Christian Wilhelm
Wilmerding
* 22.01.1762 Braunschweig
+ 19.07.1832 Moscow (NY)
 		Catherine
von Falkenhahn
* ?
+ 31.12.1839 Moscow (NY)

Henrietta Magdalena
Wilmerding


Theaterschriftstellerin

* 07.11.1788 New York City
+ 25.12.1873 Beechwood, Reigate, England

Kinder mit Felix Tracy (* 03.03.1788 Lisbon, New London County, Connecticut + 20.03.1861 Oramel, Allegany County, NY) [WEITER BEI BRADHURST] (oo 1824):
Elizabeth
Tracy
* 18.08.1825
+ 18.08.1879 Versailles, France
Edward Wilmerding
Tracy
* 25.03.1827
+ 14.07.1866
Felix
Tracy
* 19.03.1829
+ 12.07.1902
Theodore Frelinghuysen
Tracy
* 15.06.1830
+ 18.08.1886
?
?

Quellen:
- Ihre Seite bei Pumyea/Venedam.
- A. Munsell Bradhurst: "My forefathers, their history from records & traditions": "She and her sisters were noted for the many accomplishments in which they vied with one another, each excelling according to her Muse. Elizabeth was the artist, Henrietta the most witty and literary, and Catherine Augusta the most musical of the family. ... Mr. Wilmerding's second daughter, Henrietta Magdalena (sub- sequently Mrs. Felix Tracy), wrote several plays, one of which was successfully produced on the stage of a New York theatre.
...
Mr. Felix Tracy was one of a large family, whose forefather settled in New England in 1636. The Tracys of New England are derived from Sir Richard Tracy, Knt., of Stanway, near Tewkesbury, in Worcestershire, who was a younger son of Sir William Tracy, Knt., of Toddington, in Gloucestershire' — a seat which had been in the possession of the family since the reign of Edward the Confessor, and which had continued with them in the male line until the death of the 8th and last Viscount Tracy in 1797, when Toddington passed to his daughter and her descendants, with whom it remained until the close of the Nineteenth century — well-nigh nine hundred years from the date of its bestowal on their ancestor !
...
Their eighth and youngest son, Felix Tracy, of Lisbon, and sub- sequently of Oramel, N.Y., was born 3rd March, 1788. He inherited the Puritan characteristics of his race to a marked degree, and some of his letters to his brother-in-law, John Maunsell Bradhurst, remind one of the style displayed in the famous " heretical " Will of his ancestor, Sir William Tracy, of Toddington, and in the writings of Richard Tracy of Stanway. As a young man Mr. Felix Tracy was studiously inclined, fond of the Classics, and a notable Greek and Latin scholar ; but, as he grew older, his reading was hampered, at least in his own tongue, by the severity of his religious opinions ; and he scouted, and became intolerant of all that appeared frivolous from his own point of view. At the age of twenty-five he became Attorney-at-Law in the State of New York (nth August, 1813); and later (14th August, 1816) he became Counsellor-at-Law. His Licences are in the possession of his grandson, Augustus Maunsell Bradhurst.
CHAPTER IX
A FADING MEMORY
Felix Tracy married, in 1824, Henrietta Magdalena, second daughter of Christian William Wilmerding. Her name will still recall to some the stately carriage and rustling silks of a past generation, together with a keen wit and appreciation of humour. Her gift of mimicry and ready tongue gained for her, in her girlhood, the appellation of " The Ape," from her father ; and once when — nettled by her flippancy — he called her "An Ass," she instantly retorted :
" If a man call an 'Ape ' an 'Ass,' 'Tis his own conscience holds the glass."
She is said to have been that young lady who, when in a quandary one winter's day, as to how Broadway could be crossed through the deep snow, found herself suddenly seized by an uncouth but well- meaning passer-by, and carried to the other side. But her indigna- tion far exceeding her gratitude, she hurled such vituperations at him that the stranger, exclaiming, "Then back you go!" picked her up and carried her back, leaving her in her fury where he had found her !
To her has been attributed the story of the damsel who (about 1 812) overheard two British officers discussing the fairness of her com- plexion as they walked behind her. On overtaking her, one of them ejaculated :
Painted! — by God! "
" Sir, you have named the Painter," she promptly exclaimed, throwing back her veil as she swept him a curtsey.
