Roulet i

Rollet or Roulet

Roulet ii

The oldest part of the Roulet family in the canton of Neuchâtel has its legal origin ("commune d'origine" or "Heimat") at La Sagne and Les Ponts-de-Martel, adjacent villages near La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Neuchâtel mountains. The founder of the family, Rollet Bayard, lived at La Sagne, and died before 1512. He had no sons, so (following a common practice of that time) his son-in-law, Claude Jaquet, adopted his wife's name, and their children used Rollet-Bayard as their surname. Subsequent generations shortened this to Rollet, which later became Roulet. 

There are also Roulet families at Peseux and Neuchâtel which are probably offshoots of the same line. 

A Roulet family is recorded in the neighbouring canton of Vaud from 1577, but it is not known whether they are related to the Neuchâtel Roulets.

de Roulet crest

François Roulet of Neuchâtel (1768-1845) was ennobled by Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia, and took the name de Roulet. 

Some of the descendants of Daniel Roulet of Peseux and his wife Marie-Marguerite Paris (born c1720) used the compound surname Roulet-Paris.

Simlarly, some of the descendants of David Roulet and Jeanne Py of Peseux used the surname Roulet-Py, while some of the descendants of another David Roulet of Peseux (born c1721) and his wife Susanne-Marie Varnod (born c1730) were known as Roulet-Varnod.