and of Castle Combe, Wiltshire, where he founded a family, which has lasted to our own day [see Scrope, William, (1772–1852)]. In 1397 he served as justice of Munster, Leinster, and Uriell. He was one of the few who remained faithful to Richard II until his arrest, but under Henry IV became joint keeper of Roxburghe Castle (1400) and deputy-lieutenant of Ireland (1401). He won a victory there at Callan in September 1407, and died of the plague at Castledermot on 4 Sept. 1408. His widow married (January 1409) Sir John Fastolf [q. v.] He left a son Stephen and a daughter Elizabeth (Wylie, ii. 124, iii. 162, 168; Devon, Issues, p. 280; Testamenta Eboracensia, iii. 38; Holinshed, Ireland, p. 66).
The fourth son, Richard, is only mentioned in a deed, dated 31 Oct. 1366 (Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, ii. 53). In consequence of an ambiguous expression in Scrope's will (Testamenta Eboracensia, i. 272), Richard le Scrope [q. v.], archbishop of York, has often been considered his son, even since Sir Harris Nicolas's convincing proof of his real parentage (Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, ii. 121). Some authorities doubtfully give Scrope a second wife; but they are not agreed whether she was a Margaret, daughter of Sir John Montfort, or a lady named Spencer. The fact seems doubtful.
[Rotuli Parliamentorum; Rymer's Fœdera, original edit.; Walsingham's Historia Anglicana (Rolls Ser.); Testamenta Eboracensia (Surtees Soc.); Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, ed. Nicolas, 2 vols. 1832 (the second volume contains pedigrees of both branches of the Scropes, lives of their members down to 1405, and biographies of most of Scrope's witnesses); Quarterly Review, April 1836; Dugdale's Baronage; Wylie's History of Henry IV.]
SCROPE, RICHARD le (1350?–1405), archbishop of York, probably born about 1350, was fourth son of Henry, first baron Scrope of Masham [q. v.], by his wife Joan, and was godson of Richard, first baron Scrope of Bolton [q. v.], who refers to him in his will as ‘my most dear father and son’ (Test. Ebor. i. 272; Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, ii. 121; Wylie, ii. 194; cf. Historians of York, iii. 288). He was thus uncle to Henry le Scrope, third baron Scrope of Masham [q. v.], executed in 1415. He is said to have graduated in arts at Oxford and in law at Cambridge (ib. ii. 306). The former statement lacks proof. By 1375 he was a licentiate in civil law, and by 1386 doctor in both laws (Godwin, i. 321; Evesham, p. 71). His uncle of Bolton presented him to the rectory of Ainderby Steeple, near Northallerton, in 1367, but he was not in deacon's orders until 1376 (Whitaker, i. 260). In November 1375 he became an official of Bishop Arundel at Ely, and in 1376 warden of the free chapel in Tickhill Castle, then in John of Gaunt's hands (Godwin; Hunter, i. 236). Ordained priest in March 1377, he is said to have held a canonry at York, and next year became chancellor of the university of Cambridge (Le Neve, iii. 599; Wylie, ii. 200). In 1382 he went to Rome, and was made auditor of the curia. Appointed dean of Chichester (1383?), a papal bull on the death of William Rede or Reade [q. v.] in August 1385 provided Scrope to that see, and apparently the canons elected him (Le Neve, i. 256; Higden, ix. 66). But the king insisted on putting in his confessor, Thomas Rushhook [q. v.], bishop of Llandaff. Scrope was still at Rome, and was nominated notary of the curia on 28 April 1386 (Wylie, ii. 201). Urban VI promoted him by bull at Genoa on 18 Aug. in that year to be bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and consecrated him next day (Fœdera, vii. 541). The temporalities were restored to him on 15 Nov. In August 1387 he was installed in the presence of Richard II, then on progress, and swore to recover the lost estates of the see and refrain himself from alienations. ‘Sure,’ said Richard, ‘you have taken a big oath, my lord’ (Anglia Sacra, i. 450). He went on a mission to Scotland in 1392, and acted as a conservator of the truce with that country in 1394 (Fœdera, vii. 765; Issues, p. 247). In 1397 he journeyed to Rome to seek the pope's consent to Richard's pet project of canonising Edward II (ib. p. 264). The king spent the following winter with him at Lichfield on his way to the Shrewsbury parliament. On the death of Robert Waldby [q. v.], archbishop of York, Richard ignored the choice of the chapter, and at his request the pope translated Scrope thither by bull (2 June 1398).
Acquiescing in the revolution of 1399, Scrope was a member of the parliamentary commission which went to the Tower on 29 Sept. and received Richard's renunciation of the crown. In parliament next day, after an address on the text, ‘I have set my words in thy mouth,’ he read this surrender, and afterwards joined the archbishop of Canterbury in enthroning the new king. When Henry, on his Scottish expedition in the summer of 1400, found himself straitened for money, Scrope exerted himself to fill the void (Wylie, i. 135). His loyalty would appear, however, to have been shaken by the discontent of the Percys, with whom he was closely connected. Not only were they munificent benefactors of his cathedral
