DUNCAN, REV. HENRY, D.D.—This
excellent divine, whose life was so distinguished by active practical
usefulness, was born at Lochrutton manse, on the 8th of
October, 1774. His father, the Rev. George Duncan, was minister of the
parish of Lochrutton, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and his
grandfather had also held the same parochial charge. Indeed, both by
father and mother, Henry Duncan traced his descent from a line of
ministers that almost reached to the days of the Covenant, so that he was
wont to compare his family to the tribe of Levi. It was not wonderful,
therefore, that not only himself, but his younger brother, Thomas, should
direct their choice and their studies to the ministry. After a careful
home education at the manse of Lochrutton, and subsequently a public one
at the academy of Dumfries, Henry Duncan went to the university of St.
Andrews in 1778. Two years after, a temporary interruption in his college
studies occurred, in consequence of his near relation, Dr. Currie, the
biographer of Burns, inviting him to enter a banking establishment in
Liverpool, with a view to becoming a merchant. Henry, whose purposes were
not as yet very definite, complied, and in 1790 exchanged the occupations
of a student for those of a banker’s clerk. It was a happy interruption,
however, when we take into account the knowledge of the world, financial
experience, and practical habits by which he was afterwards so
distinguished among his classical brethren, and so useful to the
church—and especially in the establishment of savings banks, by which he
was so great a benefactor to society at large.
During the three years
which Henry Duncan thus spent in Liverpool, his time was not wholly
employed in the details of business and banking calculations. From his
natural bias, talents, and previous education, he could not be happy
without the enjoyments of literary exercise, and therefore he not only
sought every opportunity of frequenting intellectual society, but renewed
his old studies, and wrote poetry; he even went so far as to publish a
theological tract, which he wrote against Unitarianism, at that time the
prevalent heresy of Liverpool. It was a new feature in religious
controversy for a boy of sixteen to publish his lucubrations upon such a
subject, and more surprising still that the pamphlet should have been
generally admired; but our wonder ceases when we are told that its
principal arguments were derived from his father’s letters, with whom he
had corresponded on the subject. All these were significant tokens that he
would not voluntarily become a banker: his choice was to be a parish
minister rather than a millionaire; and this, too, not at the time
from religious considerations, but the opportunities which he would enjoy
for those literary pursuits which, in his eyes, formed the best occupation
of life. After much reluctance his wishes were complied with, and he
returned to Scotland in 1793, and continued his studies for five years,
partly at the university of Edinburgh, and partly at that of Glasgow.
Having completed the required courses, he was taken upon trial by the
presbytery of Dumfries, and licensed as a preacher of the gospel in 1798,
after which, like many other licentiates, he betook himself to the
occupation of a family tutor, until a presentation should induct him into
a settled charge. The place of his sojourn on this occasion was the
Highlands; and as the whole heather was in a blaze of patriotic ardour at
this period, from the threat of a French invasion, the young enthusiastic
preacher caught the genial spirit, and carried it so far, that besides
girding himself with the usual weapons of military exercise, he assumed
the Highland garb, to the great astonishment and mirth of its legitimate
wearers, who had never seen theology so habited. It was as well that all
this should speedily terminate, and accordingly, in 1799, not less than
two presentations and one popular call offered themselves at the same
period to his acceptance: these were to the parishes of Lochmaben and
Ruthwell, and to a congregation of Presbyterians in Ireland. Mr. Duncan
made his election in favour of Ruthwell, although it was the least
tempting of the two parishes. It presented, however, what he considered of
chief account—the best opportunity of a life of clerical usefulness. His
standard of such a life at this period must be taken into account, and it
is thus announced by his biographer:--"If the eternal welfare of his flock
occupied any considerable share in his thoughts, I fear it must be
confessed that the hope of advancing these interests rested chiefly on the
influence he might possess in cultivating their kind and benevolent
affections, in promoting a social and friendly spirit among their
families, harmonizing their differences, rousing their patriotism, and
becoming their example in all that is amiable, worthy, and honourable.
Such seems to have been his beau-ideal of a country minister’s
life; and if he could live to promote these purposes, he does not seem to
have questioned that he should amply fulfil all the purposes of a
Christian ministry."
