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We have no
information as to where Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan was born, but he
settled in our district about 1799, when he appears to have purchased
part of the lands of Glenfuir, Falkirk residing in the house of that name
erected in 1763-64. In heritors’ affairs, he took an active part, and,
as we have seen, he was keenly alive to the necessity for keeping our
citizen army in a thorough state of preparedness during the period when
Napoleon threatened our shores. Colonel Duncan, with his wife and
family, appear to have left Falkirk and settled in Dublin, as during the
last two years of his life he was a prisoner for debt under a Coroner’s
warrant, at the State side of Newgate Prison, Dublin. His death, which
took place there on 25th November, 1830, was very sudden, and from
various peculiarities which Colonel Duncan latterly exhibited, he was
much spoken of in and out of prison, and various reports had got into
circulation respecting the cause of death.
A searching inquest was held by Alderman Archer into all the
circumstances attending Colonel Duncan’s death, but we have no space for
particulars. Suffice it to say, that he had become addicted to the
drinking of laudanum, from which it was thought he had died. The
inquest, which lasted upwards of seven hours, was closed by the jury
ascertaining that Colonel Duncan’s death was occasioned by excessive use
of laudanum. They returned a verdict of “Died by the Visitation of God.” |
