Alex Barton
Tue 22 October 2024
The Telegraph
Justin Welby said his father was the great-great grandson of Sir Anthony Montague Browne - Paul Grover for The Telegraph
The Archbishop of Canterbury has apologised for his family’s past after disclosing that his ancestor was a slave owner.
Most Rev Justin Welby said his father, Sir Anthony Montague Browne, was the great-great grandson of Sir James Fergusson, the 4th Baronet of Kilkerran, who enslaved people on a plantation in Jamaica and was compensated when slavery was abolished.
The archbishop said: “I am deeply sorry for these links. It is now time to take action to address our shameful past.”
Rev Mr Welby said he discovered his late biological father, a private secretary to Winston Churchill, “had an ancestral connection to the enslavement of people in Jamaica and Tobago”.
In 2016, he learnt that he had been conceived as a result of a previous relationship between his mother Jane and Browne, and that Gavin Welby, who his mother later married, was not his biological father.
The archbishop had no relationship with Browne, who died in 2013, and did not receive any money from him while he was alive or after his death.
The archbishop’s statement said Fergusson enslaved people at the Rozelle plantation in St Thomas.
Fergusson, who died in 1838, was given a portion of a £20 million compensation package from the British government for loss of “property” when slavery was abolished.
‘Time to address shameful past’
The Rozelle plantation had almost 200 enslaved people at its height. The Fergusson family shared compensation of £3,591 in 1836, which is estimated at more than £3 million in today’s money, according to the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery.
The Church of England vowed to set up a £100 million slavery reparations fund in January 2023, a year after announcing it was “time to take action to address our shameful past”.
It said investments into “communities affected by historic slavery” would be “delivered over the nine years commencing in 2023”.
However, it is yet to announce how the fund will work or set a date for when its first investments will be made.
A 2022 report found that the Church’s £10 billion endowment had partially benefited from 18th century investments in the transatlantic slave trade.
The £100 million sum represents just 3 per cent of the £3.6 billion figure that the Church Commissioners, who manage the endowment, expect to distribute in total over the next nine years.
Rev Mr Welby said the fund was intended to “address past wrongs by investing in a better future” when he made the announcement.
Justin Welby said his father was the great-great grandson of Sir Anthony Montague Browne - Paul Grover for The Telegraph
The Archbishop of Canterbury has apologised for his family’s past after disclosing that his ancestor was a slave owner.
Most Rev Justin Welby said his father, Sir Anthony Montague Browne, was the great-great grandson of Sir James Fergusson, the 4th Baronet of Kilkerran, who enslaved people on a plantation in Jamaica and was compensated when slavery was abolished.
The archbishop said: “I am deeply sorry for these links. It is now time to take action to address our shameful past.”
Rev Mr Welby said he discovered his late biological father, a private secretary to Winston Churchill, “had an ancestral connection to the enslavement of people in Jamaica and Tobago”.
In 2016, he learnt that he had been conceived as a result of a previous relationship between his mother Jane and Browne, and that Gavin Welby, who his mother later married, was not his biological father.
The archbishop had no relationship with Browne, who died in 2013, and did not receive any money from him while he was alive or after his death.
The archbishop’s statement said Fergusson enslaved people at the Rozelle plantation in St Thomas.
Fergusson, who died in 1838, was given a portion of a £20 million compensation package from the British government for loss of “property” when slavery was abolished.
‘Time to address shameful past’
The Rozelle plantation had almost 200 enslaved people at its height. The Fergusson family shared compensation of £3,591 in 1836, which is estimated at more than £3 million in today’s money, according to the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery.
The Church of England vowed to set up a £100 million slavery reparations fund in January 2023, a year after announcing it was “time to take action to address our shameful past”.
It said investments into “communities affected by historic slavery” would be “delivered over the nine years commencing in 2023”.
However, it is yet to announce how the fund will work or set a date for when its first investments will be made.
A 2022 report found that the Church’s £10 billion endowment had partially benefited from 18th century investments in the transatlantic slave trade.
The £100 million sum represents just 3 per cent of the £3.6 billion figure that the Church Commissioners, who manage the endowment, expect to distribute in total over the next nine years.
Rev Mr Welby said the fund was intended to “address past wrongs by investing in a better future” when he made the announcement.
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