Patrick Tracy was born in Ireland, probably in County Wexford, in 1711. He came to Newbury as a young man and married three times- Hannah Carter of Hampton, New Hampshire in 1742; Hannah Gookin, mother of his 3 surviving children, in 1749; and Mary, widow of Michael Dalton, in 1773. An experienced shipmaster and later owner of a fleet of ships, in 1763 he was among the petitioners to the General Court for the incorporation of Newburyport, where he became a principal merchant and importer of foreign merchandise. Tracy was a member of the committee of safety in 1774 and he was a supporter of the provincial government during the Revolution. He died in Newburyport in 1789.