The Rolleston's of Watnall family Crest.

 The top centre piece to the legendary Watnall Hall iron gates was a casting of the Rolleston family crest, and eagle's head. In heraldic terms known as, eagles head erased. Eagle's head erased was used by several branches of the Rolleston family, including one in Australia and one in New Zealand. Not unique to the name Rolleston, eagle's head erased is the crest of several other families. The motto of the Watnall Rolleston's was, - Ainsi et peut-etre meileur, (Thus and perhaps better). Mr and Mrs Malty were kind enough to allow me to pay them a visit to take a close up image of Sir Lancelot's signet ring. The ring was hallmarked in 1862, the year his father died. The ring is engraved in intaglio reverse with crest and motto. This is for the purpose of using the ring as a wax seal press, sealing wax dripped to the envelope flap and the ring rolled over to confirm it was sealed by Sir Lancelot. The ring now resides in the Royal Lancers and Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum in Thoresby and can be viewed in their Boer-War exhibit. Also in the images, a silver cream jug and livery button. Both with eagle head erased crest, possibly that of Rolleston.


Responce from Facebook - 
Mrs Maltby, Coincidentally for the Maltby family, Sir Lancelot's cousins lived at Maltby Hall in Yorkshire! It is near Rotherham. He used to ride from Watnall Hall to visit them up there... "As an example of his enthusiastic horsemanship, he recalled in his Reminiscences that one morning in 1877 he set off on his horse and rode to see his cousins George and William at Maltby Hall in Yorkshire. He went up through Brooksbreasting and followed all the old bridleways of Sherwood Forest up to Maltby, visited and rode back again." Maltby Hall was home to a particularly distinguished branch of the Rollestons... "descendants include Dr. George Rolleston, the first Oxford Linacre Professor of Anatomy and Physiology; William Rolleston a prominent New Zealand politician (after whom Mount Rolleston in New Zealand is named); eminent physicist Sir Humphrey Davy Rolleston and the current BBC security correspondent Frank Gardener."




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