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 (1646-1724), a native of Ath (Hainault), 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 (Escaut) 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 (sugar and paper factories). In 1732, their trading company had its headquarters in their house "De Grooten Gulden Schilt" on the High Street (Hoogstraat) 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 SelsaetenKasteel Selsaeten https://www.wommelgem.be/kasteel-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 (1724-1791), 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 17th 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 (1806-1889), 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 (1793-1871), Jean (1796-1872), and Henri Joseph (1798-1872). 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 (of the elder branch). The couple had a chapel named after them in the Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp).

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 (Caisse hypothécaire anversoise Anhyp) in 1881, along with his son Count Emile Le Grelle and his brother Count Stanislas Le Grelle (1827-1908). 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 (1861-1930) was the director of the "Crédit anversois"; Count Gaston Le Grelle (1880-1938) was the managing director of Bank P. Kok & Co in The Hague (The Netherlands); Count Max Le Grelle (1881-1922) served as the managing director of Bank Max Le Grelle & Co in Delft,G. van Erkelens, Van Corporatie naar Coöperatie, 1910-2000, Delft, 2000, 49 pp. 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 (1749-1831).

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 (1819) and L'Escaut (1821). His situation was hardly comfortable, as the business world was increasingly supporting the Orangism (Dutch Republic) 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 (1798-1872) and Edmond (1805-1876), 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 (which at the time represented a quarter of Italy, from the south of Rome to Bologna) 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 (Germany) 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.

Count Ferdinand Le Grelle (1823-1895)

A banker at the Joseph J. Le Grelle Bank and a politician of the Catholic Party, Count Ferdinand Le Grelle became a Senator of the district of Antwerp in 1885, succeeding John Cogels, son of Senator Frédégand Cogels. He fulfilled this mandate until his death. He was also president of the Peter's Pence, Knight in the Order of Leopold, and Commander of the Order of Saint Sylvester.

Count Max Le Grelle (1881-1922)

Count Max Le Grelle was a city councilor of the city of Delft. Before dying at the age of forty-one, he was very active in business and charity. He founded the Katholieke Woningbouw Vereeniging Sint Hyppolytus, a housing company in Delft that still manages almost 5,000 houses. Max Le Grelle was also the chairman and managing director of the Max Le Grelle Co Bank in Delft, director at the , and director of the Standaard Hypotheek Bank. The Max Le Grelle Bank in Delft merged with ABN-Amro. He was a Knight in the Order of St. Gregory the Great and a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau. He obtained admission into the Dutch nobility for himself and all his descendants, but died without posterity.

Count Daniel Le Grelle (1922-2018)

Count Daniel Le Grelle became a municipal councilor in Antwerp, first as an independent, then as a representative of the Christian Social Party. He was elected in 1958 and remained in office until 1988. He became the founder of the Association for the Preservation of Monuments, which was mainly concerned with the monuments of Antwerp. As a city councilor, he successfully campaigned for the preservation of the Polder municipalities (Berendrecht) that were threatened with extinction due to the expansion of the Port of Antwerp. Count Daniel Le Grelle served as the president of the Belgian-Dutch Association. He participated in the television series ''De Blauwe Gids'' (The Blue Guide), devoted to the Belgian nobility, in which he was presented as an ardent nature lover. He was particularly concerned about the annual heron colonies in Berendrecht. Daniel Le Grelle was a member of the Council of Nobility for eight years, alternating as president every two years with a French-speaking colleague. He actively campaigned for the inclusion of prominent Flemish personalities in the nobility. In 1959, Count Daniel Le Grelle co-founded the Heemkundige Kring van de Antwerpse Polder and the Polder Museum, where he served as its president and honorary president for several decades.

Count Bernard Le Grelle (1948)

Bernard Le Grelle, a journalist, political adviser, writer, and public affairs executive, was the first Belgian to enter the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. He founded and directed ''The Tobago News.'' He was a consul of France at the age of 27 in Tobago and when huge oilfields where found off shore, Winston Murray and A.N.R Robinson, who won the two Tobago seats, were supporting a secession from Trinidad, their London representative asked Le Grelle to join a Shadow cabinet and to be Minister of Foreign Affairs.

As the deputy director of Le Nouvel Économiste, he organized the first French economic mission to China since Mao Zedong in 1978 and served as an intermediary between several governments, including South Korea, the Philippines, the United States and China, and major French industrial groups such as Bouygues, Framatome, Air Liquide, Air France, Accor, Essilor and Thomson.

