Ralph Fitzwilliam
Having served in the retinue of Aymer de Valence, during the first decade of Edward II's reign he remained dependable as a military leader and royal lieutenant in the defence administration of the northern counties and Scottish marches.
[13] William FitzRalph had a grant of free warren in his ancestral manor of Grimthorpe (just north-east of Pocklington), and in Hinderskelfe (the site of Castle Howard), in Yorkshire, in 1253.
In November 1281 Ralph obtained licence to marry Margery, widow of Nicholas Corbet, daughter and coheir of Hugh de Bolbec junior and his wife Theophania,[21] paying for that a fine of 100 marks.
[22] This marriage brought to him a portion of the Bulbeck barony of Northumberland seated at the manor of Styford in the parish of Bywell,[23] with Hedoun on the Wall, Angyrtoune (Morpeth) and Dodynton.
In 1274 Margery Corbet and her three sisters became heirs to their second cousin Aveline de Forz, Countess of Aumale, daughter of the 4th Earl of Albemarle and first wife of Edmund Crouchback.
[30] In 1293–94 he and John de Greystock were the principal tenants affected when the King granted the manor of Pocklington to the abbot and convent of Meaux, Yorkshire, reserving wardship of various tenancies, in exchange for land at Wyk on Humber intended for the development of Kingston upon Hull.
"Ralph Fitz William bore differentlyThat which de Valence did bear,For in the martlets' place, he woreChaplets of roses, three, vermeilles,Which were becoming, wondrous well.
[52] Ralph was also employed as a representative of the East Riding before the exchequer in 1300, and as the king's agent was empowered to 'use all friendly ways' to exact a purveyance of grain from the Yorkshire monasteries in 1302.
[53][54] After a call in January 1303 to join his arms and force with John de Segrave to repress the Scots[55] (an expedition defeated at the Battle of Roslin in February), he was summoned to attend Aymer de Valence with 13 men at arms in May 1303: "he to be retained and not allowed to leave the King's service as he did once before, giving a bad example to others, which offence he can only amend by now remaining constantly.
[65] Ralph was then completing a term of six months (from Easter to Michaelmas) with ten men at arms in the company of Aymer de Valence in the King's army against Scotland.
[67] In December 1310 he received a grant, to him and his heirs, of free warren in his demesne lands in Brunnum (Nunburnholme), Butterwyk, Thorpe Bassett, Scakelthorp, Thornton in the Moor, Norton upon Swale and Wellebyry, in Yorkshire, and in Benton, Killingworth, Hepiscotes, Tranwell, Stannyngton and Horsle, Northumberland.
On his own behalf he became involved in a suit in 1305 concerning the manor of Brierton, County Durham: from this he had purchased a rent worth £30 and more, but the feoffee, Geoffrey de Hartlepool, refused to pay him.
[69] Geoffrey attempted a plea in Parliament,[70] but the cause is notable for the light it sheds on the episcopal jurisdiction of the County Palatine,[71] back to which the case was repeatedly referred, continuing unresolved until 1315.
In consideration of which Service, he was to have all Accoutrements for his own Body; as also two Robes yearly, and one Saddle, according to the Dignity of a Knight; and in case he should lose any Great Horse in the War, to have Recompence therefore, according to the Estimation of two Men.
Moreover, That at what place soever he the said Raphe should reside in the County of York, this Nicholas should repair to him, upon notice, with allowance of his reasonable Charges, and Wages for his Servants, both in War and Peace."
Ralph Lord Greystoke granted him £8 per annum out of the manor of Thorpe Basset,[76] and this sum continued to be paid to Hastings's descendants.
[77] In his will of 1311, William le Vavasour of Hazlewood made the handsome bequest to Ralph Fitzwilliam of a lorica (body armour), an iron helmet and a Gascon lance.
[87] As Keeper of Carlisle, Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire, in February 1316 he reported that Thomas de Vere had fulfilled his obligation to provide 20 men at arms for three months, in penalty for his unlicensed marriage.
The effigy is, as usual, recumbent; the hands elevated and clasped on the breast; the sword hangs from a rich baldric ornamented with quatrefoils, the shield represents a barry coat semée of crosslets [sic], the legs are mutilated but rest on a lion, which seems defending himself against several dogs.
"[92] The figure is now preserved in Hurworth church (which also has a de Roos effigy):[93] the heraldry shows barry with (not crosslets but) chaplets, for Grimthorpe, afterwards Greystock.
