while conducting a religious service in the cottage of an elder.
The following is a full list of Duncan's publications:—1. Pamphlet on Socinian controversy, Liverpool, 1791. 2. Three sermons. 3. ‘Essay on Nature and Advantages of Parish Banks,’ 1815. 4. Letter to John H. Forbes, esq. [on parish banks, and in answer to his letter to editor of ‘Quarterly Review’], 1817. 5. ‘Letter to W. R. K. Douglas, Esq., M.P., on Bill in Parliament for Savings Banks,’ 1819. 6. Letter to same advocating abolition of commercial restrictions, 1820. 7. ‘Letter to Managers of Banks for Savings in Scotland.’ 8. ‘The Cottage Fireside.’ 9. ‘The Young South Country Weaver.’ 10. ‘William Douglas, or the Scottish Exiles,’ 3 vols., 1826. 11. ‘Letter to Parishioners of Ruthwell on Roman Catholic Emancipation,’ 1829. 12. ‘Presbyter's Letters on the West India Question,’ 1830. 13. ‘Account of the remarkable Runic Monument preserved at Ruthwell Manse,’ 1833. 14. ‘Letters to Rev. Dr. George Cook on Patronage and Calls,’ 1834. 15. ‘Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons,’ 4 vols., 1835–6. 16. Letter to his flock on the resolutions of the convocation, 1842. 17. Articles in ‘Edinburgh Encyclopædia’—‘Blair,’ ‘Blacklock,’ ‘Currie.’ 18. Account of tracks and footmarks of animals found in Corncockle Muir (‘Transactions Royal Society of Edinburgh,’ xi.). 19. Many articles in ‘Edinburgh Christian Instructor.’
Duncan's second wife was Mary Grey, daughter of George Grey of West Ord, sister of John Grey of Dilston, a well-known Northumbrian gentleman (see Memoir by his daughter, Mrs. Josephine Butler), and widow of the Rev. R. Lundie of Kelso. She was a lady of considerable accomplishments and force of character, and author of several books: 1. ‘Memoir of the Rev. M. Bruen.’ 2. ‘Memoir of Mary Lundie Duncan’ (her daughter, author of several well-known hymns for children). 3. ‘Missionary Life in Samoa, being the Life of George Archibald Lundie’ (her son). 4. ‘Children of the Manse.’ 5. ‘America as I found it.’
[Scott's Fasti, pt. ii. 626–7; Disruption Worthies; Life of Henry Duncan, D.D., by his son, Rev. G. J. C. Duncan; Pratt's Hist. of Savings Banks; Lewin's Hist. of Savings Banks; Notice of Dr. Duncan in Savings Bank Magazine, by John Maitland, esq., with note by Dr. Chalmers; private information.]
DUNCAN, JOHN, D.D. (1721–1808), miscellaneous writer, was a younger son of Dr. Daniel Duncan, author of some religious tracts, and grandson of Daniel Duncan, M.D. [q. v.], whose memoir (together with an account of the Duncan family) he contributed to the ‘Biographia Britannica.’ He was born 3 Nov. 1721 (School Reg.), entered Merchant Taylors' at the age of twelve, and proceeded thence (1739) to St. John's College, Oxford, as probationary fellow. After graduating (M.A. 1746), and taking holy orders, he became chaplain to the forces, and served with the king's own regiment during the Scots' rebellion in 1746, and afterwards at the siege of St. Philip's, Minorca. Made D.D. by decree of convocation in 1757, he was presented six years later to the college living of South Warnborough, Hampshire, which he retained until his death at Bath, 28 Dec. 1808. He published a sermon on ‘The Defects and Dangers of a Pharisaical Righteousness,’ Glasgow, 1751; ‘An Address to the Rational Advocates for the Church of England,’ by Phileleutherus Tyro (1759); ‘The Evidence of Reason in Proof of the Immortality of the Soul. Collected from the manuscripts of Mr. Baxter (by J. D.), to which is prefixed a letter from the editor to Dr. Priestley’ (1779); and a poetical ‘Essay on Happiness, in four books,’ which went through a second edition in 1772, besides tracts and other fugitive pieces.
[Robinson's Reg. of Merchant Taylors' School, ii. 82; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Gent. Mag. 1809, i. 89.]
DUNCAN, JOHN (1805–1849), African traveller, born in 1805, was the son of a small farmer of Culdoch, near Kirkcudbright, N.B. He had a strong frame and little education. When seventeen years old he enlisted in the 1st regiment of life guards. He taught himself drawing during his service, and in 1839 left the army with a high character. He next obtained an appointment as master-at-arms in the Albert, which with the Wilberforce and the Soudan sailed on the Niger expedition in 1842. On the voyage out he was wounded by a poisoned arrow in a conflict with the natives at the Cape de Verde Isles. Duncan held a conspicuous position in all the treaties made with the native chiefs. He was selected to march at the head of his party, in the cumbrous uniform of a lifeguardsman, when the heat was fearful even to the natives themselves. When at Egga, the highest point reached by the Albert on the Niger, he ventured upon an exploration further up, taking a few natives only, but sickness compelled the abandonment of the project. On reaching Fernando Po Duncan was attacked by fever, the effects of which were aggravated by his previous wound. Of three hundred in the Niger expedition, only five survived, and Duncan reached England in a most emaciated condition. As soon as his health improved Duncan proposed to penetrate the unknown land from the western coast to the