The first act of Mr. Duncan
after receiving the presentation was well fitted to endear him to the
affections of his future parishioners. By law he was entitled to the crop
upon the glebe, should his settlement take place before its removal, by
merely paying the expenses for seed and labour. This right, however, he
waived in favour of the widow and daughter of the late incumbent, allowing
her in the meantime to put into the ground what crop she pleased; and, in
order that she might reap it undisturbed by legal technicalities, he
delayed his settlement till the 19th of September, when he was solemnly
inducted into his parish at the age of twenty-five, with a pastoral charge
delivered to him by the aged minister who presided, from the text, "Let no
man despise thy youth." On being settled, he entered into his clerical
duties, so far as he understood them, with all the warmth of his
affectionate heart, and all the energy of his active spirit, visiting and
catechising from house to house, in addition to his public labours on the
Sabbath. But the deep ignorance, and somewhat lawless border character of
his flock—for the parish lies on the shores of the Solway, and within the
border district—were not the only difficulties with which he had to
contend; for to these impediments were added the extreme poverty of the
people, occasioned by a course of scanty harvests, while the landlords
were at their wits’ end, and knew not what remedy to devise. Finding that
something must be done, and that speedily, Mr. Duncan, at his own risk,
and through his two brothers settled in Liverpool, procured a cargo of
Indian corn, which was retailed by his orders at prime cost, and in
several cases, where no money could be forthcoming, upon credit. But while
comfort was thus introduced into the cottages of Ruthwell, and himself the
only loser, and that, also, to a considerable amount, he rejoiced in the
expense and trouble he had undergone, as his plan was adopted by many, not
only on that but subsequent occasions, in several famine-visited districts
over the extent of Scotland. Another public case equally urgent, although
of a less clerical character, in which Mr. Duncan at this time was
involved, arose from the threats of an invasion of Britain, which the
French government still continued to hold out. Justly conceiving it to be
his duty to set an example of Christian patriotism on this occasion, and
still animated with youthful ardour, he roused his parishioners to
resistance, and in consequence of this, a corps called the Ruthwell
Volunteers, was soon embodied, with the minister for their captain. This
office, indeed, whether willing or not, it was necessary that he should
accept, otherwise his parishioners would scarcely have cared to come
forward. Mr. Duncan, although perhaps the first clerical captain of this
period, did not long stand alone, as many of the other parishes of
Scotland followed the instance of Ruthwell, so that the same voice which
uttered the military commands of to-day, was often employed in the public
religious ministrations of to-morrow. It was the old spirit of Drumelog
and Bothwell Bridge come back again, and no Protestant country but
Scotland could perhaps have given such an example.
Thus far Mr. Duncan had
gone on, beloved by his people, to whom he was a fair example of all that
is dignified and amiable in the natural man, as well as zealous in the
discharge of all those general duties with which his office was connected.
Something more, however, was still necessary to bring him into vital
contact with the spiritual life of his sacred calling, and show how much
as yet was wanting in his endeavours to promote the eternal welfare of
those committed to his charge. His example and his efforts, excellent
though they were, had still fallen short of the mark. But in 1804 the time
had come when those spiritual perceptions were to be vouchsafed to him,
under which he would continue his ministerial career with new ardour and
redoubled efficacy. This new light, too, under which such a happy change
was to be accomplished, was neither to arise from the study of the works
of the great masters of theology, nor yet from the reasonings or example
of his learned co-presbyters; but from a despised people, as yet almost
new in Scotland, and whose names were seldom mentioned except for purposes
of ridicule and merriment. One man and two women of the society called
Friends, or Quakers, had arrived at Annan, and announced their intention
of holding a meeting in the evening for worship. Induced by curiosity, Mr.
