Château de Tracy: The Tracy Branch
Of the three sons of Thomas Stutt I have traced one unbroken line of inheritance through five centuries to Alain d’Estutt d’Assay through François. This branch of the family is the Assay branch; by tracing the descendants of Alexandre, brother to François, we can uncover the story of the Tracy branch of this complex family tree.
Alexandre Stutt married Jeanne d’Assigny, Dame de Saint-Père-de-Nuzy, in 1517, and the two had a son named Féti Stutt. Presumably Jeanne then died, as in 1526 Alexandre married again, this time to Anne Regnier de Guerchy. This union also bore a son, born in 1530, named François; both Féti and François took the title of seigneur of Saint-Père-de-Nuzy (among numerous other titles picked up along the way). The seigneurie of Assay seems, at this time, to have been dropped though, presumably as Alexandre’s descendants took it. François Stutt (c.1530 – 1591), captain exempt in the service of Charles IX, Henri III and Henri IV, married Renée de Boisselet (1583 – 1606) in 1552 and this union turned out to be a fecund one, as they had at least seven children. These included Emée, Jeanne, Antoinette, Renée, Etienne, Pierre and François II. Presumably François II was the eldest; born in 1560, it was he who acquired the seigneurie of Tracy when, on October 18th 1586, he married Françoise de Bar (1545 – 1593), Dame de Tracy, who brought this land and title as a dowry. With the seigneurie came the château at Tracy; this had already stood – in one form or another – for several hundred years, although most of it dated to the 14th century, when the original building was replaced.
