"The Duncans of Bourbon County, Kentucky"
Daniel Duncan, His Forebears And DescendantsDANIEL DUNCAN, merchant and land owner, of Paris, Kentucky, was born near Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, January 20, 1773, to William and Mary Duncan. William Duncan and his father, Thomas Duncan, took up land in Hopewell Township, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, as early as 1759 and 1762 when they were issued land warrants. William Duncan served during the Revolution as a First Lieutenant, Fifth Company, Fourth Regiment of Pennsylvania; his will, in which he styled himself "of Southampton Township", Cumberland county was recorded April 18, 1794 and mentioned wife, Mary, dau. of Francis Albert) and children: David, John, William (Jr.), Stephen, Daniel (our subject), Joseph, Margaret (married Mr. Blythe), Ann (married Mr. Culbertson of Chambersburg, Pa.), Jane and James.
Daniel was the grandson of Thomas Duncan of the book titled "Thomas Duncan and His Six Sons".
William Duncan, born in Scotland, April I7, 1672, immigrated to America, January 22,
I722, settled in Culpeper County, Virginia, and February 11, I722, married Ruth
Rawley, daughter of Matthew Rawley, a native of England, who settled in Virginia in
17I9. Their son, Daniel, born in Culpeper County, was educated in Pennsylvania, and
thence went to Bourbon County, Kentucky. He owned and resided on a farm near the
Scott County line. Henry Timberlake Duncan, son of Daniel and Mary (Timberlake)
Duncan, was born at Paris, Bourbon County, Marcb 20, 1800, and died at Ingleside,
Fayette County, in March, 1880. He was educated at Dickinson College in
Pennsylvania, was a lawyer by profession, and in 1826 married Elizabeth Dunster
Pyke, the beautiful daughter of Samuel Pyke, who with his wife, Hannah Orchard
Woolley, settled in Paris, Kentucky, about 1800, coming from England. Samuel Pyke
was a successful manufacturer of cotton, owning and establishing in Paris one of a
dozen mills then existing in the United States. He amassed a large fortune and acquired
lands in Kentucky and Illinois.
After several years Mr. and Mrs. Duncan established a residence in Fayette County,
near Lexington, on the Maysville and Paris Pike, remembered by their generation as an
estate of lavish and rare completeness, known as "Duncannon." A gardener from
Scotland, William Bell, was placed in charge to perfect the grounds and conservatory.
Henry T. Duncan was a public-spirited man, handsome in appearance, given to
generous hospitality. Though more than twenty years younger, he was a friend of
Henry Clay, who made him a beneficiary under his will by a treasured ring, Other
friends and associates were Daniel Webster, Calhoun, Crittenden, Justice Trimble-a
kinsman, Beiijamin Gratz, Allen G. Thurman, G. P. A. Healy, the noted portrait painter,
who spent some time at Duncannon in order to paint a portrait of Henrv Clay, which
portrait now hangs at Ingleside, the home of Duncan Gibson. The sculptor, Joel T.
Hart's first piece of ideal female beauty, Il Penseroso, also adorns Ingleside. Still other
eminent personages associated with the generation of Henry Timberlake Duncan
were Bancroft, the historian, and James G. Blaine, then a struggling school teacher
who spent his holidays at Duncannon, and afterward, at the pinnacle of political
success, happily recalled his associations there and the hospitalities shared. Henry T.
Duncan was a whig in politics and was liberal and deeply interested in all civic affairs.
He became a chairman of the committee to provide a monument to Henry Clay, and
gave $10.000 to the building of the memorial. He had an absorbing interest in lands and
stock, and from his farm came many kings and queens of the turf, also Southdown
sheep, Shorthorn cattle and high bred swine. Many treasures in art and sculpture,
including Joel T. Hart's Il Penseroso, books, refinements of social leadership and
unusual entertainment gave an atmoshere of culture and enjoyment to all who came in
contact with this rarely distinctive home and its family traditions.The oldest daughter of Henry T. Duncan was Mary Duncan, who was born at
Duncannon, November I3, 1838. She was educated under the private tutorship of Dr.