Duncan, who was in the town, attended the meeting, and was struck by the
warmth and simplicity with which these strange preachers enunciated those
Christian doctrines that had long been familiar to his mind, but to which
the new style, whereby they were now embodied, imparted the charm and
power of novelty. An interview with the Quakers followed, and the
impression was deepened; the minister gradually began to perceive that he
had something still to learn before he could become an effective Christian
teacher. The lesson abode with him until, through a course of years, its
fruits were ripened and matured; and ever after he was wont to revert with
pleasure to this visit of the "Friends," and the benefits he had derived
from them. On the same year which so powerfully influenced him for the
future, he married Miss Agnes Craig, the only surviving daughter of his
predecessor, in whose energy of character, refined taste, and active
practical disposition, he found a mind congenial to his own in the work of
life that still lay before him, and a counsellor to whom he could refer in
every difficulty.
And now that the stirring
enterprising mind of the minister of Ruthwell had received a new impulse,
as well as a fit companion and assistant, his career was to be traced in a
series of benevolent parochial plans, from which he never desisted until
they were realized. Ruthwell was not only a very poor parish, but subject
to periodical visits of extreme destitution; and for such a population,
amounting to 1100 souls, the fund for the poor, which was collected at the
church door, amounted annually to only about £25. As this constitutional
poverty threatened to grow with the changes of modern living, and as Mr.
Duncan dreaded the establishment of that artificial and compulsory charity
called a poor’s-rate, by which idleness would be encouraged and the
honourable independent spirit of the poor broken down, he had set in
earnest from the beginning to make them a self-supporting people. A
friendly society, indeed, had been established among them so early as
1796; but from the imperfection of its plan, and the inexperience of its
supporters, it had come to nothing. Undismayed by the evil omen of such a
failure, and the despondency it had occasioned, Mr. Duncan brought the
whole strength and experience of his mind to a revival of the plan under
better arrangements; and the result was, that several friendly societies
were originated in Ruthwell, having 300 members independent of the "parish
box," and happy with each other in their public meetings and temperate
soirees. Coincident with this was Mr. Duncan’s concern for the
intellectual as well as physical and moral elevation of his people; and
therefore he endeavoured, by conversational lectures which he held on the
Sunday evenings, to illustrate the Divine attributes, as manifested in the
sciences of astronomy, physics, and history. This, however, unfortunately
staggered the people, who as yet were neither prepared for such Sabbath
ministrations, nor to believe that the earth turns round, and that the
stars are of such prodigious magnitude. With the same purpose of elevating
the lower orders, and inspiring them with the capacities as well as right
feelings of industrious manly independence, he next commenced, in 1808, a
serial work, of great efficacy in its day, under the title of the "Scotch
Cheap Repository." This periodical, consisting of short tracts and
stories, was formed upon the plan of Mrs. Hannah More’s "Cheap Magazine;"
and both were the precursors of penny magazines, Chambers’ journals, and
the other economical popular literature of the present day. In supplying
the materials for his "Repository," Mr. Duncan was assisted by five of his
clerical brethren, and by Miss Hamilton, the justly-famed authoress of the
"Cottagers of Glenburnie;" while his own principal contribution, entitled
"The Cottage Fireside, or Parish Schoolmaster," afterwards published in a
separate form, was thus eulogized by that Aristarchus of modern criticism,
the "Quarterly Review:" "In point of genuine humour and pathos, we are
inclined to think that it fairly merits a place by the side of the
‘Cottagers of Glenburnie,’ while the knowledge it displays of Scottish
manners and character is more correct and more profound." Without going
out of his way to seek it, Mr. Duncan’s talents as an author were now so
highly appreciated, that his pen was in demand both from the "Edinburgh
Encyclopaedia" and the "Christian Instructor"—to the former of which he
supplied the articles "Blair" and "Blacklock," and to the latter several
valuable contributions extending over many years. His next principal
object was the establishment of a provincial newspaper, the "Weekly
Journal" of Dumfries being but a poor production, while the important
events of the day, and the growing wants of the public mind, if not
supplied with adequate sustenance, would have only opened the way for the
productions of political discontent, false philosophy, and infidelity.