During the war of 18 12 the gallant appearance of the British inspired her with more admiration than was altogether pleasing to her family — her brother-in-law being then the Captain of " Bradhurst's Regulars," and most of her relatives being American. When remon- strated with on account of her out-spoken admiration, she defiantly
declared that she would never marry any one but a man of English descent, and that liis name should he either Tracy or Talbot. At that time she was unacquainted with any one of either name. Twelve years later she married Felix Tracy, whose forefather hailed from Gloucestershire, and, by a yet stranger coincidence, she lived to see her eldest granddaughter married to a Talbot !
The unfavourable comparisons which she so bitterly drew between the Americans and the British were, by no means, due to any lack of patriotism, but rather to her keen desire to see the former outshine ''the enemy." At this period, many of her letters, full of stirring patriotism, addressed to her brother-in-law. Captain Bradhurst, fell into the hands of the British ; and, long afterwards, when he was being toasted by an English Admiral, he was surprised to hear from his host that the British officers considered it small wonder that their opponents had shown such gallantry in 1812, if they had received such letters from their women-folk as had been addressed to Captain Bradhurst by Miss Henrietta Wilmerding !
She was left a widow 20th March, 1861, her husband, Mr. Felix Tracy, dying at Oramel, Allegany County, New York. They had three sons,' — the late Edward Wilmerding Tracy; the late Felix Tracy, of Sacramento ; and the late Theodore Frelinghuysen Tracy (called after his father's distinguished friend of that name) — and one daughter, Elizabeth. They all married and had issue. Their mother passed her latter years in Europe with her daughter and son-in-law, Henry Maunsell Bradhurst, who was also her nephew. She was in Berlin at the time of the Franco-Prussian War, and her sympathies, as a Wilmerding, hailing from Brunswick, were of course entirely German. Moreover, her eldest granddaughter had married an officer in the. Prussian Dragoons, and Mrs. Tracy counted among her relatives the
' The two elder brothers, Edward and Felix, when only about twenty years of age, accompanied by their cousin, the late J. Clute Wilmerding, a lad of sixteen, chartered a schooner— the Samuel M. Fox — and sailed from New York to Cali- fornia, via Cape Horn, reaching the "Golden Gate" 21st September, 1849. Felix Tracy, the younger, finally settled at Sacramento, California. He was held in high esteem by all with whom his business brought him in contact ; and he was one of three prominent citizens to whose perseverance the University of Berkely, California, owes its existence.
36o THE TRACY FAMILY
wife of General von Lowenfeld.' Another of her cousins in Germany- was Rudolph Henneberg, the famous painter.' Mrs. Tracy died at Reigate, in England, 25th December, 1873, aged eighty-five years, and was buried in the Bradhurst Vault, Reigate, Surrey.
And now, although we cannot halt here, leaving our task un- finished, let us but touch lightly upon more recent years. Their wounds are scarcely healed, and their joys, let us hope, will linger, unwritten, in our recollections a while longer. It has been our pur- pose only to dust faint documents, and to clear the mists of fast-fading memories, but not to write modern memoirs nor to chronicle the every- day events which you and I remember.
Let us, therefore, pass briefly to a conclusion.
' Mrs. Tracy's aunt, the Baroness iSchilling von Canstadt, nee von Falkenhan, was the mother of Frau General von Lowenfeld. 2 His mother was a Wilmerding of Brunswick.
"A Group of Thkkk" Henrietta and Margaret Noyes, and their brolhi.r, Maun'sell Kkadhi'rst
CHAPTER X
" VALE ! "
Elizabeth, the only daughter of Felix Tracy by Henrietta Magdalena Wilmerding, was born at Moscow, Livingston County, New York, i8th August, 1825 ; and her education was carefully supervised by her learned father. She married firstly, in 1848, Russell George Noyes, of Geneseo, in the above County and State, whose family was of French extraction. (He was a nephew of the late Richard Gay, of Senecca Falls.) By this marriage she had two daughters : ..."


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