Ralph de Greystoke, 1st Baron Greystoke

It was therefore Fitzwilliam's grandson, Ralph fitz Robert who, on 15 May 1321, became the first of that male line to be summoned to parliament under the name Greystoke,^[1][9] as 1st Baron Greystoke (of the second creation).^[1] The arms later associated with the Greystoke barony, Barry argent and azure three chaplets of roses gules, were originally those of Grimthorpe, and had been borne as such by Ralph Fitzwilliam at the Battle of Falkirk and the Siege of Caerlaverock: they superseded the former arms of Greystok, to difference the descent from Grimthorpe in the male line.

In March 1322, Ralph fitz Robert fought in the Battle of Boroughbridge, on the side of King Edward II, against Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster.^[1] He was also 'a principal' in the arrest of Sir Gilbert de Middleton for treason, at Mitford Castle, in Northumberland.^[10] He was, on behalf of the king, party with Robert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus and John de Eure to an agreement by which Walter de Selby should be restored to his lands.^[11] He made an indenture with Sir Thomas de Boulton, knight, awarding him 20 marks, two robes, and a saddle suitable for a knight, yearly out of the manors of Hinderskelfe and Galmethorpe:^[12] this was probably for Sir Thomas to serve in his retinue, as Sir Nicholas de Hastings had served his grandfather.

Ralph obtained dispensation from Pope John XXII to marry Alice Audley (1300–1358), daughter of Hugh de Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Stratton Audley and Isolt le Rous,^[1] to whom he was related "within the third and fourth degrees" of consanguinity.^[10] His son and heir, William Greystoke, was born at the Fitzwilliam ancestral residence of Grimthorpe on 6 January 1321,^[1] and baptized in the manor chapel there.^[13] Ralph de Greystoke died on 14 July 1323 at Gateshead, County Durham.^[1] (The tale that this was effected by poisoning arranged by Sir Gilbert de Middleton^[10] faces the objection that Middleton had been executed for treason in 1318.) Greystoke was buried at Newminster Abbey, Northumberland.^[8]

Greystoke's widow, Alice, remarried to Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby, who held guardianship of the Greystoke estates for William, Ralph Greystoke's heir, an infant when his father died.^[14] Alice's dower was assigned by the king in August 1323.^[15] Elizabeth, Ralph's mother, who long outlived both husband and son, made a will,^[16] and in 1346 died and was buried at Butterwyk, her heir being her grandson William (Ralph's son), then aged 24 years.^[17][18] William succeeded his father in 1342, as William de Greystoke, 2nd Baron Greystoke, and in 1344 by fine covenanted with his feoffees that the dowers of his mother and his grandmother should at their deaths revert to himself and to the male heirs of his body, and only in default of such issue of his own to descend to Robert, Ralph or William, the heirs of Ralph de Neville and Alicia.^[19] Such default did not occur.