Bell Duncan (8 August 1849 – 5 January 1934), also known as Isobel, Isabella and Elizabeth, was a traditional singer from

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. She was born in

Forgue Forgue is a hamlet in Aberdeenshire. It lies northwest of Aberdeen and northeast of Huntly. The Glendronach distillery is located in Forgue. Notable residents * George Bartlet, Dean of Aberdeen and Orkney * Sir George Stuart Forbes, Indian ...

in 1849, to George Duncan (1814-1903) a farmer, and Jane Duncan (''née'' Hutcheon) (1807-1884), from whom she learnt most of her songs. She worked as a housekeeper and had three children. She had an enormous repertoire of around 300 traditional songs which were recorded by the song collector

James Madison Carpenter James Madison Carpenter, born in 1888 in Blacklands, Mississippi, near Booneville, in Prentiss County, was a Methodist minister and scholar of American and British folklore. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the ...

, including 60 of the

Child Ballads The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as ''T ...

, many of which have never been recorded from the mouths of any other source singer. Hundreds of Carpenter's recordings of Bell Duncan are available on the Vaughan William Memorial Library website with Carpenter's transcriptions of the lyrics, including her performances of ballads such as

The Elfin Knight "The Elfin Knight" () is a traditional Scottish folk ballad of which there are many versions, all dealing with supernatural occurrences, and the commission to perform impossible tasks. The ballad has been collected in different parts of England, ...

Geordie Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitut ...

, Lord Bateman, Barbara Allen, Binorie, and other far rarer old ballads such as

The White Fisher The White Fisher is Child ballad 264, and number 3888 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Synopsis A man tells his wife that they have been married only one month and asks why the child is quickening. The woman blames her pregnancy on a priest, or ...

Fair Mary of Wallington Fair Mary of Wallington or Fair Lady of Wallington is Child ballad 91 and number 59 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Child lists at least seven variants of the ballad. The first variant is titled "Fair Mary of Wallington", while another variant (va ...

and The Gardener Lad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Bell 1849 births 1934 deaths Scottish folk singers People from Aberdeen People from Aberdeenshire 19th-century Scottish women singers 20th-century Scottish women singers