Le Claire

Ancien Régime

Alexandre II Le Clerc

⚭Marguerite Thiery de Saint-Baussant

1652, 1695

Lorraine

Minor Lord of Lorraine

Minor Lord of Lorraine and key transitional figure linking the historic Le Clerc de Pulligny family to the subsequent Le Claire branches from which the modern House descends.

The Name Through History

A single continuous line, recorded under many forms as it passed through Lorraine, France, the Rhineland and Britain.

  1. De Parroye / de Haute-Pierre

    before 1310

    Seigneurial houses of Lorraine from which the maternal ancestry descends

  2. Moingins dis li clers

    c. 1310 – 1400

    Lorrain vernacular byname, 1355 charter

  3. Le Clerc · Leclerc

    15th – 17th c.

    French-Lorraine seigneurial line

  4. Le Claire

    late 17th – 18th c.

    Transitional French spelling of the direct line

  5. Leclaire

    18th – 19th c.

    Napoleonic-era French form

  6. Le Clair · Leclair

    19th c.

    Rhineland branch, German civil registers

  7. Licklär

    1880 – 1970

    Germanised orthography, 20th-century Rhineland

  8. LeClaire

    21st c.

    Restored British form, House of Greenland-LeClaire

Family connection

Parents. Son of Nicolas Le Clerc (1624–1660); grandson of Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny, Knight of Saint Mark.

Spouse. Marguerite Thiery de Saint-Baussant (1655, 1698).

Children. Father of François 'Pierre' Le Claire (1684–?), through whom the direct ancestral line continues into the eighteenth-century Le Claire family.

Position in the Direct Line

Generation 9 of 19 in the continuous bloodline shown on the home-page pedigree, from Mengin Le Clerc of Lorraine (c. 1355) to Brandon Noble LeClaire.

  1. Generation 6·Leclerc

    Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny

    1532

  2. Generation 7·Le Clerc

    Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny

    1585

  3. Generation 8·Le Clerc

    Nicolas Le Clerc

    1624

  4. Generation 9·Le Clerc

    Alexandre II Le Clerc

    1652

  5. Generation 10·Le Claire

    François 'Pierre' Le Claire

    1684

  6. Generation 11·Le Claire

    Jean Pierre Le Claire, Très Noble Seigneur

    1718

  7. Generation 12·Leclaire

    'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire

    24 June 1754

Historical context

Alexandre II Le Clerc (1652–1695) is identified in later family records as a minor Lord of Lorraine and an important bridge figure between the historic Le Clerc de Pulligny family and the subsequent Le Claire branches.

His life spans the high reign of Louis XIV and the long French pressure on the Duchy of Lorraine that would culminate in the formal annexation of 1766. By his generation the wider Le Clerc family was beginning the slow social transition out of the great ducal offices held by his great-grandfather Claude II and into the more modest seigneurial and bourgeois standing of the later Lorraine line.

Through Alexandre II the direct ancestral line passes to François 'Pierre' Le Claire (1684–?), in whose generation the family surname is consistently recorded for the first time under the Le Claire form.

Significance & legacy

Alexandre II is one of the key transitional figures linking the historic Pulligny family to the later Le Claire branch from which the modern House descends.

Known records & evidence

  • Genealogical source tradition, later Le Clerc and Le Claire family records identifying Alexandre II as the bridge generation.[1]

Lineage explorer

Alexandre II Le Clerc in the line

Trace the generations from this ancestor to the present day, follow how land, titles and arms descended, or open the wider network of marriages and allied houses.

Explore their ancestry

11 generations of the documented bloodline

  1. 1
    Alexandre II Le Clerc1652, 1695

    Minor Lord of Lorraine

    Minor Lord of Lorraine and key transitional figure linking the historic Le Clerc de Pulligny family to the subsequent Le Claire branches from which the modern House descends.

  2. 2
    François 'Pierre' Le Claire1684, ?

    First generation to bear the Le Claire form of the family name. Son of Alexandre II Le Clerc and direct ancestor of the eighteenth-century Le Claire line.

  3. 3
    Jean Pierre Le Claire, Très Noble Seigneur1718, 1793

    A principal figure in the documented LeClaire line. Father of the senior French officer Théodore François Joseph Leclaire and husband of an heiress of the Van der Vyvere.

  4. 4
    'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire24 June 1754, 29 July 1825

    Younger son of Jean Pierre Le Claire and Jacqueline Van der Vyvere; younger brother of Général Théodore François Joseph Leclaire. Through Louis the direct bloodline of the modern House descends into the Rhineland.

  5. 5
    Johann Baptiste Le Clair1796, ?

