Le Claire

Ancien Régime

Pierre Leclaire

c. 1680, c. 1730

Lorraine

Represents the emergence of the later Leclaire surname whilst preserving the family's ancestral roots in Lorraine. Direct ancestor of the modern House through his son Louis Jean Baptiste Leclaire.

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.

Children. Father of Louis Jean Baptiste Leclaire, through whom the direct bloodline of the modern House continues into the nineteenth-century Rhineland and ultimately to the present generation.

Position in the Direct Line

Pierre Leclaire is a collateral figure of the wider House and is not part of the continuous bloodline shown on the home-page pedigree. Their branch descends from Alexandre II Le Clerc in the direct line.

Historical context

Pierre Leclaire (c. 1680, c. 1730) stands as the figure through whom the family fully assumes its modern surname. By his generation the variant spellings used by his Le Clerc forebears have resolved into the single French form Leclaire, recorded consistently in parish and civil registers.

He represents continuity rather than rupture: the ancestral roots of the Le Clerc de Pulligny lineage of Lorraine carried forward, under a new spelling, into the modern era of the family. Through him the direct line of the House passes from the historic Le Clerc de Pulligny branch, by way of his father Alexandre II Le Clerc, Minor Lord of Lorraine, into the documented eighteenth-century Leclaire family.

Significance & legacy

Pierre Leclaire is the hinge generation between the historic Lorraine family and the modern Leclaire line, the moment at which the family fully assumes the spelling under which it would carry forward into the Revolutionary, Napoleonic and modern periods.

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

Pierre Leclaire 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.

No documented descent chain is recorded from Pierre Leclaire to the present generation.

Related entities

Other documented people, family branches, places and armorial records connected to this entry in the archive.

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.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/pierre-leclaire