Her husband was appointed High Sheriff of Monmouthshire and he served as MP for Monmouthshire for five years. During this time, The Rolls Hall was built and given to the town of Monmouth to celebrate the Queen's jubilee.[5] Lady Llangattock was known for her love of collecting though John Harris has recently described her collection of furniture bought from other Welsh grand houses as "Jacobogus".[6]
She became Lady Llangattock when her husband became Lord Llangattock in 1892. She and her husband attended the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902.[7] She was an enthusiast for Admiral Nelson and she took part in celebrations at The Kymin where the centenary of his death was commemorated on 21 October 1905.[8]
Her husband's peerage and rank enabled them to invite the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Queen Mary) in 1900 to stay with them at the Hendre. Her youngest son, Charles Rolls, took the royal couple on what might have been their first car ride.[9] Charles was the first British person to die in a flying accident when his plane crashed in 1910.
Lady Llangattock was well known for her philanthropic and social interests, and for promoting the role of women in society. She was in 1902 elected president of the Monmouthshire branch of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families' Association.[10] In December 1910 she instigated a meeting in Monmouth which set up a branch of the British Red Cross Society in the county, and first considered the setting up of Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) in the area. She became the first President of the Monmouthshire branch of the Society.[11]
Lord Llangattock died in 1912. Her two other sons were killed in action during the First World War, so she was the last Lady Llangattock, and her daughter Eleanor Shelley-Rolls (9 October 1872 – 15 September 1961) was the heir to the Hendre.
Legacy
The Llangattock Collection, which includes a substantial quantity of letters written by Nelson to his wife, was bequeathed to the town of Monmouth. The letters, bound into five volumes, had been bought at auction in 1914 from the Nelson family by Lady Llangattock at Christie's. The first three volumes contain letters to his wife from his proposal to their separation, and the first volume contains Nelson's wife's wedding ring.[12] The first building which housed the collection, initially a gymnasium on Glendower Street donated to the town of Monmouth by Lady Llangattock, is now known as the Nelson Rooms.[13] The Monmouth Museum has been called The Nelson Museum as it is based on the Llangattock collections. The museum also houses material about the Rolls family and it contains the 1867 portrait of Lady Llangattock created by H.Groves. The local library at the Rolls Hall also holds a full-length portrait of Lady Llangattock.