John Duer, an American jurist, born in Albany, N. Y., Oct. 7, 1782, died on Staten island, Aug. 8, 1858. He was the son of Col. William Duer of the revolutionary army, and on his mother's side a grandson of Gen. William Alexander, the claimant of the Scottish earldom of Stirling. In his 16th year he entered the army, but after two years left the service for the study of law. He commenced practice in Orange co., N. Y., whence about 1820 he removed to the city of New York, where he resided until his death. In 1825 he was appointed one of the commissioners to revise the statute law of the state, and afforded valuable assistance in the preparation of the first half of the work. In 1849 he was elected a justice of the superior court of New York city, and in 1857 he became the presiding justice of the court. In 1845 he published a "Lecture on the Law of Representations in Marine Insurance," and in 1845-'6 a treatise on the "Law and Practice of Marine Insurance " (2 vols. 8vo), which has become a standard authority in the United States. In 1848 he delivered a discourse on the life of Chancellor Kent, and at the time of his death was editing "Duer's Reports" on the decisions of the superior court.

The 6th volume, which he did not live to complete, he revised while confined to his bed by a fracture of the thigh.