Le Clerc Family

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The Le Clerc family, later known as Le Claire, is a family of Lorraine, established in Nancy, whose members entered the service of the Dukes of Lorraine from the fifteenth century onwards.

History

Mengin Le Clerc (1310–1360) is the ancestor of the Le Clerc family. His wife was the daughter and sister of squires, the Gircourt family. The name Leclerc became Leclerc de Pulligny partly because his wife was the sister-in-law of a member of the Pulligny family. Some members of the Le Clerc family, such as Jehan Leclerc, are referred to as “de Pulligney”. Mengin Le Clerc was from Deyvillers (Épinal), but according to Le Pays Lorrain, the Le Clerc family originated in Remiremont.

Jehan Leclerc de Pulligney, known as Chappellain, born around 1395 in Remiremont in the present-day Vosges department, and who died after 25 October 1464, certainly in Nancy, served between 1416 and 1420 as keeper of the coffers and jewels of Duke Charles II of Lorraine (1364–1431). Jehan Leclerc de Pulligney signed the letters revoking the banishments and proscriptions pronounced against the Duke of Burgundy and his supporters, by rulings of Parliament or by commission, in Paris on 9 June 1418. He became a burgess of Nancy in 1429. After his victory over the Metz, Duke Charles II of Lorraine stayed in 1431 in the house that would later become that of Jehan Le Clerc. Jehan Leclerc de Pulligney was ennobled by Duke René of Lorraine on 3 January 1464.

Many members of the Le Clerc family played a role at the Court of Nancy.

The nobility granted in 1464 was not hereditary, since his grandsons, Claude Leclerc de Pulligny and Thierry Le Clerc de Rouillé, were ennobled by Duke Antoine of Lorraine on 1 March 1512.

Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny had his property seized by the Duke of Lorraine. His sons, Jean Le Clerc and Alexandre Le Clerc, were made Knights of Saint Mark and were to receive letters granting them hereditary nobility on 28 May 1623. Their grandfather was already a squire, lord of Pulligny, Ceintrey, Voinémont, Malaucourt-sur-Seille, Chamagne, Érize-Saint-Dizier and Saint-Dizier.

In later records, the family name appears in the form Le Claire, reflecting an orthographic evolution of Le Clerc rather than the establishment of a separate lineage.

Lines of descent between notable individuals

Jehan Leclerc de Pulligney (c. 1410–1465), including:

Mengin Le Clerc (often referred to as Mengin II, c. 1450–1510) was a prominent merchant and civic official in Nancy. He was appointed tabellion-juré (sworn notary) of the city in 1484 and later served as Maître de la Monnaie of Nancy during the late fifteenth century. Following the establishment of municipal governance, he also acted as governor of Nancy on several occasions. His economic and administrative roles contributed to the consolidation of the family’s position within the duchy, preceding the ennoblement of his descendants under Duke Antoine of Lorraine.

Thierry Le Clerc de Roville (c. 1490– ), ennobled by Duke Antoine of Lorraine on 1 March 1512 with his brother Claude. They bore: Or, a leopard gules, armed, langued and crowned azure, with a chief of the same charged with three bezants or.

Pierre Le Clerc de Roville (c. 1540– ), married Alix de Billy (c. 1550– ).

Marguerite Le Clerc de Roville (c. 1570 – after 1606), married in 1592 Nicolas de Gondrecourt (c. 1560–1633), advocate at Saint-Mihiel, councillor at the Court of the Grands Jours, president of the Grands Jours of Commercy in 1633, Councillor of State of Lorraine and ambassador to Mainz. Son of a Councillor of State under Duke Charles III, he was sent to Spain in 1606.

Claude Leclerc de Pulligny (c. 1485–1562), married Catherine de Trèves de Xirocourt (c. 1515–1581), sister of Gilles de Trèves.

Claudon Le Clerc (1535–1603), married in 1546 Nicolas de Lescut de Saint-Germain (c. 1505–1581).

Barbe Le Clerc (1536–1585), married in 1554 Jean de Lescut de Saint-Germain (1505–1581), vice-bailiff of Nancy, notary in Nancy and deputy bailiff, count of the Holy Roman Empire, lord of Pixéricourt and Malzéville.

Jean Le Clerc (1538– ), treasurer to Charles III of Lorraine (1543–1608), councillor-auditor in the Chamber of Accounts of Lorraine, married in 1567 Élisabeth Champenois de Nogent, a creditor of the Duke, who granted her an annuity of 367 écus, in addition to that of 1607 which she already received jointly with her brother, assigned as first charge on the revenues of the County of Vaudémont.

Marie Le Clerc (1541– ), married Nicolas Humbelot (1520–1560), son of the lord of Serqueux and Langres in Champagne. Nicolas was bailiff of Châtillon-sur-Seine and was ennobled by letters of nobility from Charles III of Lorraine on 23 February 1565.

Pierre Leclerc du Vivier (1530–1598), married in 1561 Anne Fériet de Varangéville (1540–1612).

