Henry Duncan 1739 - 1814

Henry Duncan
1739 - 1814



HENRY DUNCAN
Born : 24 January 1739
Place : Dundee, Angus, Scotland
Died : 7 October 1814
Place : Mt Pleasant, Devon, England
Father : Alexander Duncan
Mother : Isobel Crawford

Married : 27 November 1761
Place : Saint Saviour, Dartmouth, Devon, England
MARY FRENCH
Baptised: 17 March 1739
Place : St Petrox, Dartmouth, Devonshire, England
Died : 1823
Place : Unknown
Father : Arthur French
Mother : Judith Palmer

Children of HENRY DUNCAN and MARY FRENCH are :

i HENRY DUNCAN
Born : c1762
Place : Unknown
Died : 1801
Place : At sea off Newfoundland, Canada

Married : Unknown
Place : Unknown
MARY LUSCOMBE
Born : c1777
Place : Plymouth, Devonshire, England
Died : Unknown
Place : Unknown
Father : Unknown
Mother : Unknown
ii ISABELLA DUNCAN
Baptised: 23 August 1764
Place : St Saviour, Dartmouth, Devonshire, England
Died : Unknown
Place : Unknown

Married : 14 December 1790
Place : Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Thomas TWYSDEN
Born : 21 October 1765
Place : Unknown
Died : 4 October 1801
Place : At sea, off Newfoundland, Canada
Father : William Twysden
Mother : Mary Jervis
iii ARTHUR FRENCH DUNCAN
Baptised: 9 February 1769
Place : St Saviour, Dartmouth, Devonshire, England
Died : Unknown
Place : Unknown








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Supporting Evidence

Parish Records of Dundee, Angus, Scotland
Born 24 January 1739 Baptised 27 January 1739
Henry son of Mr Alexr Duncan, Clerk and Isabel Crawford
In commemmoration of Henry Crawford late of Monorgan, grandfather,
Henry Crawford of Monorgan, uncle

The Naval Miscellany
Journals of Henry Duncan Captain, Royal Navy 1776-1782

Publications of the Navy Records Society Vol. XL
The Naval Miscellany Vol II


Will of Alexander Duncan
"To Mary Luscombe or Duncan widow of Captain Henry Duncan my nephew"
Also refers to "Mary and Isabella her daughters"
"To Isabella Duncan or Twysden my niece"
Also refers to "Thomas Twysden her youngest son" and to "Henry Twysden her eldest son"

Will of Henry Duncan

Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Information from the following book provided by Tim Powys-Lybbe
If your interests are in the Twisden/Twysden family then please contact Tim ([email protected]) or visit his page at http://powys.org
"The Family of Twysden and Twisden" by Sir John Ramskill Twisden, bart, and completed by C H Dudley Ward, DSO, MC; pub. by John Murray in 1939.
Page 316 -
"But as will be seen, Thomas was the most important of Dame Mary's sons. He had a short but distinguished career in the Royal Navy. In 1793 he married Isabella, the daughter of Henry Duncan, Commissioner of the navy. The marriage established the connection of the Twisden famly with Devonshire.
"Henry Duncan had married Mary, the daughter of Captain French, a Devonshire man who made a fortune by privateering - he also traded with Newfoundland, but this was not so profitable. He was a careful man and did not dissipate his profits but invested them in land at Dartmouth, and other places in South Devon. He had two daughters, both married, Judith Brown and Mary Duncan, and he left his fortune to be divided between them. Judith Brown had no children and left her share to her sister, Mary Duncan. And when, in the course of time, Henry and Mary Duncan died they left their fortune to be divided between their two daughters, Isabella Twysden and Mrs Myers: Mrs Myers had no children and willed her share to her sister, Isabella Twysden, so all the French property found its way into the Twysden family.
"But Thomas Twysden, at the time of his marriage, did not know he was marrying an heiress, as Captain French was still alive."

<<It would seem that the author is a little confused by there being two generations of Henry Duncans whose wife's name was Mary. The elder Henry Duncan married Mary French, who, indeed, was the daughter of Arthur French. They had three children Henry Duncan, Isabella Duncan and Arthur French Duncan. Isabella married Thomas Twysden. The younger Henry Duncan married Mary Luscombe and had two daughters, Mary Anna Duncan, who married John Powell Matthew Myers, and Isabella Duncan. It is not known at this stage whether or not this younger Isabella married - the 1841 census shows that she was unmarried at the age of 35. Thus, Isabella Twysden was the aunt of Mary Myers, not the sister.
In fact Arthur French had three children, all of whom are mentioned in his will. Mary (wife of Henry Duncan), Judith, and Arthur. Also mentioned in the will is a grandson, Arthur French Duncan.
In her will, Mary Duncan (née French) left the bulk of her estate to her only surviving child Isabella Twysden. She also made special provision for her grandson Henry Duncan Twysden, and for her granddaughters Mary Duncan and Isabella Duncan. A later codicil shared Henry Duncan Twysden's inheritence with his brother Thomas Twysden.
So "all the French property found its way into the Twysden family" in a rather more direct manner than that imagined by Sir John Ramskill Twisden and C H Dudley Ward.
>>

The Commisssioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815
Duncan, Adam Viscount L1755ADM 107/4
Duncan, Arthur French L1782ADM 107/8
Duncan, Henry (1) L1759 ADM 107/5
Duncan, Henry (2) L1791 ADM 107/14
Duncan, Hon. Henry (3) L1803ADM 6/100, ADM 107/129

Miscellaneous unidentified sources
Henry Duncan
1755 a.s. "Nassau" Cokburne
1758 "Newark" Holbourne
1759 promoted to Lieutenant
1759 "America"
1759 "Prince"
1759 "Namur"
1760 "Barfleur"
1761 leave
1762 West Indies
1769 "Téméraire"
1769 "Wasp"
1776 Eagle
1781 Medea
1782 Victory
son lost Scout 1802