London's St Bartholomew's Hospital received funding from donors who invested in companies built on the trafficking of enslaved Africans, a new register has revealed. Commemorative boards in the hospital's Great Hall honour many of these donors.
The Register of British Slave Traders, a collaborative project by Lancaster University, the University of Manchester, and University College London, includes biographical data on investors in Britain's transatlantic slave trade from the 16th to 19th centuries. Professor William Pettigrew, who led the project, stated that the register has established connections with around 900 organisations.
The register identifies at least 50 individuals with significant financial ties to St Bartholomew's Hospital who are directly linked to this history. Among those commemorated is Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys, a London merchant who left a sum to the hospital in his will and was financially linked to 13 slave voyages, including the 1694 Hannibal crossing, which had a mortality rate close to 50%.
Other figures commemorated at St Bartholomew's with links to the trafficking of enslaved Africans include Edward Colston, William Prichard, and Sir Robert Geffrye. Several Lord Mayors of London, such as Sir William Humphreys and Samuel Stanier, who also left money to the hospital, had connections to the Royal African Company.
St Bartholomew's Hospital, like St Thomas' hospital, provided free medical care, supported by charitable donations from City merchants and rental income. The Barts Health NHS Trust archives produced an official research guide in 2024 detailing the known history and how to investigate it further, acknowledging the hospital's links to slavery.