Archbishop of Canterbury reveals ancestor’s connections to slavery

The Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a public statement after discovering an ancestor’s connection to the slave trade within the Caribbean. 

Archbishop Justin Welby uncovered a connection to slavery in Jamaica and Tobago through his biological father, the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne. 

Archbishop Welby only discovered in 2016 that Sir Anthony, a personal secretary to Winston Churchill, was his biological father and never Gavin Welby, the person married to his mother and whom he believed to be his father. Gavin Welby died in 1977 when the Archbishop was 21.

The Archbishop disclosed the invention in a press release: “I even have recently discovered that my biological father, the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne, had an ancestral connection to the enslavement of individuals in Jamaica and Tobago,” he said. 

“His great, great grandfather was Sir James Fergusson, an owner of enslaved people on the Rozelle Plantation in St Thomas, Jamaica.”

He talked concerning the impact of travelling to Jamaica where he learned more concerning the slave trade there. He said he desired to see “healing, justice and repair”.

“My recent trip to Jamaica has helped me to confront the legacies of enslavement within the Caribbean and the responsibility owed to those that still suffer from the consequences of this evil trade. I thank those that have given their time to such tireless research on this field, lots of whom are descendants of enslaved people,” he continued.

“I reiterate the Church Commissioners’ commitment to an intensive and accurate research programme, within the knowledge that archives have much more to inform us about what has come before us – often in a really personal way.

“I give because of God for this journey towards healing, justice and repair, as we take the trail that Jesus Christ calls us to walk.”