Maison Deman

Family chronicle and local history · Wallonia

The Lebons of Fleurus

La Rose beneath the rumble of history — a house beside the stream, a town crossed by armies and a family that carried on after the guns fell silent.

Fleurus · Ligny · Marbais · Brye17th–20th centuriesExtended research dated 28 August 2026
BHeritage, notarial and local history sources COlder connection still to be proved TConfirmed family memory NarrativeClearly marked evocation, never evidence

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La Rose, the battles around Fleurus and the memory of the Lebon branch.

In the old papers of Fleurus, the Lebon family first appears not through a face, but through a house. In rue des Bourgeois it bears the sign La Rose. It has two courtyards, a barn and a garden beside the stream. By 1816 the notary already calls it La Vieille Rose—Old Rose—as though its walls had had time to keep the voices of several generations.

Around it, Fleurus is no quiet town. Military roads cross its fertile plain; armies return, fields burn and inhabitants begin again. The Lebon story takes shape in that landscape, between genuinely documented property and a line of descent not yet stitched through to Joseph, Annie and Johnny.

Family portrait of Joseph Jean Robert Lebon
Joseph Jean Robert Lebon — family portrait identified by Johnny Deman and also visible on certain family letters; the exact letters, date and photographer remain to be identified.
Grave of Joseph Gaspart Lebon in Marbais cemetery
Grave of Joseph Gaspart Lebon in Marbais cemetery, Villers-la-Ville. Johnny says it stands immediately beside the grave of Joseph Lebon and Paula Wauthy.

La Rose, a house before a proven lineage

In 1751, Charles Lebon, husband of Marie-Isabelle Simon, declared dues on a barn at the Petit Marché and on his house in rue des Bourgeois, bearing the sign La Rose. The property had come from the Simon and Rosart families through deeds dated 1688 and 1717. The division recorded by notary Carpent on 25 June 1816 still describes the house, its two courtyards, barn and garden.

The same cartulary names Antoine Lebon, Marc-Antoine Lebon and another Charles Lebon, married to Gabrielle—or Gabriel—Gentillet. Their property interests in Fleurus are documented. Their kinship with the recent line is not: the same surname in the same area is a lead, not proof.

A town familiar with fire

During the Thirty Years’ War, fire almost completely destroys Fleurus.

About 80,000 men fight amid the tall crops; half the town is burned once again.

Artillery sets the fields alight. After the Revolutionary battle, Fleurus is completely plundered.

Nearby at Ligny, six hours of fighting sweep into the village streets, gardens and houses.

The papers concerning La Rose begin in 1688. Two years later, crops hid troop movements, artillery fired between Saint-Amand and Ligny and the stream itself became part of the battlefield. We do not know which Lebons lived in Fleurus then. But by the time their names appear clearly in 18th-century deeds, the fire of 1690 still belonged to the memory of parents and grandparents.

26 June 1794, Fleurus in the smoke

The boundary we do not cross: La Rose belonged to the documented property history of the Lebon family and was still described in 1816. We do not know whether Lebons lived there on the day of battle, or whether its courtyards sheltered neighbours or wounded men. The atmosphere is historically grounded; the family scene is not attested.

Melchior-Joseph Lebon, notary at Fleurus

The research uncovered one new, solid presence. The Belgian State Archives list Melchior-Joseph Lebon, notary at Fleurus. Papers name him in 1775 and 1786–1787. On 13 February 1793 he recorded a lease concerning the farm of Soleilmont Abbey. In 1802, a deed transcription shows him as a former notary, still living in Fleurus and serving as a witness.

A Lebon therefore stood at the centre of the town’s legal life just before the Revolutionary battle and appears in records after it. Yet no source consulted tells us where Melchior-Joseph was on 26 June 1794, or connects him with Charles Lebon of La Rose or Joseph’s later line.

1815: war returns to the house’s doorstep

On 16 June 1815, at nearby Ligny, a village of 900 inhabitants, some 87,000 Prussians and 65,000 French fought for six hours. Fighting swept through streets, gardens and houses; Ligny ended the day in flames. It was to be Napoleon’s last victory.

One year and nine days later, the notarial division of the Lebon family described La Vieille Rose. The deed says nothing about the battle. Its date nevertheless brings two realities together: armies had just overturned the region, while a family returned to the notary to divide a house, barn and garden. After the thunder, ordinary life reclaimed its place.

From Fleurus to Marbais and Brye

Closer to the present, the branch leads to Joseph Lebon and Paula Wauthy, and then to their daughter Annie Lebon, born in Marbais in 1953. Joseph and Paula had six children. After Joseph’s death, Paula raised them alone.

Johnny’s Geneanet tree names Joseph Gaspart Lebon and Caroline Augustine Lambert as the parents of Joseph Jean Robert Lebon. Johnny confirms this family relationship and identifies the photographed grave as Joseph Gaspart’s, beside the grave of Joseph and Paula in Marbais cemetery. Without an original record, this remains C/T: tree data supported by family memory.

Arlette Lebon and her first husband, Jean Tagliafero, had three children: Christine, Jean-Pierre and Patricia Tagliafero. Johnny confirmed this on 29 August 2026 after correcting his recollection from the previous day. Her second husband was Jean Swinnen.

Joseph, an open contradiction: a notebook entry gives 17 September 1911 in Marbais; an older summary gives 11 October 1917, sometimes associated with Rouen. Family memory places his death around 1960 in Brye, in a motorcycle accident. His marriage record with Paula and his death record are the next documents to seek.

The old thread is not yet a chain

The working tree names Olivier Joseph Lebon, born about 1859, Charles Joseph Lebon, born about 1824, and Pierre Joseph Lebon, born about 1745. It suggests continuity of the surname back to around 1624. These remain level-C data until intermediate records connect them to the Lebons of Fleurus.

The beauty of this story does not require its blank spaces to be filled. It already lives in what the records allow us to glimpse: a house beside the water, a town that rose from its ashes more than once and generations who carried on when the guns fell silent.