Aware of this danger and eager to avail himself of the opportunities of
such a season for indoctrinating the public with substantial, healthy, and
purified intelligence, Mr. Duncan had recourse to his brothers in
Liverpool for the pecuniary means of action, and with their aid was
enabled, at the close of 1809, to start the "Dumfries and Galloway
Courier," a weekly newspaper, to which, without announcing the fact, he
officiated as editor for the first seven years. In this way he originated
the best and most influential of all our Scottish provincial journals, and
happily its reputation did not deteriorate under the able management of
Mr. M’Diarmid, who, in 1817, succeeded Mr. Duncan in the editorship. All
this while, the wonderful activity which the minister of Ruthwell
displayed, and the amount of versatile intelligence he brought to a great
variety of action, cannot be too widely known. While he was careful in all
his pulpit preparations, and enriching the columns of his journal with
powerful and original articles, he was conducting, as secretary, the
business of the "Dumfries Auxiliary Bible Society," which he had formed in
1810; and as president, that of the "Dumfries Missionary Society." But
this was not all. He was surrounding the manse of Ruthwell with a rich
picturesque garden, and so effectually cultivating his fifty acre glebe,
that while a new scenery at length rose beneath his hand out of a bleak
waste, his labours were the most instructive models that could have been
presented to his own people and neighbourhood of what might be achieved in
horticulture and agriculture, by one’s own taste and industry, independent
of a plentiful capital. Within the manse, too, there was no elbow-chair
repose after such out-door occupation; on the contrary, it was a fit
beehive for such a scenery, and resounded from morning till night with the
hum of happy, active industry—for a domestic school was there, composed of
a few boarders whom Mr. Duncan taught in addition to his own family, and
in whose training he was the most careful, as well as most affectionate of
fathers and teachers. Even if we were to combine Pope’s "Man of Ross" and
Goldsmith’s "Country Clergyman" into one, we would still have to search
for a third person, learned and able in authorship, to complete a parallel
picture.
But the greatest and most
important of Mr. Duncan’s public labours remains still to be mentioned:
this was the establishment of savings banks, by which his name will be
best remembered by posterity. Mention has already been made of his desire
to foster a spirit of independence among the lower orders, by cherishing
the principles of provident economy through the establishment of friendly
societies. In his researches, to which this attempt led, he found a paper,
written by Mr. John Bone, of London, containing a plan for the abolition
of poor’s-rates in England; and among its complicated devices, which, for
the most part, were too ingenious to be practical, the idea was thrown out
of the erection of an economical bank for the savings of the
working-classes. Upon this suggestion Mr. Duncan fastened; although
occurring as a pendicle, it contained the real pith and marrow of the
whole subject, and might be easily reduced to working operation. He drew
up a plan for the establishment of savings banks throughout the country,
which he published in his Dumfries journal; and, knowing that this would
be regarded as a mere theory until it was verified by at least one
substantial illustrative fact, he proceeded to the establishment of one of
these banks in his own parish. Its working was soon sufficient to convince
the most sceptical. The Ruthwell Savings Bank commenced its existence in
May, 1810; and although the poverty of this parish was beyond that of most
in Scotland, the deposits during a course of four years were £151; £176,
£241, and £922. This success was announced, and the plan of action he had
drawn up in the "Dumfries Courier" was republished in several of the
leading journals of Scotland; and the natural consequence was, that
savings banks, established upon the model of that of Ruthwell, were opened
not only in Edinburgh, but the principal towns throughout the kingdom. It
was well for such a provident scheme that it had found Scotland for its
birthplace and first field of action. From Scotland the example passed
into England, and afterwards into Ireland; and with what happy results,
the superior economy of the industrious poor throughout the three
kingdoms, and the immense amount of capital that has now accumulated, can
bear full testimony. During this course of operation the honoured founder
of the scheme was not forgot, chiefly, however, that he might lend his
gratuitous labours to the furtherance of the good work; and for this
purpose applications for counsel and suggestion poured in upon him from
every quarter, the answers to which would have tasked a state-secretary
and whole staff of assistants, instead of an already overladen country
minister. But, cheered with this evidence of the success of his benevolent
mission, Mr. Duncan confronted the epistolary torrent, and had an answer
for every inquirer. "Happily for himself and his cause," thus writes his