Bernard Le Grelle was the founder of the first European lobbying agency, a partner of Robert K. Grey Robert, former cabinet secretary of President Dwight Eisenhower, a political advisor, and a university professor at La Sorbonne, St. Gallen and HEC Paris. He is the author of ''Profession Lobbyman'' and worked as an expert for several United Nations agencies, including UNDP, UNITAR, UNESCO, and WHO and as a consultant for Forbes, The International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal. Bernard Le Grelle served as a policy advisor promoting foreign investments and building their countries image for several Prime Ministers, including Pierre Mauroy, Wilfried Martens, and Ruud Lubbers; he organized the official trip to the United States of Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Willy De Clercq.

In 1982, Bernard le Grelle was appointed by the French Presidency as director of the National Air and Space Bicentennial Agency. He became a founding member of the US Bicentennial Committee, co-organizing a conference in the Senate with vice-president George H. Bush and in the White House with President Ronald Reagan. On this latter occasion, the logo of the Bicentennial was signed by the four astronauts of the Space Shuttle Columbia. He convinced Senator Charles Mathias and NASA director Jim Beggs to send the Space Shuttle Enterprise on a European tour that included a visit to the Paris Air Show in 1983. The crowd was thrilled to see the Space Shuttle Enterprise arrive on “piggyback” on top of a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Bernard le Grelle and Senator Charles Mathias initiated the United States Congress Joint Resolution 270, officially designating 1983 as the Year of the Bicentennial of Air and Space.

In December 1982, Bernard Le Grelle, Larry Mihlon, a former advisor to President John F. Kennedy, and Charles Mathias came up with an idea to make the U.S. space program more popular with the U.S. taxpayers. Space shuttle launches had become routine and received little media coverage, being relegated, for example, to the eighth page of The New York Times. The idea was to put a teacher in a shuttle flight, from where she would give lessons to children from space, lessons that would be relayed to all schools in the United States via the public television network PBS. This idea was the genesis of the Teacher in Space Project. In 1985, NASA selected Christa McAuliffe to be the teacher, but she perished in the Challenger shuttle accident along with the crew just 73 seconds after liftoff on the morning of Tuesday, 28 January 1986; the incident was broadcast live on CNN. At this time, Bernard Le Grelle was aboard the Boeing 757 of Eastern Airlines bound to Miami, cruising at 39,000 feet above the Kennedy Space Center, when the explosion occurred. Le Grelle, who was on the telephone with Charles Villeneuve, the managing editor of Europe 1 radio station, became the first and only journalist to report the accident live as he watched the explosion. The report was cited among the great scoops of Europe 1 Radio. The Commanding astronaut of Challenger was Francis (Dick) Scobee, who flew the 747 with the Enterprise to le Bourget in 1983 and met with Le Grelle.

From 1982 to 1986, Bernard Le Grelle, along with James I. Campbell Jr., a former member of Senator Edward Kennedy's staff and advisor to Larry Hillblom, the founder of DHL, were instrumental in breaking up the existing postal monopoly in Europe, opening the way for companies such as FedEx, UPS, TNT and DHL to operate on the European continent. In 1986, he was named advisor to the anti-terrorist group set up at the Elysée Palace in liaison with members of an anti-terrorist group of the American Congress and the National Security Council of the United States.

In 2008, Bernard Le Grelle became the president of the Support Committee for the Nobel Prize in Medicine to Jean-Claude Chermann, the main discoverer of the HIV virus. The committee brought together more than 700 doctors, professors, and scientists, including Professor Robert Gallo, a controversial virologist who also worked on the HIV virus. Bernard le Grelle was received by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who publicly defended Professor Chermann and strongly criticized the Nobel Committee's decision. He was given the honorary Navy Lieutenant status for services rendered to the French Navy. During his career, Bernard Le Grelle was received several times at the White House and has had the opportunity to meet many heads of state and government.

