William Duncan

William Duncan was born in Bishop Burton, England in 1832. After a strong church upbringing he came to proselytize his Victorian Protestant Christian beliefs to the northwest coast of North America in 1857. His efforts would make him one of the most readily identifiable missionaries in the English-speaking world by the turn of the 20th century.

He first set up his mission among the Tsimshian at the Hudson’s Bay Company post in Fort Simpson. Here he learned the language and allied himself with several Tsimshian families who wanted to join his vision of building a Christian Utopian community at the old village site of Metlakatla. This model was also used at Kincolith and New Aiyansh. However, he protected his control over the village and clashed with other church officials. Only the Reverend Robert Tomlinson and the Reverend William Henry Collison remained allies and confidants with William Duncan. Duncan would become embroiled in a bitter contest of wills with Bishop William Ridley, and from 1882 to 1887 Metlakatla suffered internal division. The majority of the Tsimshian remained loyal to Duncan, their first missionary. However, his rigid and harsh discipline with respect to his Metlakatla system would sabotage and eventually undo his utopian society. He died, unmarried, in New Metlakatla, Alaska, on August 30, 1918.

Works Cited

Whitehead, Margaret. Now You Are My Brother: Missionaries in British Columbia. Province of British Columbia: Ministry of Provincial Secretary and Government Services, Provincial Archives. Victoria, British Columbia, 1981.

Canada. Library and Archives Canada. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. “William Duncan”. <http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=41470>