Constituency : Edinburgh 1865-81
Duncan replaced Adam Black as one of the members for Edinburgh.
Duncan was humbly born and after minimal education set up in business as a draper in the city. He joined the town council in 1833 and set to work restoring its finances from near-bankruptcy. Once finance had been stabilised he set to work on a school building programme. He was a supporter of the Anti-Corn Law League and married John Bright's sister in 1848. He also absorbed Cobden's technique of battering opponents with statistics. As a Dissenting Presbyterian he campaigned against the annuity tax in Edinburgh which meant Dissenters had to pay to support Church of England ministers as well as their own. This campaign brought him many loyal followers. He also set up a bank to fund railway ventures although he resisted the temptation to get involved in the business himself.
Duncan was a Radical who was frequently at odds with the city's Whig patricians who accused him of stirring up religious factionalism to further his own ambitions. He first tried to get elected for the city in 1852. His fiercest opponent was the editor of The Scotsman , Alexander Russel who referred to him as "Snake the Draper" during a by-election campaign in 1856 when they supported rival Liberal candidates despite the fact that Duncan's business was a major advertiser in the paper. Russel's candidate won but Duncan took him for £400 in libel damages. The paper was represented by another of Duncan's Whig opponents James Moncreiff who became MP in 1859.
Duncan came top of the poll in 1865 after hard campaigning; thereafter with the working classes admitted to the franchise his position was unassailable.
Once in Parliament Duncan acquired so much authority on Scottish issues that he became known as the "Member for Scotland". He was a strong supporter of Gladstone on retrenchment and self-help and gave tentative support to women's rights. He was also a champion of the Education Act. He threw himself into the Reform agitation; Bright told him "You are a very "steam engine" for work at figures and arguments". He was one of the Tea Room dissidents hampering Gladstone's opposition to Disraeli's Reform Bill.
Duncan supported disestablishing the Church of Scotland but could not persuade Gladstone to take it up despite the latter's awkward position as MP for Midlothian.
Duncan came under pressure from the trade unions when he supported the Criminal Law Amendment Act believing that most workers did not want to strike. They denounced him as a self-interested employer and his fellow MP John Miller went over to a new Advanced Liberal faction supporting trade union causes. They were seen off in 1874 but with the Tories increasingly a threat through their superior organisation , Duncan was pushed to work for greater Liberal unity in the city, a task he left mainly to his son John but it was achieved in time for the 1880 election.
Duncan reluctantly retired in 1881 in order that John could resume his position as Lord Advocate after two by-election defeats following his appointment. He opposed Home Rule in the last months of his life. He died five years later aged 86.
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