    A generation showing the family name in the Le Clair form, reflecting linguistic and administrative variation.

  6. 6
    Gottfried Leclair1842, 1915

    A nineteenth-century representative of the Leclair spelling within the family's period of German-speaking assimilation.

  7. 7
    Julius Leclair1880, 1961

    Son of Gottfried Leclair and Maria E. Maßmann; husband of Elisabeth Fitze and father of Bernhardine Licklär, through whom the bloodline continues into the modern German-speaking generation.

  8. 8
    Bernhardine Licklär1920, 1978

    Daughter of Julius Leclair and Elisabeth Fitze; her surname records the fully Germanised form of the family name. Mother of Monika Ute Licklär by Jan Jagt; the two were not married.

  9. 9
    Monika Ute Licklär1944, ?

    Continuation of the Germanised branch of the LeClaire line; mother of the modern restoration.

  10. 10
    Andrea Michaela Tai-Noble1966, ?

    A daughter of the House of LeClaire; the continuation of the bloodline through the Licklär branch, and mother of Brandon Noble LeClaire. Her documented descent runs from Jean Pierre Le Claire and Jacqueline Van der Vyvere through their younger son Louis Jean Baptiste Leclaire, brother of Général Théodore François Joseph Leclaire, and the successive Le Clair, Leclair and Licklär generations of the Rhineland.

  11. 11
    Brandon Noble LeClaire1995, ?

    Head of the House of LeClaire

    Modern representative and present head of the House of LeClaire, one of the historic noble and moneyed houses of the Duchy of Lorraine, and, by his 22 May 2027 marriage to Abigail Jane Greenland, founder of the House of Greenland-LeClaire. He has formally restored the ancestral surname LeClaire to continue an eight-hundred-year documented lineage that includes the Sieurs de Pulligny, Auditors of the Chamber of Accounts of Nancy, advancers of capital to the Dukes of Lorraine, and his fifth-great-granduncle Général de Division Théodore François Joseph Leclaire, Commander of the Legion of Honour.

Related entities

Other documented people, family branches, places and armorial records connected to this entry in the archive.

Related families

Related places

Citations & sources

Each numbered reference below supports a specific statement on this page. The evidence label records how firmly that reference attests the point.

  1. 1.Genealogical source tradition, later Le Clerc and Le Claire family records identifying Alexandre II as the bridge generation.↩
    Published Genealogy
    Full reference: Genealogical source tradition, later Le Clerc and Le Claire family records identifying Alexandre II as the bridge generation.
  2. 2.↩

    House of LeClaire

    Published Genealogy
    Full reference: LeClaire Family Historical Archive, House of LeClaire — https://leclaire.co.uk/historical-archive
  3. 3.↩

    French National Archives, sovereign and noble records of the Ancien Régime and after.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Archives Nationales (France), French National Archives, sovereign and noble records of the Ancien Régime and after. — https://www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/
  4. 4.↩

    Genealogy platform; use only entries that themselves cite primary records.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Geneanet, Genealogy platform; use only entries that themselves cite primary records. — https://www.geneanet.org/
  5. 5.↩

    Open-licensed historical images, maps and document scans.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Wikimedia Commons, Open-licensed historical images, maps and document scans. — https://commons.wikimedia.org/
  6. 6.↩

    Charles d'Hozier's Armorial général de France (1696), digitised by the BnF.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: BnF, Armorial général de France (d'Hozier), Charles d'Hozier's Armorial général de France (1696), digitised by the BnF. — https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8470253q
  7. 7.↩

    Open-licensed reproductions of French armorial bearings.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Wikimedia Commons, Heraldry of France, Open-licensed reproductions of French armorial bearings. — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Heraldry_of_France
  8. 8.↩

    Digitised primary sources of the BnF, including charters and registers of Lorraine.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France), Digitised primary sources of the BnF, including charters and registers of Lorraine. — https://gallica.bnf.fr/
  9. 9.↩

    Parish, notarial and seigneurial registers for Nancy and the former Duchy of Lorraine.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle, Parish, notarial and seigneurial registers for Nancy and the former Duchy of Lorraine. — https://archives.meurthe-et-moselle.fr/
  10. 10.↩

    Parish and notarial records covering the Pulligny / Xirocourt area.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Archives départementales des Vosges, Parish and notarial records covering the Pulligny / Xirocourt area. — https://archives.vosges.fr/
  11. 11.↩

    Bibliographic catalogue of printed and manuscript holdings.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Catalogue général, Bibliographic catalogue of printed and manuscript holdings. — https://catalogue.bnf.fr/

Canonical URL: https://leclaire.co.uk/people/alexandre-ii-le-clerc