Top of the stone is unreadable, also too high to get a good picture.

President George Washington was entertained by the Tracy Family, and stayed at the house in 1789. They lit rockets and fireworks at night in his honor.

As late as 1785, Nathaniel Tracy was the wealthiest person in Newburyport, owning large amounts of waterfront property, and inheriting a successful business from his father Patrick. Nathaniel was engaged in business with Jonathan Jackson and John Tracy. Before and during the revolution they were extremely successful, owning several privateering and merchant ships such as the brigantine Success. Their partnership was dissolved in 1777, after which all three men suffered severe financial losses. Nathaniel and his brother John engaged in business again in Newburyport, still holding several ships including Cato, Success, and Port Packet. But poor grade cargoes and delays caused further trouble. He lived out his last years on a farm in Newbury, supported by his wealthier friends, and died at age 45.12

"Nathaniel Tracy was born in 1751, one of two sons of the prominent merchant, Patrick Tracy. Nathaniel graduated from Harvard with the class of 1769 and after an additional year at Yale returned to Newburyport to enter his father's mercantile house. In 1774, along with his brother John, Nathaniel formed a partnership with Jonathan Jackson, who had married their sister Hannah three years before. The firm of Jackson, Tracy & Tracy enjoyed considerable success in the short time remaining before the outbreak of hostilities, and during the war fitted out a large number of privateers, only a few of which showed any long-run profit. Tracy briefly enjoyed prodigious wealth, entertaining lavishly in his mansion at 94 State Street, now the public library. By 1786, however, his fortunes along with those of his former partners had almost completely disappeared, and he was forced to liquidate most of his assets to satisfy his many creditors. Tracy lived the last decade of his life in retirement at his country estate at Pipe-Stave Hill, dying at the early age of forty-five in 1796." 12

One of several merchants who owned the sloop Game Cock, a privateer ship. "Throughout the spring, Newburyport and Salem continued to be the most active privateering ports. Two new privateers were commisioned in mid-May. Nathaniel Tracy's Success hailed out of Newburyport, carrying fifteen men and armed with four swivels." 18

He, along with his partner Tristram Dalton, owned land that was incorporated into Dalton, NH.

This source describes him as being a great merchant who supplied the first privateer ship of the Revolutionary War. He's also described as possibly being the richest man of his day, worth over $6,500,000 in 1780.

He is listed here as being a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780.

Read here a letter from George Washington to Nathaniel Tracy thanking him for a gift of a bottle of wine.

Thomas Jefferson wrote to him in 1785, "Every discouragement should be thrown in the way of men who undertake to trade without capital."

"Nathaniel TRACY was the son of Capt. Patrick TRACY, Esq., and Hannah GOOKIN. He graduated at Harvard in 1769, and took a graduate course at Yale. His father built for him the splendid brick mansion in Newburyport now used as the Public Library. He was a great merchant and fitted out the first privateer of the Revolution in August, 1775. During the Revolution he owned 110 merchant vessels valued at $2,733,300 and 24 cruising ships which carried 340 guns and 2,800 men. They captured 120 prizes which sold for $3,950,000 “of which Mr. TRACY devoted $167,219 to the Army and other public demands.” He owned many residences and could travel from newburyport to Philadelphia and sleep under his own roof each night. Among others he owned the Longfellow house in Cambridge where he entertained the Compte de Grasse and his officers with a remarkable “frog dinner.” He was one of the Charter Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He enjoyed the friendship of President JEFFERSON (who wrote a poem about him and went to Europe with him on his ship Ceres), and of President John Quincy ADAMS, who fully describes him in his diary, 1788. He m. “the greatest beauty of her day,” Mary LEE, dau. of the “illustrious patriot Col. Jeremiah LEE, of Marblehead,” a brother of Col. John LEE. "