Initially released in June 1660 after paying a fine, he was re-arrested in August, tried for treason and found guilty, primarily due to a claim he refused to condemn the execution of Charles I, even after the Restoration.

There are few details of his career prior to the outbreak of the First English Civil War in August 1642; he was related to the Parliamentarian leader John Hampden and like many of the Buckinghamshire gentry joined the army of Parliament, raising a troop of horse for the Earl of Essex and fighting at Edgehill.

[6] Scrope was sent to help Thomas Fairfax suppress the revolt in Kent and Essex, before being detached from the Siege of Colchester to put down another rising in Cambridgeshire, led by Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland.

Although this did not take place, it is suggested Yarmouth was the location of a meeting held around this time where Oliver Cromwell proposed the trial and execution of Charles I.

[8] It is not clear whether Scrope attended but shortly afterwards he became a member of the Army Council; he supported Pride's Purge in December 1648, was appointed one of the judges at trial of Charles I, and voted for his execution on 30 January 1649.

[10] Only eighty men remained loyal to Scrope, the rest elected new officers, fortified their positions within the town, and published a pamphlet with their demands.

[11] The units from Salisbury attempted to link up with colleagues elsewhere, posing a serious threat to the regime; Cromwell and Fairfax put down the mutiny at Burford on 17 May, three ringleaders were shot and the regiments concerned dissolved, including Scrope's.

In October, he was appointed governor of Bristol Castle, a position he retained until June 1655 when it was demolished as part of a scheme for reducing the number of garrisons in England.

[15] However, on 23 July the Lords passed a motion excluding him from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act along with all the regicides; Scrope was clearly viewed with some sympathy, as on 1 August the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire was summoned to explain why he had failed to arrest him.

[16] What sealed his fate was the allegation by Sir Richard Browne, a Parliamentarian moderate excluded in 1648 and now MP for the City of London, that in a recent conversation Scrope refused to denounce the execution.

On 17 October, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Charing Cross, along with Thomas Scot, Gregory Clement and John Jones Maesygarnedd; as a special favour, his body was returned to his family for burial, rather than being put on display.