Church of England Fund Found Slavery Links in Its Past. It Is Setting Aside £100 Million

• The Church Commissioners pledged £100m over nine years from 2023
• A forerunner fund invested heavily in the slave-trading South Sea Company
• Its holdings in 1739 were worth about £204,000, roughly £443m today
• The money will go to impact investment, projects and an oversight group

The Church of England’s investment arm has committed £100 million to address its historical links to transatlantic slavery, Civil Society reported in January 2023.

Research commissioned by the Church Commissioners, who manage the Church’s endowment of about £10 billion, found that one of its predecessor funds, Queen Anne’s Bounty, had invested significantly in the South Sea Company. That company took part in the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans. When it stopped trading in enslaved people in 1739, the Bounty held annuity investments in it worth around £204,000, equivalent to roughly £443 million today.

The research also found that between 1708 and 1793 gifts from benefactors made up just over 14% of the fund’s income, and that many of those donors may have made money from slavery. Edward Colston was among the benefactors named.

David Walker, Bishop of Manchester and deputy chair of the Church Commissioners, said: “Discovering that the Church Commissioners’ predecessor fund had links to transatlantic chattel slavery is shaming and we are deeply sorry.” The £100 million is to be spread over nine years and used for impact investment to benefit communities affected by historic slavery, targeted funding for specific projects, and an oversight group made up of people affected by slavery.

For Jamaica, this is not distant history. The slave economy that enriched institutions in Britain was built on Caribbean plantations, and Jamaica was at its centre. How the fund’s impact investment is directed, and whether it reaches housing, land and community enterprise in the region, will be watched closely by Jamaicans at home and in the diaspora. The case is also a reminder to churches everywhere that where endowments came from, and how they are invested now, is a question of stewardship as much as finance.