Scrope Howe, 1st Viscount Howe

[2] He was born the eldest son of John Grobham Howe and educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was awarded MA on 8 September 1665.

In June 1680 Howe, Lord Russell, and others met together with a view to deliver a presentment to the grand jury of Middlesex against the Duke of York for being a papist, but the judges had notice and dismissed the jury before the presentment could be made.

On 23 January 1685 he appeared before the king's bench and pleaded not guilty to an allegation of speaking against the Duke of York.

He took a part in bringing about the Glorious Revolution, and with the Earl of Devonshire at Nottingham declared for William of Orange in November 1688.

In 1693 he was made surveyor-general of the roads, and in the same year was appointed, in succession to Elias Ashmole, comptroller of the accounts of the excise, an office which he appears to have afterwards sold to Edward Pauncfort.