Le Grelle family
The Le Grelle family is a family of imperial, Dutch, Papal, and Belgian nobility.
Origins
The Le Grelle lineage began with Jean in 1586 in Mainvault, near Ath.The Le Grelle's in International Trade in the 17th and 18th centuries
In 1670, Guillaume Le Grelle, a native of Ath, the great-grandson of Jean, was received as a bourgeois in the city of Antwerp. His son François, a textile merchant, is the common ancestor of the noble branches.The two eldest sons of François Le Grelle, Guillaume-François and Jean-François, took their first successful steps in the field of international trade in the early 18th century. Following the closure of the Scheldt River and the port of Antwerp since the end of the 17th century, some private shipowners obtained patent letters stating the authorization to fit out armed vessels bound for India in 1714. On December 19, 1722, the emperor Charles VI granted the establishment of a Company of the Indies, Ostend Company, in Ostend. At the time, Ostend was a fishing center of commercial importance, and a deeper and sheltered port was built there at the beginning of the 17th century.
Guillaume-François Le Grelle (1701–1771) and Jean-François Le Grelle (1703–1759)
The two brothers founded a trading company in Ostend. From 1730 to 1750, they imported textiles, silk, sugar, cocoa, tea, and porcelain from England, Portugal and China in collaboration with the Swedish East India Company. At that time the Le Grelle's were also part of the shareholders of the Ostend and Trieste Companies. From 1754, Guillaume-François and Jean François became industrialists. In 1732, their trading company had its headquarters in their house "De Grooten Gulden Schilt" on the High Street in Antwerp. Jean-François Le Grelle was also a judge and lived in the castle of Morckhoven.Jean-Guillaume Le Grelle (1733–1812)
Jean-Guillaume, the eldest son of Guillaume-François, had sugar factories and a cotton printing press, which employed 576 workers in 1770. His company had obtained exclusivity for the Austrian Netherlands. In 1807, he acquired the castle of Selsaeten in Wommelgem. By succession, the castle was passed on to the.Gérard Le Grelle (1713–1771)
The last grandson of François, Gerard Le Grelle began trading in silk around 1740. After his death in 1771, his widow, Catherine Oliva, continued the trade. In 1756, the sugar refinery Huysmans & Cie or De Belle was founded. The shareholders of these companies included François J. Moretus.Gérard-François Le Grelle (1747–1800)
Gérard-François, the son of Gérard and alderman of Antwerp, was appointed deputy in 1785 for the Austrian East India Company. The family acquired several castles in the Antwerp region. These included, in addition to the castle of Selsaeten in Wommelgem, Rameyen, Gestel, Morckhoven, Middelheim, Berchem, Doggenhout, Munsterbilzen, Boterberg, Wuustwezel, as well as many mansions in the Meir or rue Longue-Hôpital.The Le Grelle's in Banking
In the early 18th century, the Le Grelle family founded a bank with the children and grandchildren of Gérard Le Grelle and Catherine Oliva distinguishing themselves in this activity during the tumultuous periods at the end of the 18th century.Joseph J. Le Grelle (1764–1822)
The youngest son of Gérard Le Grelle and Catherine Oliva, Joseph J. Le Grelle founded the Joseph J. Le Grelle Bank in 1792 at the age of 27. The bank was the oldest bank in the country after the Banque Nagelmackers, founded in 1747. During the French domination in 1792 and the years of terror of the Revolution in 1793, the reliquary of Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew, the inseparable companion of Teresa of Avila, considered to be the protector of Antwerp, was hidden in the bank's vaults and then in Joseph Le Grelle's linen cabinet.In a letter from his son, Count Gérard Le Grelle, addressed to Father Marcel Bouix SJ, the story is told that Joseph Le Grelle, having contracted a serious illness, was cured by Anne de Saint-Barthélémy. Joseph J. Le Grelle was later taken hostage and brought to Paris in 1794. He was not released until after the fall of Robespierre. Until the foundation of the National Bank of Belgium in 1850, the Joseph J. Le Grelle Bank was among the few private banks to issue banknotes. Upon Joseph J. Le Grelle's death, the bank was taken over by his widow, Maria Theresia Cambier, and his sons Gérard, Jean, and Henri Joseph. The Joseph J. Le Grelle Bank was an important indirect financier of the Belgian Colonization Company in Guatemala, an ill-prepared expedition that ended in failure. In 1854, faced with the Colonization Company's inability to repay one of its debtors, the bank found itself the owner of 10,640 hectares in Guatemala. The family had lost track of its land since 7 October 1940 but has now taken steps to recover it by hiring an attorney in 2020 to look into the matter. The Joseph J. Le Grelle bank merged through the Bank of Antwerp and the with Fortis Bank in 1962.
