There were two families of Le Blanc in Portarlington about 1699, that of 'Le Noble Homme Louys Le Blanc, Sieur de Perce, Capitanie pensionne' and Claud Le Blanc, "boucher". The latter family were still existing under the name of " Blong" when Sir Erasmus Borrowes wrote. This change of name seems to have been early effected, for Peter " Blang" places a tombstone to mark the burial-place of his family in 1756, and was laid there himself three years later. Elizabeth Phelan, his daughter, was also buried there, from which it would seem that they, unlike most of the early colonists, married outside the French stock.
Theodore Le Blanc, minister of La Rochelle, who was attained in 1685 for having received a 'relapse' into his Church, and fled to Denmark, was, Sir Erasmus Borrowes states, probably of the same family as La Blanc, " the gentleman". The name however, seems to have been localized elsewhere in Ireland at the same time. for an Andrew and a Mark Le Blanc, merchants from Ales, took Oaths and received their naturalization in Dublin in 1704. It is still extant in Portarlington.
(To add a sad note to that, a man named, Jim Le Blanc was kllled in a car accident on the 12th May 2008 in Portarlington, and left a wife and children)