Le Grelle's in the press and industry

The 19th century saw the family's activities diversify into the press and food industries. In 1893, Count Oscar Le Grelle was the co-founder of the fund that bought the shares of N.V. De Vlijt, publisher of the Gazet van Antwerpen, eventually obtaining control of the newspaper. Count Alfred Le Grelle (1872-1948) was the president of N.V. De Vlijt, with the fund still existing under the name K.I.M. (Katholiek Impuls en Media Fonds). The fund is a shareholder of the Catholic newspapers in Flanders, which have grouped together under the name Mediahuis. Count Gérard Le Grelle was among the founders of Liebig with the German Liebig family in Antwerp. A century later, a Le Grelle shareholder of Liebig married a descendant of the founders of Maggi.

The Church and Charity

In Antwerp and its surroundings alone, more than twenty-nine churches and chapels—including the Cathedral, St. Andrew's Church, the Churches of St. Augustine, St. Frederick in Deurne, Our Lady College, the Ursuline school in Wilrijk, the Basilica of Berchem and the small churches of Gestel and Ranst—have stained glass windows or ancient tombstones with the Le Grelle coat of arms.

The family counts three Grand Chaplains ( Grand Aumonier) at the head of the former institution, which in the past took care of the city's poorest citizens long before the creation of Public Centers for Social Welfare (CPAS). The honorable function with a one-year term was very expensive because the Grand Chaplain financed those charitable activities himself. In 1771, 1787 and 1795, Jean-Guillaume, Gérard François, and Joseph J. Le Grelle were Grand Chaplain of Antwerp. In 1824, founded the Maatschappij der Kristelijke Liefdadigheid, which still operates a hospital and manages nursing homes. Numerous convents and religious orders have been able to benefit from Gérard Le Grelle's help. Edmond Le Grelle (1805-1876) married Eulalie Cambier (1806-1862) in 1826, who founded the school of the Ursulines in Wilrijk. Edmond Le Grelle later Marie van Eersel (1815-1866) in 1863 and Bathilde De Wael (1829-1908) in 1867, who set up several schools and hospices in Antwerp. These women made an important contribution to the name Le Grelle. Many members of the Le Grelle family are part of this religious tradition, including Father Aloys, Sisters Thérèse, Marie, Joséphine, Clémence, Engelberte, Madeleine, Agnès, Monsignor Stanislas, Father Maxime, Father Guy and brother Éric. In the Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp), a chapel was consecrated by the Le Grelle family and houses a 19th-century triptych.

Le Grelle's in sports

The family has had some success in the world of sports.

Count Léon Le Grelle (1852-1909)

Count Leon Le Grelle was a coach and jockey at the stables of Baron Creutz, Baron Osy, and Count van Limburg Stirum in The Netherlands. His nephew, Count Gérard, followed the same path; both won numerous prizes.

Countess Diane Le Grelle, known as Pinky (1952)

Diane (Pinky) Le Grelle was the first woman to excel at mixed skeet shooting at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics for Great Britain.

Count Daniel Le Grelle (1922-2018)

Count Daniel le Grelle was a member of the Belgian Olympic Committee for years. He reorganized it and it is now called the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (COIB). The purpose of the new entity was to help young athletes reach international levels. Count Daniel Le Grelle's work with the committee earned him the Silver Medal of Merit of the Olympic Order. He was close to Jacques Rogge, eighth president of the International Olympic Committee, the supreme authority of the Olympic movement.

Sébastien Le Grelle (1974)

Sébastien Le Grelle started motorcycling with motocross, competing in motorcycle speed contests beginning in 1995. Very quickly, success was achieved in the promotional categories. In 2000, he took part in eight races at the 2000 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season in the 500cc category. In 2001, he returned to his favorite categories with the same success. He was crowned Belgian champion several times.

Baron Charles Bracht (1915-1978)

A cousin by marriage, Baron Charles Bracht was an outstanding alpine skier; he competed in the men's combined event at the Fourth Winter Olympic Games of 1936 (the first to include alpine skiing) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

The Le Grelle's today

From Antwerp to New Zealand

Today, the name of Le Grelle maintains a strong Antwerp connotation, but the majority of the family no longer lives in the city. Instead, the Le Grelle's are found in Walloon Brabant and France, after a generation spent in the Belgian Congo. Some are Canadian, including the children of Countess Marie-Antoinette Le Grelle and Canadian Ambassador Keith MacLellan. Others have emigrated to New Zealand.

Descendants of the Seven Noble Houses of Brussels

All Le Grelle's descend at least once from the Seven Noble Houses of Brussels and, among others, from , , and and part of the family through alliances with the van Ursel, van de Werve, t'Kint, della Faille, de Bergeyck, de Smet, de Robiano, van der Beken Pasteels. Several Le Grelle's descend through alliances of Peter Paul Rubens.

