'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire

Parents. Son of Jean Pierre Le Claire (1718–1793) and Jacqueline Antoinette Marie Catherine Van der Vyvere (1726–1789), through whom the direct line descends from the historic Le Clerc de Pulligny family of Lorraine and is joined to the seigneurial Van de Vyvere of the Land van Waas.

Spouse. Elisabeth J. Grégoire.

Whilst his elder brother Théodore pursued distinction in military service, 'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire carried forward the direct family line. Through Louis, the LeClaire family continued into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, eventually leading to the modern descendants of the house.

Born at Termonde (Dendermonde) in Oost-Vlaanderen on 24 June 1754 and dying at Paris on 29 July 1825, his life spans an extraordinary arc of European history, the Ancien Régime of his birth, the Revolution of his middle years, the First Empire, and the Bourbon Restoration in which he died. By his generation the family name is most often recorded in its single-word French form, Leclaire. Family records preserve him under his everyday name 'Louis Benjamin', with the full baptismal style Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire.

Louis is the direct ancestor of the modern line: from him the descent runs Johann Baptiste Le Clair, Gottfried Leclair, Julius Leclair, Bernhardine Licklär, Monika Ute Licklär, Andrea Michaela Tai-Noble, and Brandon Noble LeClaire. His elder brother Théodore François Joseph Leclaire, Général de division, founded a parallel, and now collateral, military branch.

The direct line preserves a recurring Jean Baptiste naming tradition, Jean Pierre Le Claire → 'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire → Johann Baptiste Le Clair, reflecting the family's French Catholic heritage and providing an additional genealogical link connecting successive generations.