From Colin Le Clerc to today

Échevin

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

Sieur de Pulligny

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

Arms: Arms granted upon ennoblement, 1464…

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

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

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.

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…

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.

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.

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…

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…

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.

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

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