After studying for two sessions at St. Andrews University he was sent to Liverpool to begin commercial life, and under the patronage of his relative, Dr. James Currie, the biographer of Robert Burns, his prospects of success were very fair; but his heart was not in business, and he soon left Liverpool to study at Edinburgh and Glasgow for the ministry of the Church of Scotland.

Whilst in Edinburgh he joined the Speculative Society, and became intimate with the political figures, Francis Horner and Henry Brougham.

Duncan from the first was remarkable for the breadth of his views, especially in what concerned the welfare of the people, and the courage and ardour with which he promoted measures not usually thought to be embraced in the minister's rôle.

The scheme readily commended itself to all intelligent friends of the people, and the growing progress and popularity of the movement have received no check to the present day.

[5] The bicentenary of this event was celebrated with a conference held by the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh.

In 1821 he published another tale of humble Scottish life, — " The Young South-Country Weaver,"[7] a fit sequel to "The Cottage Fireside.

A number of years later (1826) he published, anonymously, a work of fiction in three volumes, " William Douglas; or, The Scottish Exiles," intended to counteract Sir Walter Scott's aspersions on the Covenanters in "Old Mortality.

This late 7th/early 8th century cross, which he discovered in his parish and restored in 1818, and on which volumes have since been written, is remarkable for its runic inscription, which contains excerpts from The Dream of the Rood, an Old English poem.

In 1828 Duncan presented a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh describing the discovery of the fossil footmarks of four legged vertebrate animals in the Permian red sandstone of Corncockle Quarry, near Lochmaben.

While at first not very decided between the moderate and the evangelical party in the church, Duncan soon sided with the latter, and became the intimate friend of such men as Dr. Thomas Chalmers and Dr. Andrew Thomson.

With the arts of drawing, modelling, sculpture, landscape-gardening, and even the business of an architect, he was familiar, and his knowledge of literature and science was varied and extensive.

In private and family life he was highly estimable, while his ministerial work was carried on with great earnestness and delight.

The stroke of paralysis that ended his life on 19 February 1846 fell on him while conducting a religious service in the cottage of an elder.