Hendrik Melet

Sollier, Gillis, brother of Durand, had been a burgher at the Cape since 1697. In 1718 he was permitted to return to Europe with his wife Anna Roulin and son David. In 1731 he returned to the Cape with his wife Anna Roulin, his stepson Hendrik Melet, and his sister's daughter. In the list of enrolled members of the Dutch Church, Cape Town, Gillis and his wife are entered on 15th December, 1731, with attestation from Montfort.

• The French Refugees at the Cape. Botha , Colin Graham

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Marie Gautier of Marennes in Saintonge was the wife of Andre Mellet and doubtless the niece of Gilles Sollier, two men whose background remains to be touched upon. The daughter of Jacques Gautier and Marie Roulain, she and her husband reached the Cape in 1731, where she died in 1745. Anne Roulain was Sollier’s wife and also from Marennes.The name Roulain is not uncommon in the region. There were Roulains at Saint-Genis-de-Saintonge, north-west of Jonzac, who were using the temple at Cognac in the Angoumois for baptisms in 1684.65 The surname is also encountered among refugees from Jonzac and Saujon in England. An Anne Roulain of Saintonge, wife of the younger Ruvigny’s equerry Jean Nicolas, was in London in 1691.

M. Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA: Ch 6: Cape settlers II: from the Rhone to the Atlantic p151; p149

Piecing together Graham & Boucher’s snippets of information (below), it seems that Marie Gautier of Marenne Saintonge (daughter of Jacques Gautier & Marie Roulain) must have been the niece of Anne Roulain from Marenne Saintonge (ie Gilles’ wife’s niece) via her sister (?) Marie Roulain.

Gilles’ stepson Hendrik Melet must be the child of Anne Roulain’s first husband – ie NN Melet. We can’t tell what the relationship was between NN Melet and Marie Gautier’s husband, Andre Melet from Nimes Languedoc (son of Claude Menet), but it seems likely they were of the same family, given that they are both connected by marriage to two Roulain women from the same place. [Sharon Doubell Nov 2016]

“Sollier, Gillis, brother of Durand, had been a burgher at the Cape since 1697. In 1718 he was permitted to return to Europe with his wife Anna Roulin and son David. In 1731 he returned to the Cape with his wife  Anna Roulin, his stepson Hendrik Melet, and his sister's daughter.” * The French Refugees at the Cape. Botha , Colin Graham 

“.. the arrival at the Cape in 1731 of Andre Mellet and Marie Gautier. Mellet was from Nimes, the son of Claude Mellet, baptized on June 4, 1666 and still living in the French city in 1740....Marie Gautier of Marennes in Saintonge was the wife of Andre Mellet and doubtless the niece of Gilles Sollier, .. The daughter of Jacques Gautier and Marie Roulain, she and her husband reached the Cape in 1731, where she died in 1745. Anne Roulain was Sollier’s wife and also from Marennes.” * M. Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA: Ch 6: Cape settlers II: from the Rhone to the Atlantic  p151; p149