John Shute Duncan LLD (19 December 1768 – 1844) was an English academic, writer, and museum curator.

[1] John Duncan was born in 1768 at South Warnborough, Hampshire, England, the eldest son of John Duncan DD, rector of South Warnborough.

[4] In 1823, John Duncan was appointed Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

He was succeeded by his younger brother Philip Bury Duncan in 1826.

His time at the Ashmolean Museum saw the start of significant changes in the natural history displays, based on "natural theology", as propounded by William Paley (1743–1805), the Archdeacon of Carlisle.