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

His admission comes after he previously apologised 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.

Welby, 68, said in a personal statement on his website that his late biological father, Anthony Montague Browne, “had an ancestral connection to the enslavement of people in Jamaica and Tobago”. “His great, great grandfather was Sir James Fergusson, an owner of enslaved people at the Rozelle Plantation in St Thomas, Jamaica,” he added. Fergusson, who died in 1838, was the last co-owner of enslaved people at the plantation, and received compensation funds when slavery was abolished.

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

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.

Published in Dawn, October 23th, 2024