Belle Stewart

Alec's father Jock Stewart (1869–1954) had been a champion violinist, supposedly the subject of the popular Scots and Irish drinking-song "Jock Stewart, A Man You Don't Meet Every Day".

Jock's father, "Big Jimmy" Stewart, also a champion violinist, allegedly died when beaten to death by a group of Irishmen he met on his way home from busking in the Pitlochry area, because he refused to play a tune they requested.

Belle Stewart, born Isobella McGregor, (18 July 1906 – 4 September 1997) was a Scottish Traveller traditional singer.

Sheila Stewart corrects the frequently cited birthdate of 17 July 1906 to the 18th.

As a result of their life-style, the family received much insult and abuse.

Belle's father died when she was only 9 months old.

Afraid that social workers might take her children from her, her mother stopped travelling and settled in Perthshire.

The McGregor family tried to teach Belle how to read palms (fortune telling), but she didn't take to this.

The family frequently went to Northern Ireland to do pearl-fishing.

In the evenings they gathered at ceilidhs to exchange folk songs.

Stewart learnt songs from her brothers, who had themselves learnt them from her father.

Belle's version of "If I Was a Blackbird" inspired Alec Stewart, a violin player, to propose to her.

They married in secret on 17 August 1925 at Ballymoney in Northern Ireland.

In March 1954 Hamish Henderson invited the Traveller family to do a concert in Edinburgh alongside "Auld Galoot" (Davie Stewart), Jeannie Robertson and Jimmy MacBeath.

A collection of her stories was published as The King o' the Black Art in 1987.

When Alec Stewart died, the Church of Scotland minister at Blairgowrie refused to allow a funeral service in his church, because Alec had been a Traveller.

A Dundee minister offered them a service in his church.

While John Stewart worked on a building site in Hatfield, a friend of Ewan MacColl visited.

The following week Ewan MacColl visited the Stewart family.

Hamish Henderson and the School of Scottish Studies recorded the family's music and folk tales.

Soon the younger members of the family made recordings of ballads in London.

A few months later the whole family received invitations to perform at MacColl's "Singers' Club" in London.

Her biography, Queen Amang the Heather: the Life of Belle Stewart, was written by her daughter, Sheila Stewart, and published in 2006.

Isobella McGregor was born on the banks of the River Tay at Caputh, near Blairgowrie, into a family of Highland Scottish Travellers, who lived in bow-tents (similar to dome tents).

Alec's mother, Nancy Campbell, reputedly had both a grandfather (Andy Campbell) and a grandmother sentenced to death by hanging in the 18th century for the crime of travelling.

The couple had five children who died as babies, and Sheila, Cathie, Andy and John who survived, and an adopted daughter, Rena.

The family made their living by selling scrap metal and by pearl fishing.

Alec Stewart was conscripted into the army.

His Captain also came from Blairgowrie.

The Captain was wounded in action and Alec carried him to the Red Cross camp.

When the Captain learned who had saved his life, he said that he would have preferred to die rather than to owe his life to a "Tink".

Alec and Belle wrote letters in the Traveller cant known as Beurla-reagaird.

The British Army postal censors could not understand it, and ordered them to stop.

When the Stewarts of Blairgowrie went to the Sidmouth Festival in Devon they encountered New Age travellers for the first time.

Belle Stewart noticed how dirty the New Agers were.

They said they were travellers but Stewart replied "No, you're not. We are."

The New Age Travellers said "But you're dressed too fine to be travellers."

The photographs in Sheila Stewart's book show how much care the Stewarts took with personal appearance.

At festivals the whole family wore tartan kilts and the pipers among them wore full regalia.

Stewart's repertoire of folk tales frequently refer to the supernatural, including changelings.