sentences:  His gravestone states that the place was Bewcastle, Cumberland, and this information is repeated by Marshall.However, Holcroft writes that the family went to Canada in 1817, not returning until 1824, and that consequently George was born overseas.It was presumably in 1824 that the family took up residence near Newcastle at Newburn-on-Tyne, a few miles from George Stephenson's birthplace and at that time at the centre of avant-garde steam locomotive engineering.