II

From the time of the Conquest, Rolleston's ancestors lived close to the soil in a way that only people in the north of England can fully understand. They were scattered over the midlands, and were all outstanding in their own community. They were not very wealthy, and they did not mix in London politics. Some were squires, some entered the Church, and some were soldiers of a sturdy type.

In the time of Henry II, we find one Rolleston ancestor a ranger in Sherwood Forest. Later on they helped King John in his contest with the Barons. In 1310, John de Rolleston, Vicar of Beverley, had to bear the banner of St John of Beverley with the army against the Scots, and was granted leave of absence by the Chapter. In 1314, the Archbishop wished to send John de Rolleston with the banner as before. But the expenses of his journey were not forthcoming, and there is a quaint side-note in the Beverley Act book which reads: "Does this mean that the banner did not go to Bannockburn? If so, the cause of the English defeat there is easily understood!" However, the Rollestons were frequently in service in the wars against the Scots. In 1315 a Ralph de Rolleston was "Commissioner of Array" in Staffordshire and Shropshire for raising troops page 3for the Scottish wars. Later in the same century a John de Rolleston was serving in the French Wars at the time of Crecy, and, in 1316, he was in the retinue of Thomas, Earl of Warwick, Marshal of England.

They plotted in the cause of Mary, Queen of Scots, and were Royalists in the time of King Charles I. Their efforts to afford assistance to that unfortunate monarch and his army involved them in such losses that, in order to raise funds, they had to sell the ancestral home of Rolleston on Dove.¹