Peartree

Description

NY 360 697 Supposed stonehouse; site now destroyed.
The 1604 Survey places it in the Debatable Land, however, the 1590 and 1607 Maps show the house on the River Lyne at NY 410 663. Graham was certain of this site based on surname evidence.
Cole confirms that this is Peartree in the Debatable Land, gives its location and history. He makes no comment on what sort of building it might have been. 'Peale' on the 1590 map may have some significance, however it was probably a detached part of the estate.
Cole states that 'the site of Peartree has been eroded or completely destroyed by gravel quarrying to the south and east of Closegap. (Perriam and Robinson 1998)

NY360697. Site of a destroyed bastle or stonehouse at Peartree shown as a house on both the 1590 and 1607 maps of Cumbria. The site has been eroded or completely destroyed by gravel quarrying to the south and east of Close gap. (PastScape ref. Perriam and Robinson)

Comments

Gatehouse finds this record in Perriam and Robinson difficult to accept. The house shown as 'Pearepeale' on the 1590 map and 'Pearetree' on the 1607 platt are clearly nowhere near the given map reference of NY360697. These two maps, which seem to have been independently made (unlike a lot of early maps which just copy each other) place Peartree on the River Lynn downstream of Randalinton/Kirklinton. I would place them in the vicinity of Parceltown at NY394654, where it would form one of a number of sites marked at fairly regular intervals along the River Lynn (possibly reflecting a regular breakdown of the land into fairly equal agricultural parcels). Martin and Jean Norgate of Old Cumbria Gazetteer places it at slightly feature east in square NY4065.
The map reference given in Perriam and Robinson 1998 is marked as a small building called 'Henrystown' on the 1868 OS map. It can not have been destroyed by erosion although the site was destroyed by the building of the Smalmstown depot of the HM Factory Gretna in 1915.
I have not seen Cole's thesis but I feel Perriam and Robinson have accepted this source rather too unquestioningly and possibly with some transcribing error. Even if there was a 'Peartree' in Debateable Land (and such a placename could occur several times in many places) and even if that was part of the same estate as the Peartree on the River Lynn the evidence for a fortified house is the maps which clearly place the fortified house on the River Lynn not north of the Esk! Musgrave letter on the border riders is ambiguous - in a paragraph on the Graham's of 'Levne' (Lynn) are listed the Graham's of 'Peretree' but these named as 'of Eske' This may be an afterthought meaning the location of the house or may be the origin of the named man, just showing the as relatively recently moved out of the Debatable Land and into an area more certainly English - which, given the context of Mulgrave's letter, would be important information.
It is entirely possible there was a fortified house of some sort, called Peartree, at or near to NY394654. There is no apparent evidence for a fortified house at the map reference given in Perriam and Robinson 1998 and in PastScape 1390072.