GREY, Sir JOHN de (d. 1266), judge, was second son of Henry de Grey, first baron Grey of Codnor,by his wife Isolda, the eldest of the nieces of Robert Bardolf, aud possibly related to Walter de Grey, archbishop of York [q.v.] Having a seat at Eaton, near Fenny Stratford,he served as sheriff of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire in the twenty-third year of Henry III, and seven years later became constable of the castle of Gannoc in North Wales, and justice of Chester. In the thirty-fifth year of Henry III he married Johanna, widow of Paulinus Peiure. The king, however, had destined her for another husband, and for thus marrying her without the royal license Grey was fined five hundred marks, and lost his appointments in Wales. He took the cross in 1252, and on his return from the crusade was received again into favour, and in 1253 was forgiven his fine and debts to the crown to the extent of 300l. (see Rot. Fin. i. 453,ii. 119, 167). He was also appointed steward of Gascony and custos of the castles of Northampton, Shrewsbury, and Dover. In 1255 he withdrew from court, disliking the course taken by the royal councillors, and pleading old age. But in 1258 he was one of the twelve representatives of the commonalty, and of the twenty-four 'a treiter de aide le rei' (Ann. Burt, pp, 449, 450). He was also appointed by the barons one of the counsellors to Prince Edward, and castellan of Hereford (ib. pp. 445, 453), In 1260 be became a justice in eyre in Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire. On 9 July 1261 he was appointed by the king sheriff of Hereford and custos of Hereford Castle (Rot.Pat. 45 Hen.III). In the king's war with his barons he adhered to the king, took command of the army in Wales in February 1263, in July his house was attacked by the Londoners, and he escaped with difficulty (Ann. Dunst. iii. 223; see Wright, Pol. Songs, p. 62). He was one of the kind's sureties that he would abide by the award made by King Louis of France, and in 1265. after the battle of Evesham, was made sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. He died In the following year. By his first wife, Emma, daughter and heiress of Geoffrey de Glanville, he had a daughter and a son, Reginald, first baron Grey de Wilton (d. 1308) [see under John de Grey, second Lord Grey of Wilton], from whom descend the Earl of Wilton and Marquis of Ripon.
[Foss's Judges of England; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 712, 716; Matthew Paris's Chronicle (Rolls Ser.), vol. v.; Shirley's Royal Letters of Henry III (Rolls Ser.), vol. li.; Nicolas's Synopsis]
GREY, JOHN de, second Lord Grey of Wilton (1268–1323), was the grandson of John de Grey (d. 1266) [q. v.], and the son of Reginald de Grey, the first lord Grey of Wilton. The father, having been justice of Chester, received in 1282 a grant of the castle of Ruthin, with the cantreds of Duffryn Clwyd and Englefield (Tegeingl), in the marches of North Wales; married Maud, daughter and heiress of Henry de Longchamp of Wilton; was summoned to parliament in 1297 and died in 1308. John had already been actively engaged in public life some years before his father's death. His acts are easily confused with those of his namesake, John de Grey of Rotherfield (d. 1312). He was, however, vice-justice of Chester in 1296 and 1297 (Welsh Records in Thirty-first Report of Deputy-keeper of Records, p. 202). In consideration of the son's good services to the crown Edward I remitted part of a debt which in 1306 Reginald the father owed to the king (Rolls of Parliament, i. 199).
John de Grey was first summoned to parliament on 9 June 1309. He had not yet become a prominent partisan when in March 1310 he was appointed one of the lords ordainers (Stubbs, Chron. Edward I and II, ii.37; cf. Const. Hist. ii. 328). His continued hostility to the court is also shown by his being one of the permanent council nominated in 1318 to keep Edward II in check as the result of Lancaster's triumph. He was, however, constantly acting against the Scots, and seems to have shown some activity in enrolling foot soldiers from his Welsh estates. On 15 Feb. 1315 he was also appointed justice of North Wales and constable of Carnarvon Castle (Breese, Calendars of Gwynedd, p. 125). In 1316 he was ordered to raise all the forces he could to put down the insurrection of Llewelyn Bren. In 1320 he was a conservator of the peace for Bedfordshire.
In 1322, when the final struggle between Edward II and Lancaster broke out, Grey seems to have abandoned his old associates for the royal cause. He was commanded to raise troops in Wales and join the royal muster at Coventry, and also sat in the parliament at York which consummated the king's triumph. He complained, however, that the Welsh tenants of the king had attacked Ruthin, plundered himself and the townsfolk, and almost succeeded in burning the town (Rolls of Parliament, i. 397 b).
Grey died in 1323. He is said to have married twice. His first wife was Anne, daughter of William Ferrers, lord of Groby, by whom he left a son named Henry, forty years old at his father's death, who became
