Lorraine · The Rhineland · England
The House of LeClaire
The House of LeClaire is a family of the Duchy of Lorraine, recorded from the fourteenth century as Le Clerc, ennobled twice by the dukes of Lorraine, seated at Pulligny, and continuing through Flanders, the Rhineland and Germany to its present English generation. This page sets out the family’s arms and crest, the arms brought into it by marriage, the forms its name has taken, and where it stands in the direct pedigree.
The name
The earliest recorded form is the vernacular byname li clers, “the clerk”, borne by Mengin Le Clerc in a Lorraine act of 1355, where he appears as Moingins dis li clers. It settles as Le Clerc through the Lorraine centuries, is written Le Clerc de Pulligny after the seigneurial designation of 1464, becomes Le Claire and Leclaire in the eighteenth century, Le Clair and Leclair in the Rhineland, and Licklär in the German generations before returning to LeClaire in England.
Each of these is the same family under one canonical identity; the spellings are recorded as variants rather than as separate houses. They are set out in full under surname variants.
Arms and crest
The family holds two grants of arms from the dukes of Lorraine. The blazons below are given as recorded; they are described factually, and no symbolic meaning is attributed to a charge or a tincture beyond what the grants themselves state.
Arms granted upon ennoblement, 1464
Jehan Leclerc de Pulligny
c. 1410, c. 1465
Blazon. Gules, two fesses or intertwined with seven bezants argent, placed 3, 3 and 1. Crest: a dexter hand vested in gold holding a human head with long hair and beard of the same in its natural form, and a long ermine banner hanging from the said dexter hand.
Estates and designations at the time: Sieur de Pulligny.
Arms granted upon ennoblement, 1512
Claude Leclerc de Pulligny
c. 1485, 1562
Blazon. Or, a leopard gules armed, langued and crowned azure, on a chief of the same charged with three bezants or.
Estates and designations at the time: Valet de Chambre to Duke Antoine of Lorraine, Seigneur of Pulligny, Ceintrey, Voinémont, Malaucourt-sur-Seille, Chamagne, Érize-Saint-Dizier and Saint-Dizier.
Illuminated armorial of Claude Le Clerc, son of feu Mengin Le Clerc de Nancy, contemporary armorial roll, c. 1530
Claude Leclerc de Pulligny
c. 1485, 1562
Blazon. Or, a lion rampant gules crowned azure, on a chief azure three bezants or; with crest of a demi-lion gules issuant from a torse and helm, mantled gules and azure.
Estates and designations at the time: Valet de Chambre to Duke Antoine of Lorraine, Seigneur of Pulligny, Ceintrey, Voinémont, Malaucourt-sur-Seille, Chamagne, Érize-Saint-Dizier and Saint-Dizier.
Arms borne upon the restoration of hereditary nobility, 28 May 1623
Jean Le Clerc
1586, 1633
Blazon. Per fess: in chief, on a field barry, a griffin segreant holding an open book; in base, two swords in saltire, points upward, pommels and hilts to base. Within an ornate Baroque cartouche.
Arms borne upon the restoration of hereditary nobility, 28 May 1623
Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny
1585, after 1659
Blazon. Per fess: in chief, on a field barry, a griffin segreant holding an open book; in base, two swords in saltire, points upward, pommels and hilts to base. Within an ornate Baroque cartouche.
Estates and designations at the time: Secretary to Charlotte Catherine de La Trémoille, Princess of Taranto, Valet de Chambre and Court Musician of the Duke of Lorraine.
Arms of the Le Claire line, as carried into the eighteenth century
François 'Pierre' Le Claire
1684, ?
Blazon. Or, a leopard rampant gules armed and langued azure; on a chief azure three bezants or.
Arms of the Le Claire line, as carried into the eighteenth century
Jean Pierre Le Claire, Très Noble Seigneur
1718, 1793
Blazon. Or, a leopard rampant gules armed and langued azure; on a chief azure three bezants or.
The Armorial Bearings of Brandon Noble LeClaire, to be marshalled with Greenland from 22 May 2027
Brandon Odo Van der Vyvere Noble LeClaire
1995, ?
Blazon. Arms: Or a Panther incensed passant guardant Gules spotted Or armed langued and crowned with an Ancient Crown flory Azure on a Chief Gules three Roundels Or. Crest: Out of an Ancient Crown flory Azure A Panther's Gamb Gules semy of Roundels holding a Roundel Or. Mantling: Gules doubled Or. Motto: DE NOMINE ET SANGUINE.
The crest. The crest recorded with the grant of 3 January 1464 is a dexter hand vested in gold holding a human head with long hair and beard of the same in its natural form, with a long ermine banner hanging from that hand. The illuminated armorial of Claude Le Clerc, drawn about 1530, shows instead a demi-lion gules issuing from a torse and helm, mantled gules and azure. Both are recorded here as they appear; the archive does not harmonise them into a single invented achievement.
