Dr Henry Duncan the distinguished founder of Savings' Banks, and the
promoter of various schemes of social economy, we are enabled to record
among the contributors to Caledonian minstrelsy. He was descended
through both parents from a succession of respectable clergymen of the
Scottish Church. His father George Duncan, was minister of Lochrutton in
the stewartry of Kircudbright, and the subject of this memoir was born
in the manse of that parish, on the 8th October 1774. After a period of
training at home under a private tutor, he was sent to the Academy of
Dumfries to complete his preparation for the University. At the age of
fourteen, he entered as a student the United College of St Andrews, but
after an attendance of two years at that seat of learning, he was
induced, on the invitation of his relative Dr Currie, to proceed to
Liverpool, there to prepare himself for a mercantile profession, by
occupying a situation in the banking office of Messrs Heywood. After a
trial of three years, he found the avocations of business decidedly
uncongenial, and firmly resolved to follow the profession of his
progenitors, by studying for the ministry of the Church of Scotland. He
had already afforded evidence of ability to grapple with questions of
controversial theology, by printing a tract against the errors of
Socinianism, which, published anonymously, attracted in the city of
Liverpool much attention from the originality with which the usual
arguments were illustrated and enforced. Of the concluding five years of
his academical course, the first and two last were spent at the
University of Edinburgh, the other two at that of Glasgow. In 1797, he
was enrolled as a member of the Speculative Society of the University of
Edinburgh, and there took his turn in debate with Henry Brougham,
Francis Horner, Lord Henry Petty afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne, and
other young men of genius, who then adorned the academic halls of the
Scottish capital. With John Leyden, W. Gillespie afterwards minister of
Kells, and Robert Lundie the future minister of Kelso, he formed habits
of particular intimacy. From the Presbytery of Dumfries, he obtained
licence as a probationer in the spring of 1798, and he thereafter
accepted the situation of tutor in the family of Colonel Erskine
afterwards Earl of Mar, who then resided at Dalhonzie, near Crieff. In
this post he distinguished himself by inducing the inhabitants of the
district to take up arms in the defence of the country, during the
excitement, which then prevailed respecting an invasion. In the spring
of 1799, the parishes of Lochmaben and Ruthwell, both in the gift of the
Earl of Mansfield, became simultaneously vacant, and the choice of them
was accorded to Mr Duncan by the noble patron. He preferred Ruthwell,
and was ordained to the charge of that parish, on the 19th September.
In preferring the parish of Ruthwell to the better position and wider
field of ministerial usefulness presented at Lochmaben, Mr Duncan was
influenced by the consideration, that the population of the former
parish was such as would enable him to extend the pastoral
superintendence to every individual of his flock. In this respect he
realised his wishes; but not content with efficiently discharging the
more sacred duties of a parochial clergyman, he sought with devoted
assiduity, the amelioration of the physical condition of his people.
Relieving an immediate destitution in the parish, by a supply of Indian
corn brought on his own adventure, he was led to devise means of
preventing the recurrence of any similar period of depression. With this
intention, he established two friendly societies in the place, and
afterwards a local bank for the savings of the industrious. The latter
proved the parent of those admirable institutions for the working
classes, known as _Savings' Banks_, which have since become so numerous
throughout Europe and the United States of America. The Ruthwell
Savings' Bank was established in 1810. Numerous difficulties attended
the early operation of the system, on its general adoption throughout
the country, but these were obviated and removed by the skill and
promptitude of the ingenious projector. At one period his correspondence
on the subject cost him in postages an annual expenditure of one hundred
pounds, a sum nearly equal to half the yearly emoluments of his
parochial cure. The Act of Parliament establishing Savings' Banks in
Scotland, which was passed in July 1819, was procured through his
indomitable exertions, and likewise the Act of 1835, providing for the
better regulation of these institutions.
At Ruthwell, Dr Duncan introduced the system of popular lectures on
science, which has since been adopted by Mechanics' Institutes. Further
to extend the benefits of popular instruction and entertainment, he
edited a series of tracts entitled "The Scottish Cheap Repository," one
of the first of those periodicals devoted to the moral improvement of
the people. A narrative designated "The Cottager's Fireside," which he
originally contributed to this series, was afterwards published
separately, and commanded a wide circulation. In 1809, Dr Duncan
originated the _Dumfries and Galloway Courier_, a weekly newspaper which
he conducted during the first seven years of its existence. He was a
frequent contributor to "The Christian Instructor," and wrote the
articles "Blair" and "Blacklock" for the _Edinburgh Encyclopaedia_. At
the request of Lord Brougham, he composed two treatises on Savings'
Banks and Friendly Societies, for publication by the "Society for the
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge." In 1819, he published the "Young Country
Weaver," a tale calculated to disseminate just political views among the
manufacturing classes; and in 1826 a tale of the times of the Covenant
in three volumes, with the title of "William Douglas, or the Scottish
Exiles." Deeply interested in the question of Slave Emancipation, he
contributed a series of letters on the subject to the _Dumfries
Courier_, which, afterwards published in the form of a pamphlet, excited
no inconsiderable attention. His most valuable and successful
publication, the "Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons" appeared in 1836-7
in four duodecimo volumes.
As a man of science, the name of Dr Duncan is associated with the
discovery of footprints of four-footed animals in the New Red-Sandstone.
He made this curious geological discovery in a quarry at Corncocklemuir,
about fifteen miles distant from his parochial manse. In 1823, he
received the degree of D.D. from the University of St Andrews. In 1839,
he was raised to the Moderator's chair in the General Assembly. In
church politics, he had early espoused liberal opinions; at the
Disruption in 1843, he resigned his charge and united himself to the
Free Church. He continued to minister in the parish of Ruthwell, till
the appointment of an assistant and successor a short time before his
decease. Revisiting the scene of his ministerial labours after a brief
absence, he was struck with paralysis while conducting service at a
prayer-meeting, and two days afterwards expired. He died at Comlongon,
the residence of his brother-in-law Mr Phillips, on the 12th February
1846, and his remains were committed to the church-yard of Ruthwell, in
which he had ministered during an incumbency of upwards of forty-six
years.
Dr Duncan was twice married; first in 1804, to Miss Craig, the only
surviving daughter of his predecessor, and secondly in 1836, to Mrs
Lundie, the relict of his friend Mr Lundie, minister of Kelso. His
memoirs have been published by his son, the Rev. George John C. Duncan,
minister of the Free Church, Greenwich. A man of fine intellect,
extensive and varied scholarship, and highly benevolent dispositions, Dr
Duncan was much cherished and beloved alike by his parishioners and his
gifted contemporaries. Pious and exemplary as became his profession, he
was expert in business, and was largely endowed with an inventive
genius. Though hitherto scarcely known as a poet, he wrote verses so
early as his eleventh year, which are described by his biographer as
having "evinced a maturity of taste, a refinement of thought, and an
ease of diction which astonished and delighted his friends," and the
specimens of his more mature lyrical compositions, which we have been
privileged to publish from his MSS. are such as to induce some regret
that they were not sooner given to the public.