Geoffrey le Scrope

Sir Geoffrey le Scrope, who lived from around 1285 until 2 December 1340, was an English lawyer who served as Chief Justice of the King's Bench across four separate periods between 1324 and 1338, under Edward II and Edward III. Beyond the bench he was a soldier and diplomat, serving on military campaigns in Flanders and undertaking important foreign missions for the crown. He built up significant landholdings in Yorkshire and other counties, and his eldest son became the first Baron Scrope of Masham. Scrope died in Ghent in 1340 while on diplomatic service and was buried at Coverham Abbey in North Yorkshire.