show that William Fitz-Ralph of Grimthorpe and his wife Joan paid half a mark for an assize. Somerset Herald John Charles Brooke took Joan to be the wife of the elder Ralph, William's father: the Dictionaries of National Biography, Cokayne's Complete Peerage, and others, take her to be William's wife. Reign of Edward I Grimthorpe and Greystoke 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. His kinsman, William son of Thomas de Greystok, entered his inheritance on the death of his brother Robert de Greystok, and had free warren in his manors of Brunnum (Nunburnholme, just east of Pocklington) and Ellerton, Yorkshire, in March 1257. William de Greystok acquired his part of Morpeth, Northumberland and the Merlay barony, by his marriage to Maria, daughter and coheir of Roger de Merlay. In musters at Worcester and Carmarthen in July 1277 Ralph FitzWilliam de Grimthorpe, son of William FitzRalph, proffered the military service due from his uncle William de Greystock in the wars against the Welsh: his service was transferred by the King to be performed under Edmund Earl of Lancaster in West Wales. Marriages and offspring At Ralph Fitzwilliam's death in 1317 his heir, his younger son Robert, was aged 40. Since Ralph's marriage to Marjory de Bolbec did not take place until 1281, it is inferred that there was a first marriage no later than 1275, though the name of the first wife, mother of Ralph's descendants, is not known. 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, paying for that a fine of 100 marks. This marriage brought to him a portion of the Bulbeck barony of Northumberland seated at the manor of Styford in the parish of Bywell, with Hedoun on the Wall, Angyrtoune (Morpeth) and Dodynton. Margery was one of four sisters, whose mother Margery de Bolebec was sister of Richard de Montfichet, of Avelina wife of William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle, and of Philippa, wife of Hugh de Playz. 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. Around Michaelmas 1285