Le Claire

Medieval

Colin Le Clerc

⚭Marguerite Petitgout

Lorraine, France

Échevin

Échevin, a civic figure within the early Lorraine line, reflecting the family's early standing in municipal and regional life.

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 Mengin Le Clerc and Catherine de Gircourt, daughter of Jacques de Gircourt and Catherine de Haute-Pierre.

Spouse. Marguerite Petitgout.

Married Marguerite Petitgout (born c. 1390–1410, likely in or around Mirecourt), recorded in earlier genealogies only as 'N. Petitgout' before later reconstructions restored her Christian name. She was the daughter of Richart dit le Favart Petitgout, wealthy merchant, civic magistrate and Mayor of Mirecourt, and his wife Hauvix, who together founded a charitable hospital in the town. Through her, the Petitgout inheritance passed into the Le Clerc line and was formally recognised in 1461, when her grandson Nicole Le Clerc de Pulligney was declared 'plus proche hoir' (closest heir) of Richart Petitgout. Many historians consider this inheritance a significant factor in the emergence of the Le Clerc de Pulligney family as an influential noble house of Lorraine.

Children. Father of Jacques Le Clerc and Jehan Leclerc de Pulligney, through whom the line passes into the ennobled branch.

Position in the Direct Line

Generation 2 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 1·Le Clerc

    Mengin Le Clerc

    c. 1310

  2. Generation 2·Le Clerc

    Colin Le Clerc

  3. Generation 3·Leclerc

    Jehan Leclerc de Pulligny

    c. 1410

  4. Generation 4·Le Clerc

    Mengin II Le Clerc

  5. Generation 5·Leclerc

    Claude Leclerc de Pulligny

    c. 1485

Historical context

Colin Le Clerc forms the bridge between the first documented Le Clerc generation and the later ennobled branch at Nancy. As the son of Mengin Le Clerc and Catherine de Gircourt, he inherited a family position already connected to property, local authority and noble alliances.

He held the office of échevin, a magistracy of standing within the municipal life of medieval Lorraine. Through his descendants, the family moved closer to the civic and ducal world of Nancy.

His marriage to Marguerite Petitgout, daughter of the wealthy Mirecourt magistrate and mayor Richart dit le Favart Petitgout and his wife Hauvix, brought the Le Clerc line into alliance with one of the most prosperous bourgeois houses of medieval Lorraine. The Petitgout inheritance, formally recognised in 1461 when their grandson Nicole Le Clerc de Pulligney was declared 'plus proche hoir' (closest heir) of Richart Petitgout, is widely regarded as a key factor in the family's rapid social ascent during the fifteenth century.

Colin Le Clerc served as échevin, a magistracy of standing within the municipal order of medieval Lorraine, charged with the administration of civic justice and the supervision of public affairs.

Significance & legacy

His office anchors the family within the governing class of its commune in the generation following Mengin, confirming continuity of standing across the early fifteenth century.

Through Colin the early Le Clerc line was carried forward into the generation that would, with Jehan Leclerc de Pulligny, enter the recognised noble and seigneurial world of Lorraine.

Known records & evidence

  • Genealogical source tradition, early Lorraine civic and notarial registers.[1]

Lineage explorer

Colin 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

18 generations of the documented bloodline

  1. 1
    Colin Le Clerc?, ?

    Échevin

    Échevin, a civic figure within the early Lorraine line, reflecting the family's early standing in municipal and regional life.

  2. 2
    Jehan Leclerc de Pullignyc. 1410, c. 1465

    Sieur de Pulligny

    Ennobled by letters patent on 3 January 1464. Through him the House enters the recognised noble and seigneurial order of Lorraine.

  3. 3
    Mengin II Le Clerc?, ?

    Continuation of the Pulligny line, an important bridge between the early civic family and the later noble branches.

  4. 4
    Claude Leclerc de Pullignyc. 1485, 1562

    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.

  5. 5
    Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny1532, 1598

    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.

  6. 6
    Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny1585, after 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.

  7. 7
    Nicolas Le Clerc1624, 1660

    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.

  8. 8
    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.

  9. 9
    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.

  10. 10
    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.

  11. 11
    '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.

  12. 12
    Johann Baptiste Le Clair1796, ?

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

  13. 13
    Gottfried Leclair1842, 1915

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

  14. 14
    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.

  15. 15
    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.

  16. 16
    Monika Ute Licklär1944, ?

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

  17. 17
    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.

  18. 18
    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, early Lorraine civic and notarial registers.↩
    Primary Source
    Full reference: Genealogical source tradition, early Lorraine civic and notarial registers.
  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/colin-le-clerc