Sir John Rolle (1626 – April 1706), KB, of Stevenstone, Devon, was an English landowner, Sheriff of Devon in 1682 and MP for Barnstaple (1660) and for Devon (1661–1679). The Travel Journal of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1642-1723) states of him: "This gentleman is one of the richest in the country, having an estate of six thousand pounds sterling per annum, besides a considerable property in ready money". Origins John Rolle was baptised at Week St Mary, Cornwall, on 23 September 1626. He was the son of Andrew Rolle (d. 1628) of Marhayes (anciently Marrays, Marrais, Marrys etc.) in the parish of Week St Mary in Cornwall, six miles south of Bude, by his wife Grace Roberts. His grandfather was George II Rolle (d. 1573), the second son of the patriarch George Rolle (d. 1552), of Stevenstone, the founder of the Rolle families of Devon and Cornwall. George II Rolle had been left by his father's will the wardship and marriage, which he had purchased from her father, of Margaret Marhayes (or Marrays etc.), the daughter and sole heir of Edmund Marrys of "Marrys", i.e. Marhayes Manor, Week St Mary, Cornwall. The summarised text of his will concerning this bequest is as follows: He grants and bequeaths to George, his son, the wardship and marriage of Margaret Marrys, daughter and sole heir to Edmund Marrys, of the parish of St Mary Wyke in the county of Cornwall, in as ample manner as he had of the gift and grant of the said Edmund Marrys, paying yearly to the said Edmund £ ? during his life. George II duly married his inherited ward and thereby founded the cadet line of Rolle of Marhayes, which eventually itself became the senior line on the inheritance of Stevenstone and Bicton by Sir John Rolle (d. 1706), KB, the subject of the present article. Inheritance In 1647 he inherited in tail-male the Devon manors of Stevenstone in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington (23 miles east of Week St Mary) and Bicton, amongst many others, following the death of his second cousin Henry Rolle (1605-1647) of Beam, near Great Torrington, the last male descendant of John's great uncle John Rolle of Stevenstone (d. 1570), eldest son of the patriarch George Rolle (d. 1552), the founder of the Devon and Cornwall families. This inheritance made him possibly