The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who apologized after research showed the Church of England's investment fund has links to the slave trade, has now revealed that he is related to a former slave owner after digging into his ancestry.

Welby said that his great, great, great grandfather, Sir James Fergusson was an owner of enslaved people at the Rozelle Plantation in St. Thomas, Jamaica, the BBC reported on Oct. 22. 

The story evoked debate on how responsible people in high positions, including the church, are for the actions of their forebears.

The archbishop's biological father was the late Sir Anthony Montague Brown, Sir Winston Churchill's last private secretary and Welby made the discovery through DNA evidence.

Welby learned that Sir Anthony, a former private secretary to Winston Churchill, was his biological father only in 2016, three years after Sir Anthony had died, the Church Times reported on Oct. 22.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of tht Church of England, and the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

The archbishop said a recent trip to Jamaica had helped him to "confront the legacies of enslavement in the Caribbean."

With more than half of the worldwide Anglican communion now based in Africa, the admissions about the Anglican Communion and slavery will be made all the more uncomfortable the BBC had commented on June 22.

When he revealed that Sir Anthony was his biological father, Welby said it came as "a complete surprise" and that he had believed his father was Gavin Welby, who raised him.

His ancestral link to enslavement is through Anthony Montague Brown, who died three years before Welby discovered they were related.

"His great, great grandfather was Sir James Fergusson, an owner of enslaved people at the Rozelle plantation in St. Thomas, Jamaica," Welby said, the PA News Agency reported on Oct. 22.

TRIP TO JAMAICA

"My recent trip to Jamaica has helped me to confront the legacies of enslavement in the Caribbean and the responsibility owed to those who still suffer from the effects of this evil trade."

He also thanked those who had "given their time to such tireless research in this field", many of whom were "descendants of enslaved people".

According to the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, the Rozelle plantation had almost 200 enslaved people working on it at its height, and the Fergusson family was financially compensated by the British government for the loss of "property" after slavery was abolished.

The Telegraph newspaper carried a headline on Oct. 22 "The woke Archbishop who can't stop apologizing for his disgraceful ancestors."

The British government paid the Fergusson family an estimated 3,591 British pounds (around 3 million pounds or $3.9 million in today's money) in compensation for the loss of their "property" in 1836 following the abolition of slavery, The Telegraph reported.

In his statement, Welby refers to the church's commitment to reckoning with its own role in the slave trade.

ADDRESSING PAST WRONGS

Last year, it announced 100 million pounds of funding to "address past wrongs" via research and investment, with the hope of growing the fund to around £1 billion. Welby said then: "I am deeply sorry for these links. It is now time to take action to address our shameful past."

The trip to the Caribbean, he said helped him to "confront the legacies of enslavement in the Caribbean and the responsibility owed to those who still suffer from the effects of this evil trade," the Church Times reported.

In January last year, the Anglican church commissioners announced their intention to invest 100 million pounds in a fund designed to benefit communities affected by the transatlantic slave trade.

In March this year, the group that was set up to provide oversight for the fund expressed the hope that it would grow to 1 billion pounds with the support of other investors.

"I give thanks to God for this journey towards healing, justice, and repair as we take the path that Jesus Christ calls us to walk," Welby said on Oct. 22.