Duncan Williamson

Williamson is reputed to have been born in a bow-tent on the banks of Loch Fyne, near the village of Furnace in Argyll, to Jock Williamson and Betsy Townsley, and was one of 16 children.[1][2] He learned his repertoire of stories and songs from family, and other members of the Traveller community.[3] His illiterate father was a basketmaker & tinsmith, and insisted that his children get an education, sending Williamson to school in Furnace.[3] Like other Scottish travellers, the Williamson family lived in a fairly large tent during the winter months and took to the roads for the summer, walking from camping place to camping place and picking up seasonal work as they went. At age fourteen, he was apprenticed to a stonemason and dry stane-dyker. A year later, he left home with an older brother, travelling all over Argyll and Perthshire. He worked as a farm labourer, and later as a horse dealer.[3] He was married to his first wife, Jeannie Townley (a distant cousin) in 1949 and had seven children together. Jeannie died in 1971.[3]

On 22 February 1977, Williamson married the American-born musicologist/folklorist Linda Headlee, with whom he had two children.[2] For the first four years of their marriage they lived in a tent, following which they lived in a cottage in Fife.[3] It was largely through her that Duncan came into demand as a storyteller in Scottish schools, as well a featured performer at storytelling festivals both in the UK and abroad.

Williamson's life on the road in his teens and as a young married man is recounted in his oral autobiography, The Horsieman: Memories of a Traveller 1928-1958.[4] From early on he developed a zest for storytelling as well as a love for the conviviality that attends "having a crack" (trading talk with friends or companions). His repertory of songs and stories continued to expand throughout his life, particularly after he gained entry to the world inhabited by folklorists by taking part in Scotland's folksong and storytelling revivals during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

In 1967 Williamson met the travellers' rights activist Helen Fullerton, a collector of traditional folktales, who had previously recorded his mother and siblings in 1958.[2] Fullerton told another collector, Geordie MacIntyre, about Williamson, with MacIntryre making further recordings, also in 1967.[2] In 1968, Williamson performed at the Blairgowrie Folk Festival.[2]

Williamson met BBC producer David Campbell in 1987, who recorded his story "Mary and the Seal", and with whom he became friends.[5]

Thanks chiefly to Linda's skill in editing his tape-recorded performances, a number of Duncan's stories came into print during his lifetime. A few audio recordings of his songs and stories have been issued commercially as well. Many more recordings remain in storage in personal or public archives, including the Sound Archive of the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh and the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress, Washington DC.[2]

Williamson's talents as a storyteller are celebrated in several books written by specialists in Scottish tradition and the art of oral narrative, including John D. Niles, author of Homo Narrans (1997);[6] Timothy Neat, author of The Voice of the Bard (2002);[7] Donald Braid, author of Scottish Traveller Tales (2002)[8]; and David Campbell, author of a pair of volumes titled A Traveller in Two Worlds.[9][10]

• School of Scottish Studies, at Edinburgh University

• Duncan Williamson Biography at Floris Books
• On the new biography A Traveller in Two Worlds in The Scotsman, June 2011
• Obituary in The Guardian
• Obituary in The Independent
• Duncan Williamson at publisher Birlinn
• Biographical article (2014) in blog The Learning Age (thelearningage.wordpress.com)
• Duncan Williamson at Library of Congress Authorities, with 14 catalogue records
• Linda Williamson at LC Authorities, with 8 records (some as 'Williamson, Linda' without '1949–'), and at WorldCat