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DUNCAN, WILLIAM, a learned writer, was born at
Aberdeen, in July, 1717. He was the son of William Duncan, a tradesman in
that city, and of Euphemia Kirkwood, the daughter of a farmer in
Haddingstonshire. He received the rudiments of his education partly at the
grammar school of Aberdeen, and partly at a boarding school at Forveran,
kept by a Mr George Forbes. In 1733 Mr Duncan entered the Marischal
college at Aberdeen, and applied himself particularly to the study of
Greek, under Dr Blackwell. At the end of the usual course, he took the
degree of M.A. His first design was to become a clergyman; but, after
studying divinity for two years, he abandoned the intention, and, removing
to London, became a writer for the press. The greater part of his literary
career was of that obscure kind which rather supplies the wants of the
day, than stores up fame for futurity. Translations from the French were
among his mental exertions, and he was much beloved and respected by the
other literary men of his day, especially those who were of the same
nation with himself, such as George Lewis Scott and Dr Armstrong.
The principal work of Mr Duncan was his
translation of select orations of Cicero, which is still a book of
standard excellence, and constantly used in our schools. He contributed
the department of Logic to "Mr Dodsley’s Modern Preceptor,"
which appeared in 1748, and was one of the most useful and popular books
published during the eighteenth century. In 1752 appeared his last work,
the translation of Caesar’s Commentaries, which is decidedly the best in
our language. Duncan has in a great measure caught the spirit of the Roman
writer, and has preserved his turn of phrase and expression as far as the
nature of our language would permit. In this year, Mr Duncan received a
royal appointment to a philosophical chair in the Marischal college; and
in 1753, commenced lecturing on natural and experimental philosophy.
Before leaving London, he had engaged to furnish a bookseller with a new
translation of Plutarch; but his health proved inadequate to the task. His
constitution had been considerably injured by the sedentary nature of his
employment in London, and he was now content to discharge the ordinary
duties of his chair. After a blameless life, he died (unmarried) May 1,
1760, in the forty-third year of his age. Mr Duncan cannot so much be said
to have possessed genius, as good sense and taste; and his parts were
rather solid than shining. His temper was social, his manners easy and
agreeable, and his conversation entertaining and often lively. In his
instructions as a professor, he was diligent and very accurate. His
conduct was irreproachable, and he was regular in his attendance on the
various institutions of public worship. Soon after his settlement in the
Marischal college, he was admitted an elder in the church session of
Aberdeen, and continued to officiate as such till his death.
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