Rowantree was born in the vale of Kingwater

Rowantree was born in the vale of Kingwater

Rowantree was born in the vale of Kingwater

Rowantree was born in the vale of Kingwater, in the year 1779. The place of his birth, and where he continued to reside for a long series of years, is a lonely and sterile region, inhabited chiefly by sheep-farmers, situate between the green woodland slopes of Gilsland, and the then wild unclaimed wastes of Bewcastle; and was doubtless in the long ago border marauding times the scene of many a bloody raid; and later, too, of many smuggling affrays in getting across the border untaxed whiskey. Maitland's Complaint gives a vivid description of the lawlessness prevalent:

That nane may keip
Horse, nolt, nor sheip,
Nor yet dar sleip,
For thair mischeifis.