Person:Stephen Tracy (2)

Notes: Info from Hills "Planters" II:64: "Tracy, Stephen1, born England,died Great Yarmouth, England, 1630, will dated Oct.25, 1630, proved Oct.25, 1630-1; married Agnes Endley, Feb. 23, 1585-7. He was a freeman of Yarmouth, England, 1606, and resided at Great Yarmouth, County Norwolk, England. His occupation was that of a mariner. The Tracy family is old in England, going back in some lines to "Woden", 300-400 A.D. However, the parents of this Stephen have not been definately identified."

Will names wife “Annas”, sons William, Thomas, and John and daughters Annas and Margaret. The three children not mentioned are Margaret and Christopher (dead) and Stephen, who was already in New England.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Tracy, Sherman Weld. The Tracy Genealogy: Being Some of the Descendants of Stephen Tracy of Plymouth Colony, 1623; also Ancestral Sketches and Chart. (Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., 1936)
   19-20.

   A Stephen Tracy was baptized at East Ruston, Norwich in 1559, son of Christopher and Margaret Tracy. It is very probable that this is the same Stephen Tracy who later appears in the Great Yarmouth records as two of his children were named Christopher and Margaret.
   
   STEPHEN TRACY, a resident of Great Yarmouth, county Norfolk, England, was married at that place on 23 February 1586-87 to AGNES ERDLEY who outlived her husband ten years and died there on 15 June 1640. STEPHEN was a mariner and in 1606 was admitted to the freedom of Yarmouth “gratis” by Bailiff Crowe. This was a courtesy allowed to only one person each year by each bailiff and may imply that he was not a native and would otherwise have had to purchase the freedom. He may have reimbursed the bailiff in some manner. STEPHEN died at Great Yarmouth on 22 December 1630 leaving a will [dated 25 Oct 1630] which reads as follows...[see source p. 19]
   
   As will be seen by comparison of this will with the children listed herein, five of the eight born to STEPHEN and AGNES were beneficiaries by the will. Of the other three the first daughter named Margaret, died young, Christopher was doubtless dead and STEPHEN had presumably received his portion at the time of his entering upon the great adventure of casting his lot with the Pilgrims in Leyden, and later in the New World. [The English research was performed, and parentage of the emigrant established, by Mr. Bower Marsh, well known London genealogist.]