Le Claire

Ancien Régime

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

François 'Pierre' Le Claire

⚭Marie-Anne Du Moine (known locally as “Nanon”)

1684, ?

Lorraine / Alsace frontier

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.

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 Alexandre II Le Clerc (1652–1695), Minor Lord of Lorraine.

Spouse. Marie-Anne Du Moine (known locally as “Nanon”).

Married Marie-Anne Du Moine, known locally as “Nanon”, the familiar Lorraine diminutive by which she appears in parish and household records.

Children. Father of Jean Pierre Le Claire (1718–1793), through whom the direct ancestral line continues.

Position in the Direct Line

Generation 10 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 7·Le Clerc

    Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny

    1585

  2. Generation 8·Le Clerc

    Nicolas Le Clerc

    1624

  3. Generation 9·Le Clerc

    Alexandre II Le Clerc

    1652

  4. Generation 10·Le Claire

    François 'Pierre' Le Claire

    1684

  5. Generation 11·Le Claire

    Jean Pierre Le Claire, Très Noble Seigneur

    1718

  6. Generation 12·Leclaire

    'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire

    24 June 1754

  7. Generation 13·Le Clair

    Johann Baptiste Le Clair

    1796

Historical context

François 'Pierre' Le Claire (b. 1684) stands at the junction between the old Leclerc de Pulligny family of Lorraine and the later Le Claire family of the eighteenth century. By his generation the family name is consistently registered in parish books under the spelling Le Claire, marking the visible transition from the earlier Le Clerc house into the documented Le Claire line.

He lived during the reign of Louis XIV and the integration of Alsace into the Kingdom of France, the moment in which the family began the long eastward movement that would carry it across the Rhine. Through him the direct line continues to his son Jean Pierre Le Claire and ultimately to the modern Le Claire descendants.

Significance & legacy

François 'Pierre' is the first fully documented Le Claire generation in the direct line, the bridge between the Pulligny noble house of Lorraine and the eighteenth-century Le Claire family.

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

François 'Pierre' Le Claire 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

10 generations of the documented bloodline

  1. 1
    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.

  2. 2
    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.

  3. 3
    '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.

  4. 4
    Johann Baptiste Le Clair1796, ?

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

  5. 5
    Gottfried Leclair1842, 1915

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

  6. 6
    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.

  7. 7
    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.

  8. 8
    Monika Ute Licklär1944, ?

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

  9. 9
    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.

  10. 10
    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.↩

    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/
  10. 10.↩

    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/
  11. 11.↩

    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/
  12. 12.↩

    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/francois-pierre-le-claire