Author: Rolls, Mary
Biography:
ROLLS, Mary, formerly HILLARY (1775-1835: ancestry.co.uk)
She was born on 13 Sept. 1775, the daughter of Richard Hillary (1703-1789) and his wife Hannah Wynne (1738-1806), who were Quakers. At the time of their marriage in 1764 he was described as “one of the principal West-India and American Merchants at Liverpool.” The family acquired a plantation in Jamaica and Mary’s elder brother Richard (1768-1803) was a member of the House of Assembly in Kingston until his death in November 1803. He left her his warehouse in Atherton Street, Liverpool, together with his estate Bambridge Hall near Aisgarth. She married the Rev. Henry Rolls (1782-1838) at St. Anne, Liverpool, on 16 Jul. 1810. They had at least six children but two daughters, Marianna Hillary (d 1811) and Maria Gulielma (d 1813), died within a year of birth. Henry Rolls (MA Balliol 1819) became Rector of All Saints, Aldwincle, Northants, in 1820 and Curate of St. Peter’s in 1824. Besides the titles in the bibliography, she published A Poetical Address to Lord Byron (1816) which at only eight pages is excluded on grounds of length. From 1817 she also contributed to the Literary Gazette and various periodicals. From 1828 she contributed to the Annuals. Her accomplished early religious verse gradually gave way to the subjects and subject matter of Byron and Hemans. She died on 8 Apr. 1835 at Aldwincle. (The GM death report gave an incorrect age of 54, replicated in later sources.) Her husband then married Sarah Anna Rolls on 18 June 1838 in Paris. He died in Paris on 24 July 1838 and was buried at Montmartre. (ancestry.co.uk 10 Sept. 2020; LBS; CCEd; Leeds Intelligencer 27 Nov. 1764; Lancaster Gazette 15 Feb. 1806, 21 Jul. 1810; Stamford Mercury 17 Apr. 1835, 4 Aug. 1838; GM May 1835, 557, Aug. 1838, 207, Sept. 1838, 336; Boyle 244-5) AA
Other Names:
- Mrs. H. Rolls
- Mrs. Hen. Rolls
- Mrs. Henry Rolls