[1] He held the office of Warden of the English West March from 1593 until the Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland in 1603.

While Scrope was Warden, the outlaw Kinmont Willie Armstrong was arrested (in violation of a truce day) and imprisoned at Carlisle Castle.

Scrope had only recently been appointed to the post of Warden, and he was unsure of what to do with an outlaw who had been illegally arrested.

In a failed attempt to recapture Kinmont Willie, Scrope "burnt the towns of Annan and Dumfries to the ground, capturing two hundred prisoners whom he marched home 'naked, chained together on leashes'".

[citation needed] Scrope derived a significant part of his income from coal mining at Preston in Wensleydale.