The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welbyspiritual leader of the Anglicans, admitted Tuesday that one of his ancestors owned slaves on a plantation in Jamaica. His recognition comes after previously apologizing for the Church of England’s historical ties to the slaverywhich he described as a “source of shame.”
Welby, 68, said in a personal statement on his website that his biological father, Anthony Montague Browne, “had an ancestral connection to slavery in Jamaica and Tobago.”
“His great-great-grandfather was Sir James Fergusson, a slave owner on the Rozelle Plantation in St Thomas, Jamaica,” he added. Fergusson, died in 1838, He was the last co-owner of slaves on the plantation and received compensation funds when slavery was abolished in Jamaica.
Montague Browne, who was Winston Churchill’s private secretary, died in 2013, three years before Welby discovered his parentage. Until then he believed that his father was Gavin Welbywho raised him.
The archbishop, a former oil executive, He had no relationship with his biological father and never received money from him while he was alive or from the inheritance.
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