Joseph-Guillaume Le Grelle (1795–1880)
Son of Joseph J. Le Grelle, he founded the Bank Joseph Guillaume Le Grelle in Brussels. He was commissioner of the Bank of Belgium and founder of the Banque Foncière. He was the Knight of Order of St. Gregory the Great and of the Order of St Sylvester.Henri Le Grelle (1798–1872)
Henri Le Grelle was the founder of the Commercial Bank of Antwerp. He was also a major shareholder in the incorporation of numerous Antwerp companies. A renowned genealogist, he collected many genealogical trees of families of the Antwerp bourgeoisie. Those documents form the basis of the archives of the Le Grelle Family Association. Henri Le Grelle was married to Julie Le Grelle. The couple had a chapel named after them in the Cathedral of Our Lady.Count August Le Grelle (1817–1891)
Count August Le Grelle, banker at the Joseph J. Le Grelle Bank, was one of the co-founders of the Antwerp Mortgage Bank in 1881, along with his son Count Emile Le Grelle and his brother Count Stanislas Le Grelle. In 1999, Axa Royale Belge took over Anhyp's banking activities. He was the honorary member of the academic body of the University of Antwerp and treasurer of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, one of the oldest institutions of its kind in Europe. It was founded in 1663 by David Teniers the Younger, painter to the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and Don Juan of Austria. Count August Le Grelle was a member of the commission of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, President of the Peter's Pence, Knight of the Order of Leopold, Commander of the Order of Saint Sylvester and founder of the Chapel of the Most Holy Sacrament, located in the Rue du Ciel in Antwerp. He was a patron of the painter Nicaise de Keyser, among others.Many members of the Le Grelle family were bank managers or directors. Count Oscar Le Grelle was the director of the Crédit Anversois; Count Gaston Le Grelle was the managing director of Bank P. Kok & Co in The Hague ; Count Max Le Grelle served as the managing director of Bank Max Le Grelle & Co in Delft, and Émile Le Grelle was the administrator of the Bank of Brussels and Stanislas of the Bank of Antwerp.
The Le Grelle's in Politics
Politics has always been important in the Le Grelle family. Since the mid-eighteenth century, the family was responsible for the political management of the city of Antwerp.Henri-Jacques Le Grelle (1753–1826)
Henri-Jacques Le Grelle was the alderman of Antwerp and licentiatus in law from the University of Louvain in 1779. In 1790, he swore an oath of loyalty to the Republic of the United States of Belgium and is one of three authors of the 1790 Belgian Constitution. The Constitution of the Republic of the United States of Belgium later formed an important foundation for the Belgian Constitution adopted by the National Congress in 1831. As a squire, Henri-Jacques Le Grelle was ennobled by patent letters from Emperor Francis II, dated 29 January 1794. Together with Joseph Jean Le Grelle, he was among the hostages taken by the French in Het Steen on 7 August 1794, as security for war contribution payments on the Antwerp fortunes. He married Madeleine van Pruyssen.Count Gérard Le Grelle (1793–1871)
Count Gérard Le Grelle, the son of Joseph J. Le Grelle, was a banker and set up the insurance companies Securitas and L'Escaut. His situation was hardly comfortable, as the business world was increasingly supporting the Orangism for fear of seeing the Scheldt blocked again by The Netherlands. A supporter of Belgium since his schooling in Brussels with Professor Jean-Baptiste Lesbroussart, Gérard asserted himself, between 1815 and 1830, by categorically refusing any administrative or political office under the Dutch regime and even turning down a proposal to be appointed town councilor. He preferred instead to concentrate his energy on the city of Antwerp and his bank. Together with his brothers Henri and Edmond, he was a driving force behind the bank, which played an important role in financing the city of Antwerp after the independence of Belgium in 1830. Together with the Rothschild Bank, the Le Grelle Bank was also among the major financiers of the Papal States prior to the unification of Italy through the Peter's Pence in 1854 and 1864. Count Gérard Le Grelle's name remains attached to a famous petition for religious freedom in 1825, which earned him Rome's support in 1852.In 1830, he was a member of the National Congress for the province of Antwerp and then a member of the Chamber of Representatives. He was the first Mayor Burgomaster of Antwerp after independence and held this position for eighteen years. But, he refused a post as Minister of Finance in the government of Belgium.
It was Count Gérard Le Grelle who, in 1836, decided to build the second rail link in Belgium between Mechelen and Antwerp and was the architect of the Iron Rhine, a railway between Antwerp and Mönchengladbach to transport goods from the port of Antwerp. His many other initiatives included the improvement of the navigability of the Scheldt, the construction of quays, the repurchase of the toll on the Scheldt from the Dutch, and the construction of the Bourla Theatre. He also created the Rubens festivals in 1840 to create the blossoming of a Belgian atmosphere similar to that which existed at the time of Rubens. Gerard and his son Augustus were also great patrons of the arts, and supported among others Nicaise de Keyser, who gave his name to De Keyserlei street.
At the death of his uncle Henri-Jacques Le Grelle on 19 January 1826, Gerard Le Grelle obtained with his brothers the reversion of the recognition of nobility obtained by Henri-Jacques on 31 July 1822, in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On 7 September 1852, Pope Pius IX conferred the title of Count on Gerard Le Grelle, which could be passed on to his legitimate descendants. On 10 August 1853, King Leopold I granted him the authorization to bear this title in Belgium, but it was transmissible only by order of male primogeniture. On 8 February 1871, King Leopold II extended the title of Count to all the descendants of Gérard Le Grelle.