Ancien Régime
François 'Pierre' Le Claire
1684 – ?
Lorraine / Alsace frontier
⚭ Marie-Anne Du Moine (known locally as “Nanon”)
- Noble marriage
Or, a leopard rampant gules armed and langued azure; on a chief azure three bezants or.
Explore in Armorial →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.
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.
Biographical Record
Parents+
Son of Alexandre II Le Clerc (1652–1695), Minor Lord of Lorraine.
Spouse+
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.
Family Significance+
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.
Direct Line
9 generations to Brandon Noble LeClaire
Story Mode
Their chapter in the dynastyFrançois 'Pierre' Le Claire belongs to the Ancien Régime. Born around 1684 in Lorraine / Alsace frontier, the line continued through their hand. They stand at generation 10 of 19 in the documented bloodline that leads to the present House of Greenland-LeClaire.
The ancien régime shaped every aspect of François's world — its laws of inheritance, its wars, its faith and its limits.
Marriage to Marie-Anne Du Moine (known locally as “Nanon”) bound the line to a wider noble network. Their children carried the name into the next generation.
In France, Louis XIV the Sun King ruled. Lorraine answered to Charles V (titular). Across the wider world, revocation of the edict of nantes was reshaping events.
Through François, the House continued — its name, its arms and its memory carried forward to every generation that followed, down to Brandon Noble LeClaire.
The World They Lived In
François's lifetime · 1684–1744
Who governed their world
- King of FranceLouis XIV the Sun King
- Duke of LorraineCharles V (titular)
- Holy Roman EmperorLeopold I
- PopeInnocent XI
Contemporary figures
- Pierre CorneilleDramatist · 1606–1684
- Antonie van LeeuwenhoekMicroscopist · 1632–1723
- J. S. BachComposer · 1685–1750
- VoltairePhilosophe · 1694–1778
Major events during their life
- Revocation of the Edict of Nantes1685 · France
- Lorraine to Stanislas Leszczyński1737 · Lorraine
Father-in-law of Louis XV; Lorraine becomes effectively French.
Dynasty Explorer
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Legacy Flow
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How Did I Get Here?
Path from François to Brandon