University of Nottingham under fire for ‘troubling’ link between founders and slave trade (Image: Getty)
The family of the 6th and 7th Dukes of Portland has hit out at the for claiming that their ancestors benefited from despite being born decades after it was abolished.
The establishment, which was founded in 1881, has published a report into the financial links between its donors and the slave trade and concluded that the 7th Duke, William Arthur Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, enjoyed “social capital” and “respectability” thanks to the wealth he inherited through the practice, which was outlawed 60 years before he was born in 1893.
The first Duke of Portland, Henry Bentinck, served as a governor of Jamaica in the early 18th century and reportedly earned over £3.8m from his several hundred slaves.
However, the family, who have been patrons of Nottingham University since it was founded, say the links made by the report have “troubling ethical implications of holding descendents accountable for the actions of their ancestors,” .
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The Portland Building, built in the 1950s, was named after the 7th Duke (Image: Google)
Cavendish-Bentinck, who died in 1977, served in the First World War before becoming a Conservative MP and the Portland building on the university campus is named after him.
The report concluded that: “Ultimately, the Cavendish-Bentincks benefited from the slavery business in terms of reputational, cultural and social capital, all of which were inherited, to a greater or lesser extent, by those members of the following generations who opted to remain engaged with Britain’s West-Indian colonial project.”
It adds: “The findings also act as a starting point for the process of truth telling, admission, reconciliation, reparatory justice and, for the descendants of the enslaved African people, healing from the legacies and trauma of transatlantic slavery.”
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The university said it will use the findings to inform “appropriate reparatory measures”.
Professor Katherine Linehan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for People and Culture said: “The publication of this report is the first step in acknowledging these historical links and will act as a catalyst to an open dialogue between the university and its black heritage community with respect to reparative justice.”
The report also found that between 36% and 44% of private donations to the university after 1875 were made by patrons with “links to the transatlantic slave economy”, including familiar names Boots Pharmacy, Barclays and the Lloyds and Midland banks.