Lewis Marshall, a brother of Chief Justice Marshall, in Maplewood Seminary at
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and subsequently was a student in Louis Agassiz's School in
DUNCAN GIBSON whose beautiful home is
just south of Lexington, KY, on the Harrodsburg Pike,
bears two names that identify him with a prominent family
relationship, including the Timberlakes, Duncans, Gibsons,
Pykes, Harts, and Prestons, all household names in the
history of Kentucky. Duncan Gibson is a brother of Mrs.
H. G. Foster of Lexington. The old Gibson home where
Duncan Gibson resides, representing the family estate,
was built in I852 and is an interesting example of the
application of the Tudor style of architecture to Blue
Grass Kentucky. A lodge crowned with small Tudor
turrets guards the entrance, and the house itself stands
back from the pike a quarter of a mile. Its builder gave it
all the characteristics of the old English period, its rooms
being large and high, and it was finished and furnished
magnificently. It is at once a home of many important
traditions and associations and also a place for the
preservation of some of the rare art and furniture which
distinguished the old Kentucky homes of the antebellum
period.In the following paragraphs are sketched some of the outstanding figures in this old
Kentucky family, particularly those whose lives are not reviewed under other names.
Richard Timberlake, son of Richard Timberlake and Lady Frances Harfield, Lady in
Waiting to Queen Ann, married Mary Mundane of Virgina. He was steward of Mary
and William College of Williamsburg when that was the Colonial capital of the state.
With his family he moved to Kentucky in I790, located four miles east of Cynthiana, in
Harrison County, and later to a farm five miles from Paris in Bourbon County. His
daughter Mary was born in Hanover County, Virginia, December 25, 1776. In 1793 she
was married to Daniel Duncan on the Flat Creek farm in Bourbon County.William Duncan, born in Scotland, April I7, 1672, immigrated to America, January 22,
I722, settled in Culpeper County, Virginia, and February 11, I722, married Ruth
Rawley, daughter of Matthew Rawley, a native of England, who settled in Virginia in
17I9. Their son, Daniel, born in Culpeper County, was educated in Pennsylvania, and
thence went to Bourbon County, Kentucky. He owned and resided on a farm near the
Scott County line. Henry Timberlake Duncan, son of Daniel and Mary (Timberlake)
Duncan, was born at Paris, Bourbon County, Marcb 20, 1800, and died at Ingleside,
Fayette County, in March, 1880. He was educated at Dickinson College in
Pennsylvania, was a lawyer by profession, and in 1826 married Elizabeth Dunster
Pyke, the beautiful daughter of Samuel Pyke, who with his wife, Hannah Orchard
Woolley, settled in Paris, Kentucky, about 1800, coming from England. Samuel Pyke
was a successful manufacturer of cotton, owning and establishing in Paris one of a
dozen mills then existing in the United States. He amassed a large fortune and acquired
lands in Kentucky and Illinois.After several years Mr. and Mrs. Duncan established a residence in Fayette County,
near Lexington, on the Maysville and Paris Pike, remembered by their generation as an
estate of lavish and rare completeness, known as "Duncannon." A gardener from
Scotland, William Bell, was placed in charge to perfect the grounds and conservatory.
Henry T. Duncan was a public-spirited man, handsome in appearance, given to
generous hospitality. Though more than twenty years younger, he was a friend of
Henry Clay, who made him a beneficiary under his will by a treasured ring, Other
friends and associates were Daniel Webster, Calhoun, Crittenden, Justice Trimble-a
kinsman, Beiijamin Gratz, Allen G. Thurman, G. P. A. Healy, the noted portrait painter,
who spent some time at Duncannon in order to paint a portrait of Henrv Clay, which
portrait now hangs at Ingleside, the home of Duncan Gibson. The sculptor, Joel T.
