Sir William de Tracy (died ) was a knight and the feudal baron of Bradninch, Devon, with caput at the manor of Bradninch near Exeter, and was lord of the manors (amongst very many others) of Toddington, Gloucestershire and of Moretonhampstead, Devon. He is notorious as one of the four knights who assassinated Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in December 1170. Origins William was son of John de Sudeley and his wife Grace de Tracy. Their elder son, Ralph de Sudeley (died ), became his father's heir, while the younger, William, inherited his mother's barony of Bradninch and assumed her family name as William de Tracy. He became a knight of Gloucestershire and held the lands of his brother by service of one knight's fee. William de Tracy appears in a charter of his older brother Ralph de Sudeley, assigning the manor of Yanworth, near Cirencester, to Gloucester Abbey. Two of the witnesses to that charter lived on land held by the Normandy branch of the de Tracys, and two of the English witnesses had previously witnessed a charter to Barnstaple Priory in 1146 for Henry de Tracy, who had married a daughter of Juhel de Mayenne as permitted by Stephen, King of England. In 1166 William held one fee from his brother Ralph. Murder of Becket William de Tracy was one of the four knights who, supposedly at the behest of King Henry II, in 1170 murdered Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. His accomplices were Reginald Fitzurse, Hugh de Morville and Richard le Breton (or de Brito). They afterwards invaded the Archbishop's Palace plundering Papal Bulls and Charters, gold, silver, vestments, books, and utensils employed for the services of the church. Henry failed to arrest the knights, advising them to flee to Scotland. Whilst their lands technically escheated to the crown, they appear to have continued to enjoy use of them after only a short interruption, presumably as a favour from the king. They stayed only a short while in Scotland, returning to the castle of Knaresborough in Yorkshire, the possession of Hugh de Morville. Benefactions He executed a charter granting to the Canons of Torre, in the county of Devon, all his lands at North Chillingford. Alkborough It is known that Hugh de Morville, Richard de Brito, and William de Tracy built a church at Alkborough, near Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire, where, until 1690, an inscribed stone on