TRACY, Nicholas, of Bridport, Dorset.

In 1370 Nicholas, probably a kinsman of John Tracy, acquired a messuage in Bridport. He later held land at ‘La Wodemulle’ and, in 1386, together with his wife, took out a lease on a house in the town belonging to St. Mary’s church, agreeing on a payment of 6s. annual rent for as long as they lived and during their daughter Florence’s lifetime. Tracy was probably engaged in the locally important manufacture of rope: he owned a rood of hemp land lying in the culture called ‘Ponchesford’ and the only office he is known to have occupied in the town was as a searcher of rope and hemp (in 1393-4).2Ibid. CD44, 45; D2 f. 38; M11, f. 9; S245; C146/10052.