William de Tracy

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Sir William de Tracy (Traci) was born after 1135, and died about 1190. Son of William de Tracy, a wealthy English land owner and a friend of Henry I, who died when his son was still young (circa 1135).

De Tracy was one of the four knights of Henry II who murdered Thomas Becket archbishop of Canterbury in December 1170. He is supposed to have fled to his lands in the West Country after the murder. The name of the town of Bovey Tracey is derived from the river Bovey which passes through the town, and from the 'de Tracey' family - from Traci near Bayeaux - who settled in the area after the Norman Conquest of 1066. William is said to have rebuilt the town's church of St Peter, Paul and Thomas in penance for his part in the murder.

There is a tomb in Mortehoe Church, near Ilfracombe in Devon which carries an inscription to Sir William de Tracey. The upper slab of black or dark grey marble, has incised in it the figure of a priest in full vestments, with a chalice on his breast. The inscription is much defaced, Risdon says:— "On whose mangled monument I found this fragment of a French inscription, in this ancient character 'Syree Williame de Trace-Il enat eeys-Meercy'." On the north side of the tomb are three shields; the first, with three lions passant, in pale for Camvill; the second, two bars (Martyn); and the third, a saltire, charged with three plates. On the same side, beneath plain canopies, are effigies representing St. Catherine with her wheel, and St. Mary Magdalene, with long flowing hair. The south side of the tomb is divided into seven compartments, filled with Early Decorated tracery; the Crucifixion forms the subject of the carving at the west end of the tomb (see Transactions of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society, Vol. 6, p. 188).

The tomb has caused a good deal of controversy between those who consider it to be the tomb of the Sir William de Tracey who murdered Thomas à Becket in 1170, and those who believe it to be the resting place of another Sir William de Tracey, who was Rector of Mortehoe and died in 1322.

Closest living descendant is The Rev. Jonathan Anthony de Burgh Wilmot son of Anthony Talbot de Burgh Wilmot (OBE).