The soaring, light-filled quire of Rochester Cathedral has witnessed centuries of worship. But beneath the timeworn paving stones where the cathedral’s singers sit lies a dark financial legacy – share dividends from the early 18th century showing the dean and chapter invested directly in a company that trafficked slaves, making profits of around 400%.
“We think it paid for a huge renovation project here at that time,” says the Very Reverend Philip Hesketh, Dean of Rochester, pointing out the quire paving that was relaid. “There were some major things like seven Georgian houses in Minor Canon Row just outside the cathedral, accommodation for staff, clergy, and an organist’s house.”
“Church of England faces row over £100m slavery reparations plan after historical South Sea Company investments.”
In the south aisle of the nave stands an elaborate wall monument commemorating John, 1st Lord Henniker, buried at the cathedral in 1803. He was one of the most prominent anti-abolitionist members of parliament and had close personal links to the slave trade. “I think it’s important to identify it, acknowledge it and to tell that story,” says Hesketh.
What is happening at Rochester mirrors a broader reckoning across the Church of England. In 2023, the Church announced that the predecessor to its modern endowment fund had invested heavily in the South Sea Company, a business involved in transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic during the 18th century. It said it had made profits from those investments that would be the equivalent of around £1.4bn in today’s money. Those profits were all integrated into the Church’s modern day investment fund, now worth many billions of pounds.
The disclosure prompted an apology from the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who said he was “deeply sorry for the links” and promised to make amends through a £100m “social impact” fund.
What began as one of the Church’s biggest attempts to confront its links to slavery has become the focus of a fierce row. Supporters say the Church has a responsibility to address the legacy of slavery. Critics argue the historical case has been overstated and question whether the money should be spent at all.
More broadly, the dispute raises questions about the promises many institutions made after the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man killed in Minneapolis in 2020 when a police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Floyd’s killing sparked protests across the United States and around the world. In Britain, institutions came under growing pressure to look at their own records on race, discrimination and historical injustice.
Six years on, will the Church’s commitments still be delivered, or do shifting political winds mean there is no longer the will to do so?