Acknowledging our contentious history

The Ironmongers' Company and the transatlantic slave trade, the ransoming of captives in the Mediterranean and the Plantation of Ulster

 

The transatlantic trade in enslaved African people

The Ironmongers’ Company acknowledges with deep regret that a number of its members in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were involved in, or profited from, systems of transatlantic slavery. These historic links are part of the Company’s past, and we recognise the profound human suffering, injustice and lasting harm caused by slavery, the slave trade and the forced labour of enslaved people in the Americas.

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During this period, some Ironmongers were merchants connected with the transatlantic trade in captured African people sold into slavery, particularly through the plantation economies in the West Indies. Other members benefited from investments in the Royal African Company and the South Sea Company, which were directly involved in the transportation, enslavement and sale of African people for forced labour in the Americas. These activities at times contributed to the wealth that supported individuals and their families at immense and irreversible human cost. This wealth was then often bequeathed for charitable causes, to be administered by livery companies such as the Ironmongers' Company.

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The presence within Ironmongers’ Hall of works of art associated with this transatlantic history, most notably the portrait of Sir Robert Geffery and the sculpture of William Beckford (see below), reflects the complexity and moral gravity of this legacy. Sir Robert Geffery was an investor in the Royal African Company and co-owner of a ship used in the transportation of enslaved people. William Beckford inherited extensive sugar plantations in Jamaica worked by enslaved labour and became one of the wealthiest men in Britain as a result. Both men were also Lord Mayors of the City of London. In continuing to display these artefacts, the Company does not seek to celebrate these histories, but rather to acknowledge them openly and honestly. We recognise and regret the pain and injustice endured by those who were enslaved and by their descendants.

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The Company has undertaken research into its historical links with this transatlantic trade. This work has identified members involved as traders, ship owners, plantation owners investors and other beneficiaries of such enslaved labour, as well as the ways in which legacies from that era contributed to charitable endowments that continue today.
 

Importantly, the Ironmongers’ Company recognises that acknowledgement alone is not sufficient. A number of concrete actions have already been taken and are ongoing. These include:
 

• commissioning and publishing independent historical research into the Company’s overseas trading links and its members’ involvement in the transatlantic slave trade;

• making biographical research on past members available to support transparency and accountability;

• continuing archival research to deepen understanding of the Company’s history and its impacts;

• adopting and actively implementing an equality, diversity and inclusion policy across the Company’s activities.

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The Company also recognises that its history includes members who supported the abolition of slavery, including those who petitioned Parliament in the nineteenth century. While this does not diminish earlier harms, it forms part of a broader historical record that the Company is committed to presenting honestly and in full.

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The Ironmongers' Company and European captives in the Mediterranean

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The Company has also examined the long and complex history of charitable funds used in the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries to redeem European captives from enslavement in North Africa and Turkey. These funds are now being redirected in ways that reflect contemporary ethical responsibilities.

 

There have been several bequests from members of the Ironmongers' Company which were administered to redeem European merchants and sailors captured by local shipping in southern Mediterranean waters and held captive, some as slaves, in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Turkey.

 

On his death in 1642, member Sir James Cambell included a bequest to be administered by the Company for the ‘redemption of poor captives from Turkish slavery’.

 

One of the trusts bequeathed in 1725 by Thomas Betton was to be used for the redemption of European captives held in Turkey and North Africa. Most of the funds from this trust were transferred to Betton’s educational charity in 1847, excepting a £7,000 portion which was reserved for any future redemption needs.

 

Betton’s ‘redemption fund’ is today still held separately but within Thomas Betton’s Charity (Educational) and, for the past few years, income from it has been donated to the charity Unseen which supports survivors of modern slavery.

 

Ironmongers' Company and the Plantation of Ulster

The Great XII livery companies of the City of London reluctantly played a role in the early 17th century Plantation of Ulster. This was an initiative planned and promoted by King James I and his chief minister Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury, the latter having long made efforts to coerce loyal British Protestants to settle in the area.

The Great XII companies were forced by the Crown to invest in and administer designated areas of land, namely in Derry (or Londonderry) and Coleraine, supporting Londoners to settle in and develop new towns, infrastructure and trade. While these activities were framed at the time as economic and civic projects, they formed part of a wider process that led to the further dispossession of Irish landholders and long-lasting social, cultural, and political consequences for local communities.

Today, this history is recognised as complex. Engagement with it forms part of an ongoing effort to understand the full context of the Ironmongers' Company's past activities, to acknowledge their impact, and to reflect on how long-established institutions can act transparently in the present.
 

Ironmongers' Company today

We will continue to reflect critically on how the history of the Ironmongers' Company and its membership shapes what we do today. Our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion is integral to how we operate as a contemporary institution, to how we look after Ironmongers’ Hall, and to how we engage with members, charitable partners, visitors and the wider public.

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The Ironmongers’ Company seeks to be honest about its past, sincere in its regret for historic injustices, and active in its responsibility to contribute positively to a more equitable future.