Motto. No motto is recorded in either surviving grant. None is supplied here.
Arms brought in by marriage
Each marriage into an armigerous family brought its own coat into the pedigree. These arms belong to those families and are recorded as theirs, never absorbed into the LeClaire achievement.
Abigail Jane Greenland
Arms: Argent, three saltires Vert within a bordure engrailed party Or and Vert. Crest: A dexter arm armoured and embowed Or, the hand Proper sustaining a grenade fired Proper. Motto: Nec Timeo Nec Sperno.
N. de Pulligny
Azure, a lion argent armed, langued and crowned or.
Catherine de Trèves de Xirocourt
Or, a pile (triangle) gules between three crescents azure, two in chief and one in base.
Jacqueline Antoinette Catherine Van der Vyvere
Azure, three swords argent hilted or, in bend.
The family’s place in the pedigree
The LeClaire family is the line in which the whole pedigree terminates. Its earliest certain generation is Mengin Le Clerc, active by the mid fourteenth century in Lorraine. His marriage to Catherine de Gircourt carried into the family the ancestry of Gircourt, Toullon, Haute-Pierre and Parroye, and beyond them the earlier houses of Metz, Verdun and the Ardennes. Everything above Mengin enters the pedigree through her; everything below him is the LeClaire line itself.
Ennoblement came twice: by letters patent of 3 January 1464 to Jehan Leclerc de Pulligny, and again in 1512 to Claude Le Clerc and his brother Thierry. The seigneurial designation of Pulligny granted with the first patent was borne by the principal line for three centuries.
- Wigeric of Lotharingia CunigundaDied before 922
- Gozlin of Bidgau Oda of Metzc. 910 to c. 943
- Godfrey "the Captive" of Verdun Mathilde of Saxonyc. 935 to c. 1005
- Gerberge of Verdun Folmar of MetzDates not established
- Gottfried of Metz Judith of LuxembourgDates not established
- Simon de ParroyeDates not established
- Sicard (Simon II) de ParroyeDates not established
- Odoin I de FrovilleDates not established
- Odon II de Froville Adélaïde de NeuvillerDates not established
- Simon de Froville Mathilde de ParroyDates not established
- Simon I de Parroye MathildeDates not established
- Albert de ParroyeDates not established
- Albert de Haute-Pierrec. 1172 to c. 1222
- Albert de Haute-PierreDied 20 October 1231
- Liébaud de Haute-Pierre IsabelleDied 1281
- Marguerite de Haute-Pierre Jean II de ToullonDates not established
- Thiébaud (Liébaud) de Toullonlate 13th century to c. 1343
- Catherine de Haute-Pierre Jacques de GircourtBorn late 13th / early 14th century
- Catherine de Gircourt Mengin Le Clercc. 1320 to after 1355
- Colin Le Clerc Marguerite PetitgoutDates not established
- Jehan Leclerc de Pulligny N. de Pullignyc. 1410 to c. 1465
- Mengin II Le Clerc MengetteDates not established
- Claude Leclerc de Pulligny Catherine de Trèves de Xirocourtc. 1485 to 1562
- Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny Claudon Galland de Pulligny1532 to 1598
- Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny Madeleine Platel du Plateau1585 to after 1659
- Nicolas Le Clerc Anne Fériet de Lézé1624 to 1660
- Alexandre II Le Clerc Marguerite Thiery de Saint-Baussant1652 to 1695
- François 'Pierre' Le Claire Marie-Anne Du MoineBorn 1684
- Jean Pierre Le Claire, Très Noble Seigneur Jacqueline Antoinette Catherine Van den Vyvere1718 to 1793
- 'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire Elisabeth J. Grégoire24 June 1754 to 29 July 1825
- Johann Baptiste Le Clair Gertrud L. A. de WeelsBorn 1796
- Gottfried Leclair Maria E. Maßmann1842 to 1915
- Julius Leclair Elisabeth Fitze1880 to 1961
- Bernhardine Licklär1920 to 1978
- Monika Ute Licklär Anthony Reginald Kwok Cheung TaiBorn 1944
- Andrea Michaela Tai-Noble Ian Dennis NobleBorn 1966
- Brandon Odo Van der Vyvere Noble LeClaire Abigail Jane GreenlandBorn 1995
The same descent, with its evidence labels, appears on the canonical pedigree and, event by event, on the generation timeline.
Evidence
The two grants of arms, the seigneurial designation and the later generations rest on charter, notarial, parish and civil records of Lorraine, Flanders and the Rhineland. The medieval ancestry above Catherine de Gircourt is a reconstruction drawn from published Lorraine genealogy and charter evidence, and each ancestor page states its own evidence level.
The method, and the order of precedence among the sources, is set out under sources and methodology. The narrative history of the family is on the history page, and every coat recorded for the family and its allies is in the armorial register.