Newburyport merchant and privateer.

Owned and equipped the first American privateer (1775). Eventually equipped twenty- four privateers and 110 merchant vessels, but experienced financial difficulties in the later war years when many of his ships were lost. Commissary for Massachusetts naval forces. Deputy to Massachusetts General Court (1781-82); state senator (1783). Traveled to Europe on business (1784-85). Went bankrupt (1786).

Son of Patrick and Hannah (Gookin) Tracy of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Educated at Harvard (B.A., 1769). Married Mary Lee (1775); eleven children.