Clan Rollo

Origins and Name

The Rollos of Scotland claim descent from Rollo (c. 860–930), the Norse chieftain who besieged Paris in 885, extracted tribute from the Frankish king, and was granted the territory that became Normandy — the first Duke of Normandy, and the ancestor of William the Conqueror. Whether the Scottish Rollos descend from Rollo directly or from a collateral Norman branch is disputed, but the family arrived in Scotland from Normandy in the twelfth century with the same wave of Norman settlers invited by David I.

The Scottish Rollos settled in Perthshire, where they held the barony of Duncrub from the medieval period. The estate passed through various holders but remained the family seat for several centuries. The family received the peerage title of Lord Rollo of Duncrub in 1651, a title that has continued through subsequent generations.

The Diaspora

The Rollo diaspora is relatively small and concentrated, reflecting the family's origin as a specific landed family rather than a broad Highland clan. Rollos appear in Ulster records from the seventeenth century — the Antrim and Down plantations included Perthshire settlers — and the name migrated with the Scots-Irish wave to North America in the eighteenth century.

In the United States, the Rollo name appears in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas. The most common American variant spelling is Rolle or Rolfe — the family of John Rolfe, who married Pocahontas in 1614, claimed Norman ancestry through this line. Whether the connection is historically accurate is debated, but the tradition is longstanding in American genealogical writing.

Researching Rollo Ancestry

Rollo genealogy is well-documented for the Duncrub main line. The Duncrub papers at the National Records of Scotland cover the Perthshire estate from the seventeenth century. ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk covers the relevant Perthshire parishes in its Old Parish Registers.

For American branches claiming connection to the Norman Rolle or Rolfe line, the Virginia colonial records at the Library of Virginia in Richmond are the primary source. The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation in Virginia maintains records relating to John Rolfe specifically, including the research on his English and possible Norman ancestry.