Bell Robertson (1841 – 1922) was a Scottish reciter of folk songs who contributed almost four hundred memorised ballads to the Greig-Duncan collection.
"[2] Russell gave this description of her:"In a small, two-roomed cottage at one of the lodges at Aden lived a one-armed, invalid man who had a very interesting maidservant called Isabella Robertson, who wrote beautiful poems and hymns.
Her conversation was a mine of beautiful and original thoughts…[her published works] only give a faint idea of this self-taught genius.
She was a perfect mine of local traditions, and many a tale she told me and my children of smugglers and pirates, and strange happenings in days gone by…"[2]In her retirement in New Pitsligo, Bell met Gavin Greig and the Revd James Bruce Duncan, who were preparing a collection of local traditional music for publication.
Bell Robertson was the most prolific single source for this through her correspondence with Greig, providing commentaries, notes, and text for almost four hundred songs.