Scruton was born in 1947 in Rochester, New Hampshire.Diocese of Western Massachusetts Official website Bishop Gordon Paul Scruton Biography. Accessed March 10, 2009. According to his official biography he received a master's degree in English, magna cum laude, from Barrington College, then studied at the Boston University School of Theology, receiving a master's degree in theology in 1971. Scruton married Rebecca S. Polley in 1968. He was ordained a deacon in 1971, a priest in 1972,ECUSA Church Publishing website Official Listing. Accessed March 10, 2009. and served as an assistant rector at St. Mark's Church in Riverside, Rhode Island and at St. Paul's Church in Kingston, Rhode Island in the mid-1970s. Scruton was rector of Grace Church in Dalton, Massachusetts from 1977 to 1981, and St. Francis Church in Holden, Massachusetts thereafter.