Some illustrious cousins

Cécilia Sarkozy, the former wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is among the Le Grelle cousins by marriage. “Cécilia also has Belgian cousins. Her mother's half-brothers and half-sisters, as well as their descendants, belong to a great family of Antwerp nobility: the Le Grelle family. Her maternal grandmother Rosalie de Swert (1901-1982), married Count Adelin Le Grelle in 1921 in Valencia, Spain. From this union two children were born, Count Richard Le Grelle (1921) and Countess Marie-Antoinette, who had four children with the Canadian ambassador Keith MacLellan“, journalist Marie-Cécile Royen wrote in the '' Le Vif/L'Express'' edition of 31 August 2007. When Cécilia became the First Lady of France, Counts Henry and Vincent Le Grelle sent her a case of their Rubens Montagne Saint-Émilion cuvée to the Élysée Palace. They received a warm letter of thanks addressed to "My dear cousins".

Elisabeth de Bernard de Fauconval, who married Count Gérard le Grelle, and their children are cousins of the Smet family and of Jean-Philippe Smet (alias Johnny Hallyday) as well as of the Lefèvre d'Ormesson family and Jean d'Ormesson, writer, journalist and philosopher, member of the Académie Française. They are also cousins of Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria (1937), who in 1959 married Albert II, King of the Belgians (1934) and mother of King Philip (1960). Marguerite de Mélotte de Lavaux (1864-1952), who married Count Albéric Le Grelle (1860-1934) is a cousin of Viscount Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894), the builder of the Suez Canal and Eugénie de Montijo (1823-1920), who married Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in 1853, who later became Emperor Napoleon III in 1856. Countess Alice Le Grelle, the daughter-in-law of Albéric Le Grelle, piously kept the Golden Rosary that Empress Eugenie had given her.

Certain Le Grelle Descendants

Catherine Le Grelle (1760-1819)

With her sister Barbe, Catherine Le Grelle fictitiously bought at a public sale in 1795 the presbytery of Saint-Frédégand in Deurne, which had been confiscated by revolutionaries. The two sisters had planned to return the presbytery to the church later, but in revenge, the furniture of the two sisters was confiscated and sold publicly in 1796.

Pierre Le Grelle de Rameyen (1769-1841)

Pierre Le Grelle de Rameyen married Marie-Josèphe van den Bol (1784-1870). In 1852, his widow obtained an elevation in the rank of nobility in the name of her deceased husband for herself and her five children. This branch of the family died out in 1882. They lived in Rameyen Castle, which had been passed by succession to the de Cock de Rameyen family. Pierre Le Grelle de Rameyen owned the magnificent 16th century Castle Gestelhof in Berlaar. Today, the stately mansion is considered an official monument in Belgium, where it is situated in a national park along the Nete river, some 18 miles from Antwerp.

Jean-Antoine Le Grelle (1774-1841)

Jean Antoine Le Grelle was the son of Jean-Guillaume (1733-1812) and Marie Thérèse Janssens (1748-1811). On a cadastral map dated 20 April 1815, which mentions Jean-Antoine Le Grelle as owner of the castle of Selsaeten in Wommelgem, one can see that the estate is identical to that of the until the division of the latter and the sale of the castle in 1951.

Edmond Le Grelle (1805-1876)

A squire, Edmond Le Grelle inherited the status of nobleman in 1826. He was the captain commander of the Civil Guard in Antwerp. He was a banker at the Joseph J. Le Grelle Bank, officer in the Order of Leopold, commander in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and Knight in the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great. In June 1853, Edmond Le Grelle received the mission from King Leopold I to travel to Vienna for the planned wedding of Leopold's son, the Duke of Brabant, with S.A.I. and R. Marie-Henriette, the archduchess of Austria. Upon his return in Brussels, Edmond gave the king a portrait of the future queen of the Belgians. He married Eulalie Cambier (1806-1862) in 1826, Marie van Eersel (1815-1866) in 1863, and in 1867 Bathilde De Wael (1829-1908), the sister of Mayor Leopold De Wael. She was a widow and lost her two daughters, who tragically died of black smallpox contracted in a Parisian palace in 1887 just one day apart at the ages of 18 and 15. De Twee Gezusters (The Two Sisters) orphanage was founded in 1889 by Bathilde in memory of her two daughters. They lived in the Middelheim Castle and the "Geleyhuis” in the Meir street.

