Le Claire

Revolution & Empire

'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire

⚭Elisabeth J. Grégoire

24 June 1754, 29 July 1825

Termonde (Dendermonde), Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

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.

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 Jean Pierre Le Claire (1718–1793) and Jacqueline Antoinette Marie Catherine Van der Vyvere (1726–1789), through whom the direct line descends from the historic Le Clerc de Pulligny family of Lorraine and is joined to the seigneurial Van de Vyvere of the Land van Waas.

Spouse. Elisabeth J. Grégoire.

Position in the Direct Line

Generation 12 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 9·Le Clerc

    Alexandre II Le Clerc

    1652

  2. Generation 10·Le Claire

    François 'Pierre' Le Claire

    1684

  3. Generation 11·Le Claire

    Jean Pierre Le Claire, Très Noble Seigneur

    1718

  4. Generation 12·Leclaire

    'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire

    24 June 1754

  5. Generation 13·Le Clair

    Johann Baptiste Le Clair

    1796

  6. Generation 14·Leclair

    Gottfried Leclair

    1842

  7. Generation 15·Leclair

    Julius Leclair

    1880

Historical context

Whilst his elder brother Théodore pursued distinction in military service, 'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire carried forward the direct family line. Through Louis, the LeClaire family continued into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, eventually leading to the modern descendants of the house.

Born at Termonde (Dendermonde) in Oost-Vlaanderen on 24 June 1754 and dying at Paris on 29 July 1825, his life spans an extraordinary arc of European history, the Ancien Régime of his birth, the Revolution of his middle years, the First Empire, and the Bourbon Restoration in which he died. By his generation the family name is most often recorded in its single-word French form, Leclaire. Family records preserve him under his everyday name 'Louis Benjamin', with the full baptismal style Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire.

Louis is the direct ancestor of the modern line: from him the descent runs Johann Baptiste Le Clair, Gottfried Leclair, Julius Leclair, Bernhardine Licklär, Monika Ute Licklär, Andrea Michaela Tai-Noble, and Brandon Noble LeClaire. His elder brother Théodore François Joseph Leclaire, Général de division, founded a parallel, and now collateral, military branch.

The direct line preserves a recurring Jean Baptiste naming tradition, Jean Pierre Le Claire → 'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire → Johann Baptiste Le Clair, reflecting the family's French Catholic heritage and providing an additional genealogical link connecting successive generations.

Known records & evidence

Biographical, parish, notarial, seigneurial and military records of Lorraine, Alsace and the Rhineland, preserved in the LeClaire Family Historical Archive.[1],[2]

Lineage explorer

'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire 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

8 generations of the documented bloodline

  1. 1
    '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.

  2. 2
    Johann Baptiste Le Clair1796, ?

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

  3. 3
    Gottfried Leclair1842, 1915

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

  4. 4
    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.

  5. 5
    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.

  6. 6
    Monika Ute Licklär1944, ?

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

  7. 7
    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.

  8. 8
    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.

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.Parish, notarial and seigneurial registers of Lorraine, Alsace and the Rhineland↩

    Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle, de la Moselle, du Bas-Rhin; Landesarchiv

    Contemporary Record
    Full reference: Parish, notarial and seigneurial registers of Lorraine, Alsace and the Rhineland, Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle, de la Moselle, du Bas-Rhin; Landesarchiv
  2. 2.Published genealogies of the Le Clerc de Pulligny and Leclaire lines↩

    Armorials and genealogical works of record for Lorraine

    Published Genealogy
    Full reference: Published genealogies of the Le Clerc de Pulligny and Leclaire lines, Armorials and genealogical works of record for Lorraine
  3. 3.↩

    House of LeClaire

    Published Genealogy
    Full reference: LeClaire Family Historical Archive, House of LeClaire — https://leclaire.co.uk/historical-archive
  4. 4.↩

    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/
  5. 5.↩

    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/
  6. 6.↩

    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/
  7. 7.↩

    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
  8. 8.↩

    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
  9. 9.↩

    Belgian State Archives, parish registers and notarial records of East Flanders and the Land van Waas.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Rijksarchief in België / Archives de l'État en Belgique, Belgian State Archives, parish registers and notarial records of East Flanders and the Land van Waas. — https://www.arch.be/
  10. 10.↩

    City Archive of Antwerp; civil and parish records relevant to the Van der Vyvere line.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Felixarchief, Stadsarchief Antwerpen, City Archive of Antwerp; civil and parish records relevant to the Van der Vyvere line. — https://felixarchief.antwerpen.be/

Canonical URL: https://leclaire.co.uk/people/louis-jean-baptiste-leclaire