1121 Ranulph became Earl of Chester. "Ranulph le Meschin, [i.e. "The young," from the Latin "Mischinus;" French "Meschin" (Le Jeune). "Apud Francos mediae aetatis scriptores sumitur vox 'Machirt' pro adolescente et juvenculo." Ducange.] styled, also, "de Briquessart," [So called from Briquessart in the commune of Livry, where the earthworks of his castle are still visible. He is called by Ordericus "Rannulfus Baiocensis," from having succeeded his father as Vicomte of the Bessin (of which Bayeux was the capital) in Nov. 1120. (ex inform. J. H. Round).] Vicomte de Bayeux in Normandy, s. and h. of Ranulph, Vicomte de Bayeux, by Margaret, sister of Hugh (d'Avranches), Earl of Chester abovenamed, being thus ist cousin and h. to the last Earl (whom he sue. as Vicomte d'Avranches, &c., in Normandy), obtained, after the Earl's death in 1120, the grant of the county palatine of Chester, becoming thereby Earl of Chester. He appears thereupon to have surrendered the Lordship of the great district of Cumberland, which he had acquired,[He is hence sometimes, erroneously, called Earl of Cumberland, or Earl of Carlisle. See ante, p. 30, note "a" for some remarks on this subject.] shortly before, from Henry I. In 1124 he was Commander of the Royal forces in Normandy. He m. Lucy,[As to her identity, see note sub Lincoln. V.G.] widow of Roger Fitz-Gerold (by whom she was mother of William de Roumare, afterwards Earl of Lincoln). He d. about 1129, and was bur. at St. Werburg's, Chester. (There is no ground for supposing that he or his son held the Earldom of Lincoln. [J. H. Round, "Adeliza the Viscountess", The Genealogist, N.S. vol. viii (1892), 148-150. V.G.]) The Countess Lucy confirmed, as his widow, the grant of the Manor of Spalding to the monks of that place." [1]
[1] George E. Cokayne, Vicary Gibbs, ed., The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain, Vol. 3, Canonteign to Cutts (London, St. Catherine Press, 1913), 166, [InternetArchive].