Louis Le Grelle (1817-1852)

A horticulturist, Louis Le Grelle lived in the Castle of Berchem and was a Knight in the Order of Leopold. He was a member of the administrative commission of the Royal Horticultural Society of Antwerp and held the honorary diploma of the Horticultural Societies of Brussels, Mechelen, Ghent, Leuven, Leiden and Bordeaux. His wife, Caroline Le Grelle, was also a horticulturist. Madame Parmentier, a Belgian horticulturist living in the State of Illinois (USA), dedicated her ''Punica granatum'' 'Legrelliae' (Pomegranate). His numerous relationships with the directors of the botanical gardens of our country and abroad have been most useful for public education. The palm trees of M: Legrelle d'Hanis were honored in the great throne room of the National Exhibition in Brussels in 1848, where the king and the royal family were received and complimented. ''Dioon edule'', '' Gunnera scabra'', ''Ceratozamia mexicana'', ''Didymochlœna'' of Brazil, the as yet unknown ''Theophrasta'', '' Jacaranda legrelliana'', and many other magnificent species have spread in quantity outside his magnificent Berchem countryside. It is happily remembered that H.M. King Leopold, in visiting the 1848 exhibition, expressed in front of a plant of M. Legrelle-d'Hanis, '' Myanthus firmbriatus'', the reasoned admiration of a botanist scholar and paid a full tribute to the services rendered to the national horticulture of Belgium by such honorable exhibitors ».

Count Aloys Le Grelle (1818-1883)

Count Aloys Le Grelle was a member of the Society of Jesus, vice-provincial of the Jesuits of Belgium, former rector of the colleges of Namur, Liège and Antwerp and of the Jesuit formation of Louvain (Leuven).

Mathilde Le Grelle (1847-1928)

A composer, Mathilde Le Grelle wrote the Majorcan March for King Alfonso XIII of Spain. In 1895, she published an autobiographical book, ''A Honeymoon in Chicago''. Her husband, Arthur de Cannart d'Hamale, published ''Quelques Pages sur le Congo'' (Some Pages about the Congo), which had not yet become a Belgian colony.

Charles Le Grelle (1854-1938)

He was a squire and the alderman of Etterbeek, where a street bears his name. He was the deputy prosecutor of the king and commissioner of currencies. As an Attorney General of the Egyptian courts, he established the Egyptian judiciary system. He was the grand officer of the Order of the Crown, commander of the Order of Leopold, the grand officer of the Order of Osmaniye, the Order of Medjidiae, the Order of the Crown of Siam, Order of the Crown of Thailand, the commander of the Order of the Star of Romania, and the commander of the Order of the Lion and the Sun of Persia. He lived in the Castle of Engismont in Engis.

Count Henry Le Grelle (1865-1934)

Contrary to the custom of the time that sent young people from his background to study in Germany, Henri Le Grelle studied in England. Around the age of 18, Henry left for a trip around the world, including a lengthy visit to Ranchi (the present capital of the state of Jharkhand in India), an experience that marked him for life. There he met Father Constant Lievens in a hut in Torpa (today in the diocese of Khunti), located 60 km south of Ranchi, where he created a Jesuit school that still exists, several small churches, and a printing house to spread the news of the savior Jesus Christ. In 1900, with Father Belpaire and Ch. Hertoghe, Henry Le Grelle founded a bakery cooperative "Het Beste Brood" in Antwerp (dissolved in the 1990s), which played an important role in the distribution of bread in Antwerp between the two wars. The bread was delivered in small carts pulled by ponies. He also set up a technical school for chaplains which was still in existence in 2019, a savings and pension fund (Spaar en Lijfrentekas), a coal trade (the Algemene Kolen Vereniging) to supply the bakery's oven and enable workers to buy coal at a favorable price as well as the "Queen" chocolate factory. Count Henry Le Grelle’ purpose for launching these enterprises was political, that is, to counter the Socialists. Human contact and customer loyalty allowed him to convey a different message from that of socialism. He also left precious writings on the living conditions of the Indians in the 19th century.

Comte Alfred Le Grelle (1872-1948)

He was the president of the ''N.V. De Vlijt'' ( Gazet van Antwerpen).

