Revealed: How atheist Richard Dawkins' family fortune came from the slave trade



Ancestors of secularist campaigner Richard Dawkins made their fortune from the slave trade, it has been revealed.

The outspoken atheist, who once branded the Catholic Church 'evil', is the direct descendent of Henry Dawkins who owned 1,013 slaves in Jamaica until he died in 1744.

His 400-acre family estate, Over Norton Park near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, is believed to have been bought with money made through slave ownership hundreds of years ago.



Family fortune: Richard Dawkins has condemned slavery despite his ancestors making their money through forced labour

Dawkins family tree

Another ancestor was a member of the clergy while two were MPs who campaigned against the abolition of the slave trade.



Slavery was eventually abolished with the help of evangelical Christian, William Wilberforce - a deeply religious English member of parliament and social reformer.

But Professor Dawkins, author of The Selfish Game, told The Sunday Telegraph that linking him with the slave trade was a 'smear tactic'.



He said: 'I condemn slavery with the utmost vehemence, but the fact that my remote ancestors may have been involved in it is nothing to do with me.'



The family's link with slavery began when William Dawkins travelled to Jamaica where he was given 1,775 acres of land on the island between 1669 and 1682.

His son Richard died in 1701 leaving behind £6,659 and 143 'young and old' slaves worth £2,784.

Richard's son, Henry, married into another of Jamaica's powerful slave trading families and left 1,013 slaves worth £40,736 when he died 1744.



The links with slavery continue down the family tree and in 1796 another ancestor, James Dawkins, voted against William Wilberforce's plans to abolish the slave trade.



But Professor Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist who established the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, said: ' Do you realise that probably only about one in 512 of my genes come from Henry Dawkins?'

In 2010 Dawkins, an firm admirer of Charles Darwin, spoke of how his father inherited the family estate but never mentioned how his distant relatives had made their fortune.



His sister, Sarah Kettlewell, is believed to still live on the estate which is listed on Companies House and according to its records made a £12,000 profit last year.

But Mr Dawkins, who is listed as the estate's director, said: 'The estate is now a very small farm, struggling to make its way and is worth peanuts.'



Equality groups are now calling on him to apologise for his family's past.

Ancestors of Richard Dawkins are believed to have been linked to slavery