amiable biographer, "his readiness as a letter-writer was one of his most
remarkable characteristics. Whole days, indeed, were frequently consumed
in this laborious occupation; but the amount of work accomplished, while
thus engaged, was indeed astonishing. This may be understood when it is
remembered that, among his correspondents in a scheme so entirely new,
there must have been, as there were, many desirous of minute information
and special explanations; many suggesting difficulties, and demanding
their solution; many persevering and insatiable letter-writers, making
small allowance, for the overburdened and weary individual on whom had
thus at once devolved the care of a thousand infant institutions. Add to
this, that the soundness of some of the principles on which he was most
decided was disputed by a few of the warmest friends of the measure, and
that he had to maintain on these topics a tedious controversy, not the
less necessary because those with whom it was carried on were among his
best friends and coadjutors." While thus engaged he also published, at the
beginning of 1815, an essay "On the Nature and Advantages of Parish Banks;
together with a Corrected Copy of the Rules and Regulations of the Parent
Institution in Ruthwell," for which production a new and enlarged edition
was in demand in the following year. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Duncan
was no mere benevolent dreamer, even as a savings bank was no mere "devout
imagination." He was a man of fearless daring and incessant labour, and
therefore, in his hands, the theory became a great, substantial, and
national reality. And well was his benevolent disinterested heart rewarded
in its own best fashion. To few of those who would teach truths "to save a
sinking land "is the happy lot accorded to witness these truths in full
operation, and producing their happiest results.
After the general adoption
of the principle of savings banks throughout the three kingdoms, from
which it gradually diffused itself throughout the different countries of
Europe, where it was adopted as the true "cheap defence of nations," it
would have been contrary to all past experience, since the days of
Triptolemus, if Mr. Duncan had been allowed to sit down as a public
benefactor, and no angry wind had blown to shake the laurels that grew
around him. Carping questions rose as to the fitness of his scheme either
in whole or in part; and when these were satisfactorily answered, attempts
were made to bereave him of the honour of its paternity. A more difficult
as well as more important step was to obtain for it the advantages of
legislative protection, and for this purpose he repaired to London in the
spring of 1819. After much negotiation with some of the leading financiers
and statesmen, whom he converted to his views, the measure was introduced,
and successfully carried through parliament. "You may carry with you,"
said a friend to him on that occasion, "the satisfaction of knowing that
the Savings Bank Bill would not have been carried except by your visit to
London." During the same year, and while the political discontent of the
lower orders was daily threatening to merge into French infidelity and
republicanism, Mr. Duncan published his "Young South Country Weaver," a
tale admirably suited to the times, as well as the classes for which it
was especially written, being full of Scottish humour, and vigorous
descriptions of such popular meetings and noisy demagogues as were in
vogue among the rabble during this stormy period. In 1823, the degree of
D.D. was conferred upon him by the university of St. Andrews. In 1826,
stimulated by the example of Sir Walter Scott’s novels, as well as
offended with the tone of the tale of "Old Mortality," in which our
Presbyterian ancestors are held up to ridicule, Dr. Duncan attempted a
work in the same style, but of an opposite tendency, in which he resolved
to place the characters of the Covenanters in their proper light. For this
purpose he wrote "William Douglas, or the Scottish Exiles," a three-volume
tale, which, however excellent in its way, was by no means a match for the
powerful antagonist which it attempted to confront. But non omnia
possumus omnes; and perhaps it was not altogether fitting or desirable
that the minister of Ruthwell and founder of savings banks should be as
able and popular a novelist as the "author of Waverly."
In a life so active and so
full of incidents as that of Dr. Duncan, it would be impossible, within
our narrow limits, to give even a brief detail of his many occupations and
their results. We are therefore obliged to dismiss the labours of years,
filled as they were with his plans for the better instruction of the lower
classes—with his attempts to avert, or at least retard, the imposition of
a poor’s-rate in Ruthwell, and over the country at large—and the active
exertions he made in favour of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, and
afterwards in behalf of negro emancipation. We must even pass over his
researches among the footprints of animals, which he was the first to
detect in the strata of old red sandstone; by which, according to Dr.
