1821 John Rolle 1st Baron Rolle Signed Autograph Letter Parliamentary Free Frank For Sale

For your consideration is an original 2 April 1821 autograph letter signed by John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (17501842), the prominent Devon landowner, politician, and peer whose long public career spanned the reigns of George III, George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria. Written on period laid paper and preserved as a complete folded postal entire, the letter is signed Rolle in his own hand and survives together with the original address panel, manuscript free-frank endorsement, and contemporary postal markings. The brief contents concern a practical domestic or estate matter, including a reference to the Potatoes, and close with the formula Yours &c / Rolle.
The exterior bears Rolles manuscript parliamentary frank together with a prominent red London FREE datestamp, confirming use of the postal privilege enjoyed by qualifying members of Parliament and peers of the realm. The outer panel is dated London, 2 April 1821 and addressed to a Mr. J. [surname indistinct], apparently in the Barnstaple, Devon area, a destination entirely consistent with Rolles extensive Devon estates and regional interests. A separate black postal datestamp and an early manuscript identification reading Lord Rolle / 2 April 1821 are also retained, while the intact folded construction distinguishes the piece from the detached free-frank fronts commonly removed from letters by nineteenth-century autograph collectors.
Rolle represented Devon in the House of Commons from 1780 until his elevation to the peerage as Baron Rolle of Stevenstone in 1796, after which he sat in the House of Lords. A staunch Pittite and conspicuous figure in Georgian politics, he became one of the principal satirical targets of The Rolliad, whose title itself derived from his name. In later life he acquired enduring fame through the widely recorded incident at Queen Victorias coronation in 1838, when the elderly peer stumbled while ascending the steps to pay homage, an episode remembered in contemporary accounts and by the Queen herself.
Measuring approximately 4.75 by 5.75 inches when folded, the letter remains in honest original condition with expected postal folds, edge wear, and localized losses from opening and handling, but with the principal manuscript, signature, free-frank endorsement, and postal markings clearly preserved. As a complete autograph letter signed and House of Lords parliamentary free-frank entire, it represents a tangible survival of Georgian political, postal, and estate history directly associated with one of the most recognizable aristocratic figures of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain.

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