World Anglican Leader Admits Ancestral Link To Slavery

The leader of the world’s Anglican communion, Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on Tuesday, revealed that one of his ancestors owned slaves at a plantation in Jamaica.

The 68-year-old, in a personal statement on his website, said his great grandfather, Sir James Fergusson, who died in 1883, owned slaves at the Rozelle plantation in St Thomas, Jamaica, and received compensation from the British government when slavery was abolished.

Welby added that his late biological father, Anthony Montague Browne, had an ancestral connection to the enslavement of people in Jamaica and Tobago.

The revelation comes after his previous apology for the Church of England’s historic links to slavery, calling it a “source of shame”, and urging followers to confront the past.

The funding body of the church, which was originally founded with investments in an 18th-century company involved in the African slave trade, has also promised to compensate communities affected by the practice.

Late Montague Browne, Winston Churchill’s last private secretary, died in 2013, three years before Welby discovered his parentage, having been believing that Gavin who raised him was his father.

The archbishop, a former oil executive, had no relationship with his biological father and did not receive any money from him while he was alive or from his estate.

Welby said his recent trip to Jamaica had helped him confront the legacies of enslavement in the Caribbean and the responsibility owed to those who still suffer from the effects of “this evil trade”.

Several former British colonies in the region are currently pushing for a formal apology and reparations from the royal family for their role in the trans-Atlantic trade in people.

Welby called the Church of England “deeply institutionally racist” and apologised for Britain’s treatment of black people and other minorities since World War II.

The church commissioners who handle finances and investments were told in 2023 to increase their compensation scheme for communities affected by slavery to £1bn.