Richard Tracy

In 1538 he was nominated for the shrievalty, but Henry VIII preferred Robert Acton, and in December 1539 he was appointed one of the squires to attend at the reception of Anne of Cleves.

After Elizabeth's accession Tracy served as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1560–61, and in 1565 wrote a protest to William Cecil against the queen's retaining a crucifix in her chapel.

Probably his ‘Profe and Declaration of thys Proposition: Fayth only iustifieth’, dedicated to Henry VIII, but with no date, place, or printer's name, was Tracy's earliest work.

It was followed in 1544 by ‘A Supplycation to our most Soueraigne Lorde, Kynge Henry the Eyght.’ In November 1548, during the discussions in convocation and parliament which preceded the issue of Edward VI's first Book of Common Prayer, Tracy published ‘A Bryef and short Declaracyon made wherebye euery Chrysten Man may knowe what is a Sacrament,’ London.

This treatise, bound up with two by John Frith, was found in a cod's belly in Cambridge market in 1626 (see Vox Piscis), and was reprinted in that year by Boler and Milbourne.