Buckland, his discovery was "one of the most curious and most important
that has been ever made in geology." In all these there was abundance of
literary correspondence and authorship, in which he bestirred himself with
his wonted activity and success. But events were now occurring in the
church of sufficient import to absorb the attention and task the utmost
energies of every zealous minister, let him be of what party he might;
and, under the influence of these, Dr. Duncan was summoned to abandon his
favourite pursuits, and throw his whole heart into a conflict in which the
very existence of the national church itself appeared to be at stake.
This controversy, which
ended with the Disruption, commenced with the popular hostility towards
patronage. In a mere political point of view, indeed, patronage had fully
lasted its day. The people of Scotland had now become so divested of their
old feudal veneration for rank and place, and withal so intelligent and
inquiring, that they were no longer in the mood of implicitly submitting
their spiritual guidance to any earthly patron whatever. This palpable
fact, however, it was not the interest of the aristocracy to recognize,
and therefore they could not see it; so that, instead of gracefully
conceding a privilege which in a few years more would have been worn out
and worthless, they preferred to cling to it until it should be torn from
their grasp. On the subject of patronage Dr. Duncan had meditated long and
anxiously; and, being convinced that it was an evil, he joined in the
great popular movement that sought its suppression. From the head-quarters
of the state, also, applications were made to him for information upon the
merits of the question; and this he fully transmitted successively to
Lords Brougham, Melbourne, and Lansdowne. It was not, however, the entire
suppression, but the modification of patronage which he sought; and,
therefore, when the Veto-law was passed by the General Assembly in 1834,
he hoped, in common with many of our best and wisest, that the golden mean
was now attained, and a happy compromise effected between the political
rights of patrons and the spiritual interests of the people.
But, like many other such
flattering combinations, the Veto satisfied neither party, and a few years
of trial sufficed to show that this balancing of two antagonistic claims
could only aggravate as well as protract the conflict. But, whatever may
have been the diversity of opinions among the evangelical portion of the
Church of Scotland upon the subject of patronage, the case became very
different when the civil courts interposed their authority, and thrust
obnoxious presentees into the cure of souls, in defiance not only of the
deprecations of the parishes thus encumbered, but the authority of
ecclesiastical tribunals, to whom alone the sacred right of induction
belonged. It was no longer the rights of patronage, but the existence of
the Church itself that was at stake, in which every question about the
fitness or unfitness of the Veto utterly disappeared. Here was a result
upon which there could be no divided opinion, a common ground upon which
all could take their stand; and the sentiments of Dr. Duncan upon the
subject, as well as the energy of his character in such a crisis, were so
well understood, that at one of the most trying periods of the controversy
(the year 1839) he was elected to the important office of moderator of the
General Assembly. It was there that the cases of Auchterarder and
Strathbogie were brought forward, while that of Lethendy was impending, in
which a presbytery, for its obedience to the highest ecclesiastical court
in a case of ordination, was threatened by the civil authorities with an
interdict. His duties of moderator during this trying period were
discharged with that dignity, firmness, and discretion which the occasion
so urgently demanded. In the following year he was subjected to a still
more critical test, in consequence of his being sent, at the head of a
deputation, to London, by the commission of the General Assembly, to
congratulate the Queen on the occasion of her Majesty’s marriage. It was
thus that the Church of Scotland had been wont on former occasions to
express its loyalty, and as the representatives of a national church, its
deputations had always been hitherto received with royal courtesy and
regard. But late events had made it be regarded in the high places of the
state with dislike, and it was now suspected as tending to radicalism at
least, if not to downright rebellion. To punish, therefore, if not to
reclaim the offending church, it was announced to the deputation by the
minister of the crown, that their address could not be received on the
throne, as had hitherto been the custom, but at a private audience. To
have yielded to this would have been to degrade the church which they
represented; and Dr. Duncan therefore frankly stated to the crown
minister, that the address could not be presented unless it was received
with the usual tokens of respect. This firm resolution, which he expressed
both in personal interviews and by written statement, prevailed, and the
deputation was at last received according to the wonted ceremonial.
The proceedings of Dr.
