TRACY, Isabel Martha Wingfield
Isabel Martha Wingfield Tracy was born at Ipswich in 1843, daughter of John Tracy (1798-21 December 1873), a dental surgeon, and his wife Mary Isabella née Fife (26 April 1803-7 March 1875), Isabel was a sister to both Agnes Loveridge Tracy and Jessie Fife Tracy. In 1841, her father John and his wife were living at Upper Brook Street, Ipswich with their eight children. One of a family of local artists, in 1851 Isabel was living at Whitton Road, Ipswich with her 20-year-old brother John listed as head of the family with 28-year-old sister Mary as housekeeper with her parents absent. In 1861 the family were living at 16 Tacket Street, Ipswich with parents, 62-year-old John, a dental surgeon, and 56-year-old Mary, with seven siblings Mary Catherine 40, born Scotland, Nathaniel 31, born Lambeth with Anthony 23, Jessie Fife 22, Agnes Loveridge 20, Joseph Wingfield, 18 and Humphrey 15, all born at Ipswich. In 1871, Isabel was a music governess at Carlton Lodge Academy, Iffley Road, Cowley, Oxford but ten years later a 35[sic] year old artist (painter) living with sister Agnes Loveridge at Christchurch Street, Ipswich. A watercolour painter of flowers and landscapes and although not a member of Ipswich Art Club, exhibited from Oak Lodge, Christchurch Street, Ipswich in 1880 'Treasures' and 'In the Fog', in 1882 exhibited a design for a panel 'Sunflower' and in 1883 a table lot 'Spring Flowers'. She also exhibited at the Bury & West Suffolk Fine Art Society in 1882, 'Foxgloves', some listing are exhibits by Miss Tracy which have not been allocated and, as Miss J. M. W. Tracy, exhibited, from Ipswich, at the Woodbridge Industrial & Art Exhibition at the Lecture Hall, Woodbridge, Suffolk in 1883, several table lots and two paintings 'Hollesley Bay, Suffolk' and 'Walton Ferry, Suffolk'. She married at St Margaret's Church, Ipswich on 17 December 1885, 69-year-old widower Thomas Hayes (4 September 1815-2 August 1888), a retired architect. Isabel Martha Wingfield Hayes died at her home Shrub House, Foxhall Road, Ipswich on 10 June 1901, aged 57.
Edinburgh University (location CLX-A-1259) has a manuscript volume written in black ink, with illuminated headings and initials. The volume of 131pp had been illustrated and sketched, according to the seller's notes, by Agnes L[overidge] Tracy and Isabel M[artha] W[Wingfield] Tracy. It is bound in green cloth, and the front cover bears the initials M[ary]C[atherine] T[racy 1821-1906] in gilt. There are seven illustrations, and these are signed with the initials 'A.L.T'. and one is numbered '64', which maybe for the date 1864. The volume opens with a 'Dedication' beginning: These to our Mary, since she holds them dear. These little tributes of her sisters love we give...'. There is a 'Contents' list, and a list of 'Illustrations'. The work then comprises six pieces: a short story 'Every may be has its may not be' (68pp); a poem 'We spend our years as a tale that is told', signed T.M.W.T. (2pp); 'A Tale of Two' (26pp); 'Light and Darkness. An Allegory' (10pp), with a verse at the end 'Waiting for the Golden Days', signed A.L.T: 'The little Petunia', signed T.M.W.T. (11pp); and, 'Ripening for the Harvest' (8pp) also signed I.M.W.T.