Komitat Zips
As lord of the Drugeth Province, William exploited his status unscrupulously in order to increase his own personal wealth, acquiring hereditary possessions ("iure perpetuo"), which mostly laid in the territory of his province, but not exclusively. William was granted one of his "honor"s, the castle of Szokoly in a hereditary right by Charles I sometime between 1328 and 1330, after Sáros County was attached to the Drugeth Province. After his father John died in 1334, William also inherited his personal possessions in Ung and Zemplén counties. Despite Hungarian customary law, the inheritance was not shared among the brothers (William, Nicholas and John Jr.), exercising the principle of primogeniture, which had characterized the social structure in Western Europe. Consequently, William became the owner of Nevicke Castle (present-day Nevytske, Ukraine) and its accessories, the villages of Nagykapos and Mocsár (present-day Veľké Kapušany and Močiar in Slovakia, respectively), in addition to the village of Zemplén (today Zemplín, Slovakia) with its fair, and Göbölfalva (also Schreibersdorf, today Buglovce, Slovakia) in Szepes County. Beyond the royal donations and heritages of Philip and John's fortune, William increased the number of his estates to the detriment of neighboring owners. Although, summarizing the evolution of his private wealth, there were some complaints against his efforts to acquire lands in his province, compared to some of his contemporaries – for instance, Mikcs Ákos –, he was not to be considered a violent landlord at all. Based on a former dispute between Philip Drugeth and the Görgei family in Szepes County, William Drugeth filed a lawsuit against them regarding their estates in 1329. The lawsuit ended with a forced settlement; the Görgeis had to give up the estates of Kistoporc (Toporec), Kislomnic (Lomnička) and Beles in favor of William. Thereafter, the Görgei family petitioned to the royal court, and through the mediation of the king they redeemed their three ancient possessions from William for 352 marks of valuable fabrics in 1330.