Matilda entrusted Nottingham Castle to Paynel's custody, although he lost it within two years when it was captured by a supporter of Stephen's.
Ralph died by 1124, at which time William Paynel, the eldest surviving son,[3] inherited his father's lands including those at Drax in Yorkshire.
[5] Sometime around 1126 to 1135, William Paynel confirmed his father's benefactions to Selby Abbey.
He also appears in the 1130 Pipe Roll as owing 40 marks to the king that had been imposed by royal justices previously, although the exact nature of the infraction is not known.
He may also be the William Paynel that gave the ecclesiastical tithe of Fontenay-le-Pesnel to Saint-Étienne Abbey in Caen in the late 1120s, but this is not certain.
[3] By 1140, Paynel was a supporter of the Empress Matilda's efforts to gain the throne of England.
[9] At the end of Lent in 1142 William Peverel seized the castle for the king's forces while Paynel was absent visiting the Empress.