Count (Monsignor) Stanislas Le Grelle (1874-1957)

The tenth of Stanislas and Adelaïde (born de Villegas de Saint-Pierre Jette) Le Grelle's twelve children, Count Stanislas Le Grelle became a priest and was promoted to Doctor of Philosophy and Theology. He became the head Chaplain of the Belgian Army in 1914. In 1940–1945, he was a member of the Secret Army.

With his inheritance, he had bought a palazzo near the Janiculum in Rome (this house was later bought by the Ruffo di Calabria, the parents of Queen Paola). He occupied the top floor and rented rooms for a small fee to theology students. One of them, who was two-year younger, became his friend. His name was Eugenio Pacelli and he was elected pope in 1939 as Pius XII. Stanislas Le Grelle became Papal chamberlain as well as serving as assistant librarian of the Vatican. He was one of the few prelates to have a very personal relationship with the Pope. But it was also an original. Belgian Prime Minister Léo Tindemans (1974-1979), told Henry Le Grelle the following anecdote. Monsignor Le Grelle used to shower in one of the Vatican's fountains in the morning, much to the chagrin of the Swiss guards. They did not dare to question a Monsignor, close to the Pope, but their colonel opened up directly to Pius XII, who very diplomatic simply suggested to him to cut the water from the fountain. Since then this fountain has always remained dry.

When the library of the Catholic University of Louvain was destroyed in August 1914 by the invading German forces - with the loss of approximately 230,000 books, 950 manuscripts, and 800 incunabula - Monsignor Stanislas Le Grelle played a major role in rebuilding the collection of books. The building was rebuilt with international effort, but the formidable collection of books had disappeared. Beginning in 1920, the library's collections were rebuilt with donations from all around the world, outraged by the barbaric act which it had suffered. The collection was largely reconstructed by a large donation of books from the Vatican library. Stanislas Le Grelle, a scriptor of the Vatican Apostolic Library at that time, intervened to organize the transport of the books to Louvain. Ambassador Freddy Cogels, a counsellor at the Belgian embassy in Rome ( Quirinal), wrote in his book, ''Memoirs of a Diplomat'', how Monsignor Le Grelle, given his gifts as a diviner, had cured more than 4,000 patients, including many suffering from cancer. The French weekly news magazine Paris-Match devoted a report to him.

Monsignor Stanislas Le Grelle is also associated with a strange affair. The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized a charity, hosted by leading celebrities, every year in Brussels. Ambassador Cogels was asked at the end of 1954 to negotiate the presence of Sophia Loren. Since she was afraid of flying, Loren recommended that a young actress, Marcella Mariani, be invited in her place. Mariani boarded a Sabena flight at the last minute hosted the charity ball. On her return 13 February 1955, a Sunday, the Sabena flight 503 Melsbroek-Leopoldville crashed in the Apennines, not far from Rome. The Italian army had drawn up a plan to sweep the entire mountain range in successive sectors. Monsignor Le Grelle telephoned the embassy on the subsequent Friday and revealed the location of the wreckage and the victims, stating that there might be a few survivors. On Monday, 21 February, soldiers found the wreckage and bodies of the victims barely 200 meters from the location disclosed by Stanislas. It is unknown how he learned the wreckage's location.

On 6 June 2010, fifty-five years after the events, the children of the victims returned to the scene, to inaugurate a monument and an exhibition and on 13 February 2015, the Belgian Embassy in Rome organized a ceremony to commemorate the 29 victims of the crash. Monsignor Le Grelle was honored on this occasion.

Monsignor Stanislas Le Grelle also served as the honorary president of the Le Grelle Family Association, which he created in 1955 with his cousins, nephews, and nieces: Countess Elisabeth Le Grelle and Counts Stanislas, André and Marc Le Grelle. He bequeathed to the association a large number of documents he and his great uncle, Henri Le Grelle, a renowned amateur genealogist, gathered over many years. Monsignor Le Grelle was Knight in the Order of Leopold with Palm and decorated with the Croix de Guerre 1914-18. He is buried in the Vatican.

Count Albert Le Grelle (1888-1914)

Posthumously named Knight of the Order of Leopold II with Palm and War Cross, Count Albert Le Grelle died for Belgium at Kaaskerke. Albert had studied at the Notre Dame de la Paix faculty in Namur. From December 1913 to July 1914, he followed about sixty painting courses with the portrait painter Alidor Lamote (1880-1949), and a still life he painted in 1914 was finished just a few months before his death. Like many young men, he was a war volunteer, brigadier in the 13th Lancers Regiment, motorcyclist on the staff of the 3rd division.

