Sir
Ralph
"lord of Grimthorpe"
FitzWilliam
formerly Greystoke
Born about in Gimthorpe, Yorkshire, England
Ancestors 
Son of William FitzRalph
and Joan (Greystoke) Grimthorpe
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of
Unknown (Unknown) de Greystoke
— married
[date unknown] [location unknown]
Husband of
Margery (Bolebec) Greystoke
— married
1 Nov 1281 in LICENSE
Descendants 
Father of
Robert (Greystoke) FitzRalph and Margaret (Greystoke) Hilton
Died
at about age 61
in Greystoke, Cumberland, England
Profile last modified
| Created 16 Jan 2012
This page has been accessed 6,119 times.
Contents |
Biography
Sir Ralph Greystoke was a member of the aristocracy in England.
Fitzwilliam was probably born about 1256. He is described in a pipe roll (24 Ed. I) as forty years old and more. He inherited and acquired considerable estates in Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Cumberland.
He was declared Gilbert Fitzwilliam's nearest heir in 1296; in 1303 he acquired a fourth part of the manors in Northumberland belonging to John Yeland; and in 1306 he succeeded to the estates of his cousin John of Greystoke, for the repose of whose soul he founded a chantry at Tynemouth.
Marriage
Fitzwilliam married, about 1282, Marjory Bolbec (d. ante Jul 1303), daughter and coheir of Hugh de Bolebec and widow of Nicholas Corbet.
Occupation
- 1277: served in Welsh war on behalf of uncle William of Greystoke, and by his own account in 1282 and 1287 against the same.
- 1291: first summoned to serve against the Scots.
- 1295: first summoned to parliament.
- July 1297: appointed captain of the royal garrisons in Northumberland
- Nov 1297: thanked for his services against the Scots and appointed as one of the captains of the Scottish marches.
- 1298: head of troops levied in Yorkshire.
- 1300: at siege of Caerlaverock
- 1301: signed letter of the barons as "lord of Grimthorpe" at Lincoln parliament to the pope.
- Governor of Carlisle.
Death
Fitzwilliam's final appearance at court was on 25 September 1316, when he witnessed a charter at York. He died soon after, apparently about November, certainly before February 1317, and is said to have been buried in Nesham Priory, Durham.
His eldest son William, predeceased him and he was succeeded by his second son, Robert, who died by April 1317. The estates then went to Robert's son Ralph, who assumed the name of Greystoke.
The barony remained in the family until 1487, when it passed through the female line to the Dacres of the north.
Sources
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Wikipedia: Ralph Fitzwilliam
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G > Greystoke | F > FitzWilliam > Ralph (Greystoke) FitzWilliam
Categories: Early Barony of Morpeth | Early Barony of Greystoke | Governors of Carlisle Castle
Complete Peerage, 2nd edn, Vol. 5, p. 514, footnote (g).