Hart's first piece of ideal female beauty, Il Penseroso, also adorns Ingleside. Still other
eminent personages associated with the generation of Henry Timberlake Duncan
were Bancroft, the historian, and James G. Blaine, then a struggling school teacher
who spent his holidays at Duncannon, and afterward, at the pinnacle of political
success, happily recalled his associations there and the hospitalities shared. Henry T.
Duncan was a whig in politics and was liberal and deeply interested in all civic affairs.
He became a chairman of the committee to provide a monument to Henry Clay, and
gave $10.000 to the building of the memorial. He had an absorbing interest in lands and
stock, and from his farm came many kings and queens of the turf, also Southdown
sheep, Shorthorn cattle and high bred swine. Many treasures in art and sculpture,
including Joel T. Hart's Il Penseroso, books, refinements of social leadership and
unusual entertainment gave an atmoshere of culture and enjoyment to all who came in
contact with this rarely distinctive home and its family traditions.The oldest daughter of Henry T. Duncan was Mary Duncan, who was born at
Duncannon, November I3, 1838. She was educated under the private tutorship of Dr.
Lewis Marshall, a brother of Chief Justice Marshall, in Maplewood Seminary at
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and subsequently was a student in Louis Agassiz's School in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, where an exclusive circle of young ladies was taught by
the great naturalist, being in fact the foundation of what is now Radcliff College. From
that early environment and training came later the maturity of charm, intelligence, wit
and grace which Mary Duncan carried through all her years until her death, at her
home at Ingleside, May 22,1910. On September 22, 1859, she was married to Nathaniel
Hart Gibson, better known as Hart Gibson, who represents the Gibson family in
Kentucky. His name introduces into this story the distinguished lineage of the Harts and
Prestons. He was a great-grandson of Col. William Preston of Virginia. The history of
these families is appropriately recorded on other pages of this publication. Hart Gibson
was born in Shawnee Springs, Mercer County, Kentucky, May 22, I835, third son of
Hon. Tobias Gibson, a member of the Legislature of Louisiana, and Louisiana
Breckenridge Hart.
have seen wife as Ruth Rawley father Mathew Rawley of England
Children
Mary Timberlake b: 25 DEC 1776 in Hanover Virginia, Bourbon Harrison KY
Henry Timberlake b: 18 SEP 1777 in Hanover Virginia
Nancy Timberlake b: ABT 1778 in Hanover Virginia, Bourbon Harrison KY
Rebecca Timberlake b: ABT 1780 in Hanover Virginia, Bourbon Harrison KY
Betsy Timberlake b: ABT 1781 in Hanover Virginia, Bourbon Harrison KY
Samuel Timberlake b: BEF 1776 in Hanover Virginia
Obediah S Timberlake b: BEF 1776 in Hanover Virginia, Bourbon Harrison KY
William Timberlake b: BEF 1776 in Hanover Virginia, Bourbon Harrison KY
John Timberlake b: BEF 1776 in Hanover Virginia (Bourbon KY)
Elizabeth Timberlake b: BEF 1776 in Hanover Virginia (Bourbon KY
Note in the story below the spelling has not been changed from the original story. The name Michael
should read Mitchell in real life.from the "Huron Tribune" Friday, April 28, 1905
"HEAD CRUSHED. What came nearly being a fatal accident happened at the postoffice building
Monday afternoon. Postmaster Lundin was moving his safe into the building and as they got it in the
doorway,
Mr. William Church, father-in-law of Samuel Michael, placed his shoulder against it to give a shove, at
the same time he had his head along side of the safe. In shoving it along it slipped over catching
his head between the door and the safe, crushing it badly. At present writing Mr. Church is improving
and is expected to be around again soon if no complications arise. Mr. Church lived for a number
of years in Meade township, but the latter part of March moved his family near Steven, Minnesota,
where the above took place."
Edward
1910 census has as Edgar b 1908 in spokane
1920 census has as Edger E b 1909 in spokane
1930 census has as Edgar E b 1909 in LA
married to a Hendrickson and Thomas