LECLAIRE
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Legacy Flow

From Claude Leclerc de Pulligny to today

Each card below appears in sequence, showing how the line — and its inheritance, titles, alliances and arms — cascaded through the generations.

Claude Leclerc de Pulligny

c. 14851562

Valet de Chambre to Duke Antoine of Lorraine

A major patriarch of the House of Le Clerc. Merchant of silk and wool cloth, valet de chambre to Duke Antoine, Conseiller and Auditeur at the Chamber of Accounts under Charles III, and seigneur of multiple lordships in Lorraine.

Arms: Arms granted upon ennoblement, 1512

Argentier of the Duke of Lorraine

Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny

15321598

Argentier of the Duke of Lorraine

Argentier to the Duke of Lorraine and Treasurer to the Count of Vaudémont's company — the height of the Le Clerc de Pulligny family's political and financial influence — whose conversion to Protestantism brought the confiscation of the family's nobility and lands, and one of the defining crises in the history of the House.

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Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny

1585after 1659

Knight of the Order of Saint Mark (Republic of Venice)

Born in Nancy, son of Claude II Le Clerc de Pulligny and Claudon Mengin de Pulligny. Served Charlotte Catherine de La Trémoille, Princess of Taranto and wife of Henri de Bourbon-Condé. Later a Knight of Saint Mark and, together with his brother Jean, restored to hereditary nobility on 28 May 1623. Alexandre represents the most likely continuation of the direct ancestral line following Claude II.

Arms: Arms borne upon the restoration of hereditary nobility, 28 May 1623

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Nicolas Le Clerc

16241660

Son of Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny and father of Alexandre II Le Clerc; the generation through which the direct ancestral line is carried across the mid-seventeenth century in Lorraine.

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Alexandre II Le Clerc

16521695

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.

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François 'Pierre' Le Claire

1684?

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.

Arms: Arms of the Le Claire line, as carried into the eighteenth century

Marriage to Jacqueline Antoinette Catherine Van der Vyvere

Jean Pierre Le Claire, Très Noble Seigneur

17181793

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.

Arms: Arms of the Le Claire line, as carried into the eighteenth century

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'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire

24 June 175429 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.

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Johann Baptiste Le Clair

1796?

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

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Gottfried Leclair

18421915

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

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Julius Leclair

18801961

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.

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Bernhardine Licklär

19201978

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.

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Monika Ute Licklär

1944?

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