AREA HISTORY:  King of the Barrens, Hopewell Township, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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“THE KING OF THE BARRENS” – Page 755

Andrew Finly, or Finley, a bold, audacious Scotch-Irishman, emigrated from County Antrim, North 
Ireland, to this country in 1732.  He landed at New Castle, Del., proceeded with others to this 
county, and purchased a tract of land, on which the village of Winterstown is built.  Tradition 
gives Finly a great deal of prominence in the lower end of the county.  He was a sort of modern 
Shylock, demanding, not a pound of flesh however from every person to whom he loaned money, but 
a quart of pure old rye, together with the principal and interest.  This inspiriting fluid was 
all placed in one large demijohn and dealt out to his friends who visited him on convivial 
occasions.  He was called by his neighbors the “King of the Barrens.”  Before his death, he 
employed James McCandless, a schoolmaster of the olden time, also a justice of the peace, to 
write some verses which were to be placed on his tomb.  The ingenious Scotchman, who, it is 
said, was able to repeat nearly the whole of the poems of Robert Burns from memory, and had 
acquired quite a local reputation as an amateur poet, was unable to please Finly, at the first 
attempt, as the verses were not laudatory enough to please his vanity and ambition, believing 
with the immortal Shakespeare that

“The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.”

In order to prevent this he demanded that McCandless consult the Muses and make another 
attempt.  The poet finally produced the following effusion, which pleased his master, and it is 
neatly carved on the marble slab which covers his tomb, in the old “Round Hill” graveyard, 
about three miles southeast of Winterstown, in this township.

“Andre Finley died in the year 1800.  
His pilgrimage on earth was four score years and three.  

In his early youth he bravely served His Majesty,
In whose army he was a captain bold,
And fought for honor, not for sake of gold.
Firm and undaunted he had courage brave
And drew his sword his country for to save.”

There is another couplet relating to his kindness to the poor, which is not clearly legible.  A 
difficulty arose between the poet and his lord as to the charge for his services, which was not 
adjusted until after the death of the latter, when McCandless laid in a bill of £10, or about 
$50, for the epitaph and recovered it.  Finley, who doubtless had many virtues, even if he was 
possessed of considerable vanity, left no children and his young wife died many years before 
him.  He lived in a comfortable home, now in the limits of Winterstown.  He served as 
lieutenant of a company of soldiers from his section that, in 1758, joined Gen. Forbes’ 
expedition against the Indians, and afterward was at the surrender of Fort DuQuesne, now 
Pittsburg.  Part of his land around Wintertown was given, by will, to a relative, who became 
the wife of Rev. John Smith, and who, with her husband, moved to Steuben County, N. Y.  The 
tract for many years lay as an open common, surrounded by valuable timber land.  It was a great 
resort for sportsmen during this period, in quest of wild pigeons which were found abundantly 
there.