TRACY

The Norman thus designated on the Roll, derived his name from the town of Traci, in his native Duchy. His descendants became Lords of Barnstaple in Devon, and enjoyed high repute in that county. Their heiress, Grace, only child of Henry de Traci, Baron of Barnstaple, temp. Henry I., married John de Sudeley, Lord of Sudeley and Toddington, and had two sons RALPH, the elder, was ancestor of the Sudeleys, Lords of Sudeley Castle, whose eventual representative Joan, eldest sister and co-heir of John, Lord Sudeley, wedded William Le Boteler, of Wem; and WILLIAM, the younger, took his mother's name of TRACI, and was possessed of Toddington, in Gloucestershire, and the Barony of Barnstaple, in Devon. He held twenty-six knights' fees in 1165, and was steward of Normandy. This William de Traci, it is asserted, was one of the murderers of Thomas à Becket. From him descended the TRACYS of TODDINGTON, VISCOUNTS TRACY, of RATHCOOLE, and the TRACYS, BARONETS Of STANWAY. Of the former, Henry Tracy, eighth Viscount, died in 1797, leaving an only dauGHTER and heir, HENRIETTA SUSANNAH, mARRIED in 1799, to Charles Hanbury, Esq., who assumed the additional surname and arms of Tracy, and was raised to the peerage in 1838, as Baron Sudeley. Since the decease in 1797, of the eighth Viscount Tracy of Rathcoole, the hereditary honours of the family have remained dormant, but they are now claimed by BENJAMIN WHEATLEY TRACY, Esq., Lieutenant R.N., and JAMES TRACY, Esq., who have both submitted their pretensions to the decision of the house of Lords.

--(This name appears on the Battle Abbey Roll)