School, a position he held until 1563. Much later, on 22 January 1574, Rolle was granted his B.D. at Oxford, when he had to be “deponed” by a Master of Arts, owing to there being no Bachelor of Divinity who could carry out the duty as required. In June 1585, he took his D.D.

Latin verses on Katharine Martryr

In 1562, he wrote two Latin poems for the commemorative volume assembled by James Calfhill to mark the reburial of Katherine Martryr at Oxford on 11 January of that year. Katherine had accompanied her husband Peter Martyr to Oxford in 1547. She died in 1552, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral. But on the accession of queen Mary, Cardinal Reginald Pole gave orders that her body should be removed, and the then dean of Christ Church, Richard Marshall, had her bones thrown on a dung-heap behind the deanery. When Elizabeth succeeded Mary, her bones were recovered and buried once more in the cathedral, this time with the newly discovered remains of St Frideswide.

The first of Rolle’s poems is composed in sapphics. Rolle contends that the pope and his agents may talk a lot about love (caritas), but they are actually violent and vengeful, as may be witnessed by the fate of Katherine Martyr. The second takes the form of an apostrophe to Katherine herself, in which Rolle apologises for having been so late with his verses, but hopes that they may act as a strong censure of the pope all the same.

Church livings

On 1 January 1562, Rolle was given a grant for life of the sixth prebend in Westminster Abbey, but his patent was “probably ineffective” (Knighton I. xlv & II. 7). By 6 October, Rolles seems to have realised that the prebend at Westminster was slipping out of his grasp, for on that day he wrote a letter to sir William Cecil : “Concerning a prebend”. But it was to no avail, and another man was installed on 17 November.

After this, we lose sight of him for ten years until 1574. On 13 January, he was presented by the Crown to the rectory of Stoke Climsland, in Devon (now in Cornwall); and a week later, on 21 January, he was collated to the prebend of Combe XIV in Wells Cathedral. He was instituted at Stoke Climsland on 7 April. There is no sign of his havin been ordained, so these were presumably lay appointments. On 9 June 1587, Robert Green, sub-deacon of the Chapel Royal, was presented by the Crown to Stoke Climsland, though there is no sign of Rolle’s having vacated it. Then, six months later, on 12 December, Rolle was presented to the living once again. Finally, on 16 February 1597, Rolle was deprived of the living at Stoke Climsland; and he had vacated his stall at Wells Cathedral by 16 April of the same year. Robert Rolle did not live long after, for his will was either made or proved on 7 June 1601. He left his son Gabriel the advowson of Lockinge, Berks., which he had bought, on 17 June 1589, from John Underhill, rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.

Marriage and children

Robert Rolle married Elinor, daughter of Gabriel Challenor of Yorkshire, by around 1580, for his eldest son, Abell, was born in 1582 or 1583. A second son, Gabriel, was born in 1588 or 1589. Elinor was a relation of the Robert Challoner who, by his will of 20 June 1620, founded Dr Challenor’s School in Amersham, Bucks, where he served as rector between 1576 and his death in 1620. Challenor had employed Gabriel Rolle as his curate at Amersham in 1613 and 1614, though he was : “No priest, no preacher”. By his will, he also gave Gabriel a farm in Wokingham. And finally, it was Challenor who presented Gabriel to the rectory of Lockinge, Berks, on 14 January 1620. So the advowson must have passed to him from Gabriel, who inherited it by his father’s will. Gabriel stayed on at Lockinge till his death in 1645. Of Abell, no more is known than that he married Gertrude, daughter of John Acland of Chittlehampton, Devon, who was a relation by marriage.