Laurent Clerc Was Of The Gentry?

There is some evidence that Laurent only made it to Paris and then to America due to him being part of the gentry of La Balmes-les-Grottes. We know that his father was the royal notary or mayor of the village until his death. He survived the Revolution but did not have the money to send Laurent to the school in Paris, requiring that his godfather, Laurent, fuding his first year there in 1797. Laurent certainly resembles a landed gentry of the times, here portrayed in 1822 by Charles Willson Peale.

Thanks to Sylvain Convert, historian in the town of La Balme we have some records of the Clerc property holdings. Now, we are not sure about which Clerc family members this document references but they seem to have some significant property. Prehaps you have an eye for these kind of documents and can give us some clarity?

We also have a document and a will and testament of François Claude Guy Clerc, Laurent's youngest brother, in 1830 that may indeed include some of these properties?

What we do know is that Laurent was not interested in owning land in France while he struggled to feed his family in Hartford, CT. In a letter to Massieu and Sicard he complained about the high cost of food in America. Laurent appears to have liquidated his holdings and pocketing those French francs for lean times.

-Laurent-