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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grey, Roger

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642935Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 23 — Grey, Roger1890Thomas Frederick Tout

GREY, ROGER, first Lord Grey of Ruthin (d. 1353), was the younger son of John de Grey (1268-1323) [q. v.], second lord Grey of Wilton, but the eldest by his second wife (Dugdale, Baronage, i. 716). Courthope (Historic Peerage, p. 226) by mistake describes him as younger son of John, third lord Grey of Codnor (1305-1392) [q. v.]

On his father's death Grey, besides inheriting other estates, came into possession of the castle of Ruthin and the cantreds of Duffryn Clwyd and Englefield. He had already served in the Scottish expedition of 1318, and had sat in the parliament of York in 1322, when his father's death in 1323 led to his summons to the parliament of 30 Dec. 1324 as 'Roger de Grey.' In 1327 he accompanied Edmund, earl of Kent, on the Scottish campaign of that year. In 1331 the custody of the castle of Abergavenny was bestowed upon him, as his wife's nephew, Laurence Hastings, was under age. In 1339 he was one of the guarantors of Edward III's treaty that his son Edward should marry Margaret of Brabant (Fœdera, ii. 1083). In 1341 he served in Scotland. In 1343 he was ordered to provide twenty men-at-arms and twenty archers for the king's service in France. In 1345 he was ordered to cross the sea with the king. In 1352 he acted as a commissioner of array for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, where his estates largely lay.

Grey died on 6 March 1353, his last summons to parliament being on 15 Nov. 1351. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John, lord Hastings, lord of Abergavenny, and of his wife Isabel, daughter and coheiress of William de Valence, earl of Pembroke, by virtue of which his grandson, Reginald de Grey (d. 1440) [q. v.], became heir of the Hastings estates. Their eldest son, John, who in 1335 married Anne, daughter of William Montague, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, had died before him, so that his next heir was his only surviving son, Reginald, the second baron, who was the father of Reginald, the third baron [q. v.] He also had three daughters.

[Dugdale's Baronage, i. 716; Nicolas's Historic Peerage, ed. Courthope, p. 226; Collins's Peerage, ii. 510-12, ed. 1779; Parl. Writs, vol. ii. div. iii. p. 955; Rymer's Fœdera, vols. ii. and iii., Record ed.]