Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grey, John de (d.1266)
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]