During the Battle of the Yser, in an attack by about a hundred German soldiers at Kaaskerke, near Diksmuide, on the night of 25–26 October 1914, the Belgians closed the line of defense, but 25 Germans managed to withdraw taking various prisoners. At dawn, the Germans shot many of them, before being taken prisoners in turn by the French. His body was not found until two years later. In his campaign diary written during the 1914-1918 war, Jean de Ryckel, Albert's cousin by their mothers, wrote: "On November 13, 1916, we received a visit from our first cousin Paul de Melotte who announced that the body of our common first cousin, Count Albert Le Grelle, had just been found in Caeskerke. His body was identified in an extraordinary way. New trenches were dug in Caeskerke and many corpses were discovered. In a cavalry coat was found a watch, a revolver, a wallet, and a prayer book. The prayer book contained a souvenir of the First Communion of Marie-Thérèse Le Grelle, his sister, and the watch was recognized by one of Albert's friends. This watch had been bought in Antwerp at the beginning of the hostilities by the two friends”.

Count André Le Grelle (1903-1983)

Count André Le Grelle was the president of N.V. De Vlijt, publisher of the Gazet van Antwerpen. He was the director of numerous companies, the president of Winterhulp 40/45, the organization of Red Cross volunteers who came to the aid of the most destitute during the winters of the last war. He was the owner of Reet Castle and the president of the Le Grelle Family Association (1955-1983).

Count Jacques Le Grelle (1904-1990)

Count Jacques Le Grelle lived intensely. He was a frequent host of large parties, attended by men in tuxedos and women in long dresses, and he had many friends. He also traveled frequently, including twice to America on Esso tankers. These trips had an effect on his manner of speaking, as he kept an American accent all his life. He hunted in Hungary, at the time governed (since 1919) by the Regent Miklós Horthy. In December 1934, he went skiing in Austria in the resort of Obergurgl, not far from Innsbruck, where he won the "Pickard Kuppe" and met a German officer. On 28 May, the Belgian army laid down its arms and Jacques Le Grelle was held prisoner in Eeklo. With incredible luck, the German officer who guarded the column of prisoners was the man he had met skiing in Austria. The officer gave him a few ''Entlassungsscheinen'' (liberation certificates) that enabled Jacques Le Grelle to free himself and several comrades, while 171,000 other soldiers and officers - prisoners of war - were deported to Germany.

Jacques Le Grelle left Belgium, crossed France and the Pyrenees, and was arrested near Figueras (Spain). He finally reached Gibraltar and England on 10 August 1942. In London, he found Colonel Piron, whom he had known in 1939. The latter offered him the position of Chief of Staff but Jacques Le Grelle refused. The Belgian Military Security, led by Colonel Bernard, asked him if he was ready to return to the continent. He was entrusted to MI9, the military intelligence department number 9, the organization in charge of recovering and bringing back to England resistance fighters, soldiers, and pilots. As early as 1940, Brigadier Crocket had considered it necessary to recover the airmen whose aircraft would be shot down on the continent. Given that the duration of the training of aviators (pilots, navigators, bombers, radio operators, machine-gunners...) was four years, whereas it took only four days to build an aircraft, it was important to recover the men when they fell behind enemy lines. Moreover, it was reassuring for the pilots to know that in case of being shot down they would have a 50 per cent chance of being recovered.

MI9 included Airey Neave (called "Saturday"), an officer who made a spectacular escape from the Colditz Fortress. Jacques Le Grelle entered training immediately and performed the exercise jumps, but fractured his spine during the exercises. In May 1943, after eight months of convalescence, he was personally accompanied by Airey Neave to the Pembroke Dock base where he boarded a seaplane. Airey Neave later recounted how painful this had been for him, knowing that his "colt" Jacques had a nine-in-ten chance of losing his life in the mission. Jacques Le Grelle returned under the name of Jerome as a member of the Comet Line which helped Allied soldiers and airmen return to the United Kingdom. As head of the Paris sector from August 1943 to January 1944, he followed the grassroots organizations of Andrée De Jongh, the co-founder of the network. With the assistance of the message "For the big birds, there are no Pyrenees" broadcast by the BBC
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