Duncan in the subsequent measures of the church, which ended in the
disruption, maybe easily surmised. In the most important of these he bore
an active part; and when the convocation was assembled in Edinburgh, in
1842, he attended as one of the fathers of the church, and gave the
benefit of his experience to its deliberations. Up to this period, when so
important a change was at hand, his position was a happy one, beyond the
lot of most country ministers. "His manifold blessings," his biographer
writes, "had been alloyed with few painful ingredients, and his sorrows
had all been singularly mingled with merciful alleviations. His family had
grown up without accident or serious evil of any kind, and without
a breach. His two sons had voluntarily embraced his own profession, and
were settled tranquilly, with their families, in parishes to which they
had not only been presented by the lawful patrons, but been called by the
unanimous voice of their people; and his only daughter had just been
united to a minister of the Church of Scotland, long and intimately known
to him, and whose views entirely corresponded with his own. And though
thus his children were withdrawn from under his roof, to spheres in every
respect so eligible, his home still exhibited its former aspect of
affection and of enjoyment; while comforts and blessings seemed destined
to follow him to the latest period of old age." In such a state of things,
who that could avoid it would seek for a change? And what a motive must
that be which could persuade a wise and good man, in the decline of life,
and when a happy home is best enjoyed, to sacrifice all and begin life
anew? But to this he steadily addressed himself, and accordingly, after
the convocation, he began to look out for a new home, as well as a new
sphere of ministerial duty. At length the season for action arrived. On
the 18th of May, 1843, the General Assembly met, and on that occasion 474
ministers abandoned their livings, and departed, that they might
constitute a church in conformity with those principles for which they had
made the sacrifice. Dr. Duncan, who had been present on the occasion, and
joined the solemn exodus, returned to Ruthwell, to gather together that
portion of his flock which still adhered to him. They constituted nearly
the half, though the least wealthy part of the church-going population of
the parish; but their exertions, as well as their sacrifices, in behalf of
the cause which they had embraced, even already consoled him for the loss
both of church and manse. A new place of worship was soon erected, and as
for a place of residence, this also was found in one end of a cottage,
which the tenant resigned, for the occupation of himself and family. It
was, indeed, a different habitation from that beautiful manse which he had
so amplified, and the gardens of which he had so tastefully laid out and
planted, during a residence of forty years, but the change was made in the
name of Him who "had not where to lay his head."
The remainder of Dr.
Duncan’s career, after he left the Established Church, may be briefly
told. It was that long-confirmed spirit of activity, which had become the
chief element of his being, struggling as bravely as ever against new
obstacles, and surmounting them, but struggling under the growing
frailties of years, through which the trial must be all the more quickly
ended. To such a man there could be but one resting-place, and to this his
failing footsteps were rapidly hastening. It was also in harmony with his
character, that the summons calling him to enter into his rest should find
him in the midst of active duty, with his loins girt, and his lamp
burning. After a journey into England, chiefly connected with the
interests of the church and his own flock, he resumed, at his return home,
the work of clerical visitation, and for this purpose had repaired to
Cockpool, about two miles from Ruthwell, to preside at an evening
prayer-meeting. In the course of the religious services on this occasion
he read a text of Scripture, and was employed in illustrating it, when he
was suddenly struck with paralysis, and after a short illness, died on the
evening of the 11th of February, 1846, in the seventy-second year of his
age.
Dr. Duncan was twice
married; his second wife, who still survives him, having been the widow of
the Rev. Mr. Lundie, of Kelso, to whom he was united in 1836. In
mentioning the varied authorship of Dr. Duncan, we omitted the work on
which his literary reputation will chiefly depend. This was "The Sacred
Philosophy of the Seasons," in four volumes, written upon the plan of the
well-known work of Sturm, and furnishing a paper for every day in the
year. Of this work several editions have already been published, and it is
still in extensive demand. But the savings banks will constitute Dr.
Duncan’s most abiding monument, and will continue, throughout the world at
large, to be connected with his name as their founder, when the best
literary productions of the present day have ceased to be remembered.
Memoir of the Rev.
Henry Duncan D.D.
Minister of Ruthwell, Founder of Savings Banks, author of "Sacred
Philosophy of the Seasons", &c. &c. By His Son, The Rev. George John C.
Duncan (1848) (pdf) |