James Elmslie Duncan

For other people named James Duncan, see James Duncan (disambiguation).

James Elmslie Duncan
Born	(1822-03-07)7 March 1822 London, England
Died	21 May 1854(1854-05-21) (aged 32) London, England
Other names	James Elmzlie Duncan
Occupation(s)	Poet, editor, writer, activist
Years active	1844–1851

James Elmslie Duncan (7 March 1822 – 21 May 1854), was an English Chartist poet, editor, writer, and activist for social and moral reform, as well as vegetarianism and temperance. He was also a phrenologist and shorthand tutor.

Duncan was born in London in 1822. He edited the Morning Star and later The Sunbeam, contributed to various publications, and wrote the praised Defence of a Vegetable Diet. Duncan was active in the Chartist movement, facing police intervention and arrest in 1848. His literary works included Flowers and Fruits and the novel Edward Noble. Despite his fervent activism, he was criticised by contemporaries for his eccentricity and perceived mental instability. After being declared insane in 1851, Duncan was admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, where he died from epilepsy in 1854 at the age of 32.

Biography

Early life

James Elmslie Duncan was born in London on 7 March 1822 and christened at All Hallows-on-the-Wall on 2 June 1822; he identified as a "Londoner of Birth, Scottish by Parentage, Divinarian in principle". Duncan was the second son of James Duncan and his wife Ann. His father was a merchant and accountant born in Scotland and based in Wapping.

Career and activism

Duncan edited the Morning Star or Herald of Progress from December 1844 to January 1847 in Whitechapel and later edited The Sunbeam. The Morning Star was an organ for J. A. Etzler, leader of the Tropical Emigration Society, featuring frequent articles on tropical vegetable products and foods. Duncan's contributions included a sketch of the Scottish poet William Thom. The Sunbeam, intended as a bi-monthly penny magazine, had only one known issue in 1846 and featured excerpts from Duncan's collection Flowers and Fruits and his novel Edward Noble.

A strong advocate for vegetarianism, Duncan wrote Defence of a Vegetable Diet around 1843, with a second edition in 1844. His work was praised by Cleave's Gazette and the Mirror, and extracts were published in the Cheltenham Free Press. Flowers and Fruits received positive reviews from Lloyd's Newspaper, describing it as "a very respectable little collection for a mental feast." His novel Edward Noble, the Utopian; or the Dawning Glories of the Age of Love, included idealised characters as vegetarians and communists, featuring notable figures like Owen, Etzler, and Cobden. However, its completion remains unclear, with only two parts known by March 1848.

In 1844, Duncan taught Pitman shorthand at Tower Hill, and joined the Phonographic Corresponding Society. He produced the periodical Sunbeam and delivered lectures, including one in December 1846 titled On the Signs of the Times. His poetry was referenced in the Reasoner's 1847 review of H. S. Sutton's The Evangel of Love.

Duncan's involvement in Chartist activities escalated in March 1848 when he recited "Tocsin against Tyranny" at a celebration of the French Revolution, earning enthusiastic applause. After a police intervention at a Chartist meeting in Bethnal Green, where Duncan was injured, he dedicated a poem to "The Murdered Chartist". In late May, he addressed a large crowd in Clerkenwell Green, where his declaration of being a teetotaler and vegetarian elicited mixed reactions.

Criminal charges and death

The Times reported his charges for creating a nuisance in the Strand. In late July 1848, he was arrested in Upper East Smithfield on his return from a meeting of Chartists, Socialists, Repealers and Sympathisers, for carrying a pocket pistol, claiming it was for self-protection due to past police violence. On December 15, 1848, he was discharged after being charged with obstructing a public thoroughfare by selling Chartist publications.

George Holyoake criticized Duncan's "professional eccentricity", dismissing his literary efforts as "wretched trash". Thomas Frost's memoirs described Duncan as a youth of ardent temperament, likely mentally unbalanced. In June 1851, Duncan's father took him to court for stealing from the business. Leading an "idle life", he nearly ruined the business by taking money for personal use. A struggle in the courtroom led the magistrate to conclude he was insane, resulting in a stay in the workhouse as a preliminary step before being admitted to an asylum.

Duncan was admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum in July 1851; his condition was described as "moral insanity accompanied with epilepsy". He died after experiencing a series of epileptic seizures on 21 May 1854, at the age of 32.

Selected publications

• Vegetable Diet (1843)
• Flowers and Fruits; or Poetry, Philosophy, and Science (1843)
• Edward Noble, Or, the Utopian (1843)

Further reading

• Gregory, James (2014). The Poetry and the Politics: Radical Reform in Victorian England. Library of Victorian studies. London; New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78076-723-9.
• Gregory, James (9 July 2018). "'the beard was both foxy and fiery': Another glimpse of James Elmslie Duncan, the 'Divinearian'". PUNCS: Plymouth University Nineteenth Century Studies. Retrieved 20 June 2024.