Le Claire

Revolution & Empire

Théodore François Joseph Leclaire

⚭Anne Marie Burger

18 October 1752, 13 January 1811

Dendermonde, East Flanders

Général de division of the Armies of the Republic and Empire · Commander of the Legion of Honour · Chevalier of the Royal and Military Order of Saint-Louis

French general of the Revolution and Empire. Commander of the Legion of Honour and Chevalier of Saint-Louis. Hero of Hondschoote (1793), commander of the 16th military division at Saint-Omer, and finally commander of Strasbourg until his death in 1811.

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 Jean Pierre Leclaire (1718–1793) and Jacqueline Antoinette Marie Catherine Van der Vyvere (1726–1789).

Spouse. Anne Marie Burger.

Married Anne Marie Burger on 31 December 1776 at Kientzheim. Witnesses included François Pierre de Leclaire, François Ignace Burger, Pierre François de Watrigant, and Jean Baptiste Chauffour, lawyer at the Sovereign Council of Colmar.

Children. Issue with Anne Marie Burger: Marie Thérèse Leclaire (1777–1840); Pierre Théodore Ignace Leclaire (1779–1858), chevalier of the Legion of Honour and holder of the Croix de Saint-Louis; Jean Baptiste Ignace Leclaire (1780–1851); Sophie Barbe Leclaire (1782–1844); François Théodore Ignace Leclaire (1783–1859), officer of the Legion of Honour and holder of the Croix de Saint-Louis; Adélaïde Joséphine Leclaire (b. 1784); Louis Leclaire (b. 1786); Marie Louise Leclaire (b. 1788); Eléonore Caroline Leclaire (1791–1800); Frédéric Joseph Benjamin Leclaire (1797–1855).

Position in the Direct Line

Théodore François Joseph 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 Jean Pierre Le Claire, Très Noble Seigneur in the direct line.

Historical context

Théodore François Joseph Leclaire was born on 18 October 1752 in Dendermonde, East Flanders, and died at Strasbourg on 13 January 1811, aged 58. He was buried at Kientzheim, Haut-Rhin, Alsace.

He entered service as a soldier in the Anhalt Regiment, became sous-lieutenant in 1764 and lieutenant en premier in 1768. He served in the Corsican campaign (1767–1770), was appointed captain second class in the Brittany Regiment in 1777, then first captain second class of the second battalion of Salm-Salm (formerly Anhalt), and was promoted major in the Bouillon Regiment in 1786. He was made Chevalier de Saint-Louis in 1787.

Promoted colonel in 1791, he commanded the 96th and then the 98th Infantry Regiments, fighting at Jemappes and Liège in 1792. Promoted general of brigade in 1793, he fought against the troops of the Duke of York at Wormhout and Esquelbecq, retook the château at Esquelbecq, and advanced by Bergues and Warhem to Hondschoote. He played a major role in the Battle of Hondschoote (6–8 September 1793), his command, the 32nd division of the gendarmerie, later bore 'Hondschoote 1793' upon its flag, and was raised to général de division.

In 1795 he commanded the 16th military division at Saint-Omer, then went to Lille in connection with operations in the Holland campaign. In Year IV he served with the Army of the Rhine and Moselle under General Pichegru. In 1796 he commanded the district of Colmar and made arrangements to assist General Moreau's retreat during the Rhine crossing. At the end of 1796 the Directory appointed him Inspector General of the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse, though ill health prevented his acceptance. In 1797 he was placed at the disposal of the Minister of War for command of a territorial division.

He commanded Lille in 1800. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1803, Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1804, and at the end of 1804 was given command of Strasbourg, where he died on 13 January 1811. He stands as the culmination of centuries of Leclaire service, discipline, office and honour.

Commissioned under the Ancien Régime, Théodore served through the upheavals of 1789, the wars of the Republic and the Empire, a career that carried him through Corsica, Jemappes, Liège, Hondschoote, the Rhine and finally Strasbourg.

He is one of the comparatively rare officers whose career, decoration and standing survived the rupture of the monarchy: Chevalier de Saint-Louis under the King, Commander of the Legion of Honour under the Emperor.

Significance & legacy

Théodore is the most heraldically and militarily distinguished documented figure of the eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Leclaire family, the high-water mark of the family's French military standing.

He is a collateral ancestor of the modern House, not a direct one: the bloodline of the present House of LeClaire descends through his younger brother 'Louis Benjamin' Jean Baptiste Alexis Leclaire (1754–1825), through whom the name passes into the Rhineland as Le Clair and ultimately Licklär, and is restored in the present generation as LeClaire.

From the Anhalt Regiment of 1764 to the command of Strasbourg in 1804, his life touched several defining theatres of the age. His role at Hondschoote was particularly significant, and his later command of Strasbourg places him among the serious military administrators of the Empire.

Known records & evidence

  • Documented record, French military registers of the Ancien Régime, the Republic and the First Empire.[1]
  • Documented record, rolls of the Royal and Military Order of Saint-Louis and the Legion of Honour.[2]
  • Documented record, parish register, Kientzheim (marriage to Anne Marie Burger, 31 December 1776).[3]
  • Documented record, burial register, Kientzheim, 1811.[4]

Lineage explorer

Théodore François Joseph 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 Théodore François Joseph Leclaire to the present generation.

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.Documented record, French military registers of the Ancien Régime, the Republic and the First Empire.↩
    Primary Source
    Full reference: Documented record, French military registers of the Ancien Régime, the Republic and the First Empire.
  2. 2.Documented record, rolls of the Royal and Military Order of Saint-Louis and the Legion of Honour.↩
    Contemporary Record
    Full reference: Documented record, rolls of the Royal and Military Order of Saint-Louis and the Legion of Honour.
  3. 3.Documented record, parish register, Kientzheim (marriage to Anne Marie Burger, 31 December 1776).↩
    Primary Source
    Full reference: Documented record, parish register, Kientzheim (marriage to Anne Marie Burger, 31 December 1776).
  4. 4.Documented record, burial register, Kientzheim, 1811.↩
    Primary Source
    Full reference: Documented record, burial register, Kientzheim, 1811.
  5. 5.↩

    House of LeClaire

    Published Genealogy
    Full reference: LeClaire Family Historical Archive, House of LeClaire — https://leclaire.co.uk/historical-archive
  6. 6.↩

    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/
  7. 7.↩

    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/
  8. 8.↩

    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/
  9. 9.↩

    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
  10. 10.↩

    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
  11. 11.↩

    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/
  12. 12.↩

    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/
  13. 13.↩

    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/
  14. 14.↩

    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/
  15. 15.↩

    Belgian State Archives, parish registers and notarial records of East Flanders and the Land van Waas.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Rijksarchief in België / Archives de l'État en Belgique, Belgian State Archives, parish registers and notarial records of East Flanders and the Land van Waas. — https://www.arch.be/
  16. 16.↩

    City Archive of Antwerp; civil and parish records relevant to the Van der Vyvere line.

    Published Scholarly Research
    Full reference: Felixarchief, Stadsarchief Antwerpen, City Archive of Antwerp; civil and parish records relevant to the Van der Vyvere line. — https://felixarchief.antwerpen.be/

Canonical URL: https://leclaire.co.uk/people/theodore-francois-joseph-leclaire