Chrestienne Leclerc du Vivier (1563–1598), married Charles Bailly du Séjour.

Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny (d. 1598), married firstly in 1580 Claudon Galland de Pulligny (1552–1582), buried in the nave of the church of Pulligny, daughter of Mengin and Françoise du Gaillard; married secondly in 1583 Claudon Mengin de Pulligny (1550–1626). These were two distinct individuals; Claudon Galland de Pulligny died in 1582, while Claudon Mengin de Pulligny, whom Claude married in 1583, belonged to a family of established Lorraine nobility and remained Catholic following her husband’s conversion.

Jean Leclerc de Pulligny (1550–1602), bourgeois merchant in 1579, dean of justice in 1582, then chief alderman of the town of Remiremont in 1587, and finally mayor in 1595. He married Anne Sagay.

Jean Le Clerc (1586–1633), history painter in Rome, Venice and Nancy.

Alix Le Clerc (1576–1622), founder, with Pierre Fourier, of the Congregation of the Canonesses of Saint Augustine of the Congregation of Notre-Dame.

Contemporary genealogical sources note that certain branches of the family maintained Catholic affiliation during periods of religious change in Lorraine.

Eighteenth century lineage and alliances

During the eighteenth century, the Le Claire family formed marital alliances that shaped its later circumstances. Jean Pierre Le Claire married Jacqueline Antoinette Marie Catherine Van der Vyvere. According to the memoir of their son, Théodore François Joseph Le Claire (1752–1811), the marriage was accompanied by a dowry of 90,000 livres. The memoir records this dowry as significant within the context of the period, without attributing to it any grant of noble status or formal title.

Nineteenth and twentieth century name variation

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Le Claire family became established in German speaking regions, including the Rhineland and the Düsseldorf area. In this context, the family name underwent linguistic adaptation, appearing in records in Germanised and variant forms, including Le Claire, Leclaire and Licklär. This alteration reflects contemporaneous orthographic and administrative practices rather than a formal change of lineage. In the early twenty-first century, the family reverted to the historical spelling Le Claire, in order to preserve continuity with the earlier family name as recorded in French sources.

Notable figures

• Mengin Le Clerc (fr)
• Alix Le Clerc
• Jean Le Clerc
• Pierre Leclerc du Vivier (fr)
• Chrestienne Leclerc du Vivier (fr)

  Statue of Chrestienne Leclerc du Vivier at the Louvre Museum.

• Theodore Francois Joseph Le Claire (fr)

  Théodore François Joseph Le Claire (1752–1811) was born in Termonde (then in the Austrian Netherlands) and became a French general during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Rising through the infantry ranks, he commanded French forces at key engagements including Jemappes, was appointed Chevalier de Saint-Louis and later Commandeur of the Légion d’honneur, and ultimately took command of the strategic garrison at Strasbourg, where he died. He should not be confused with General Charles Leclerc (1772–1802), who married Pauline Bonaparte.

Arms

Le Clerc de Pulligney Arms

Le Clerc de Pulligney Arms 15th Century

Brandon Noble Le Claire Coat Of Arms

Le Claire Present Day Arms

↓The family originally bore (circa fifteenth Century):

Or, a leopard gules, armed, langued and crowned azure, with a chief of the same charged with three bezants or.

By the late seventeenth century, the arms had undergone a minor heraldic variation, recorded from approximately the 1690s to the early eighteenth century:

↓Later Iteration (circa seventeenth Century):

Or, a leopard gules, armed, langued azure, with a chief gules charged with three bezants or.

↓Modern blazon:

Arms: Or a Panther incensed passant guardant Gules spotted Or armed langued and crowned with an Ancient Crown Azure on a Chief Gules three Roundels Or.

Crest: Out of an Ancient Crown Azure A Panther's Gamb Gules semy of Roundels holding a Roundel Or.

Motto: De nomine et sanguine (“Of name and blood”)

The present blazon represents a modern assumed coat of arms used in the United Kingdom and does not constitute a historical French grant.

Notes and references

1. Le Pays Lorrain, 1977
2. General Accounts of the Burgundian State between 1416 and 1420
3. Henri Lepage, Le Palais ducal de Nancy, A. Lepage, 1852, p. 15
4. Ambroise Pelletier, Nobiliaire de la Lorraine et du Barrois, Paris, Éditions du Palais Royal
5. Société d’Archéologie Lorraine, Mémoires, 1893, series 3, vol. 21, p. 103
6. Théodore François Joseph Leclaire, Mémoires et correspondance du général Leclaire, 1793: avec une notice sur la famille Leclaire, Paris, R. Chapelot et Cie, 1904.
7. Bulletin de la Société d’archéologie lorraine, 1855, p. 249.

See also

Bibliography

• Ambroise Pelletier, Nobiliaire de Lorraine et du Barrois
• Louis Moréri, Grand Dictionnaire Historique

Related articles

• Famille Le Clerc fr)

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