The family that once owned one of the North East’s best known historical properties has apologised to a Caribbean island where it owned slaves and agreed to pay reparations.
The Trevelyan family - which owned Wallington in Northumberland for 150 years - had more than 1,000 slaves on the island of Grenada in the 19th century. The hall was passed to the National Trust in 1942 and attracts thousands of visitors every year.
Now one of the current family members, BBC reporter Laura Trevelyan, has said the family is “apologising to the people of Grenada for the role our ancestors played in enslavement on the island, and engaging in reparations.” The family intends to donate £100,000 to establish a community fund for economic development on the island.
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Speaking to the BBC, she said: “Our family received the equivalent of about £3m in compensation when slavery was abolished. We got that money in 1834 so for me to be giving £100,000 almost 200 years later for a fund that’s going to look at economic development in Grenada and the eastern Caribbean, maybe that seems like it’s inadequate.
“But I hope that we’re setting an example.”
Ms Trevelyan, who is based in America, has written a history of her family at Wallington, and last year visited Grenada to make a radio documentary on slavery and her family’s role in it. She said her experience had been “really horrific” and that she “felt ashamed” on seeing the plantations where slaves were punished and the instruments of torture used to restrain them.
Seven family members will travel to Grenada this month to issue a public apology. Another family member, film maker John Dower, said the announcement had been the result of a seven-year process and “many conversations with the Trevelyan family.”
The Grenada National Reparations Commission described the gesture as commendable, while a number of people - including the headteacher of a school in Windsor that takes its name from the Trevelyan family - have offered congratulations.
The Trevelyans owned Wallington from 1777 to 1942, though the estate was originally owned by the Fenwick family before being sold to the Blacketts in the 17th century. The hall was rebuilt over the years and hosted leading literary and scientific figures invited there by the Trevelyans.
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