CAMBRIDGE, (United Kingdom): A Cambridge University college was on Friday accused of seeking to “erase” one of its most famous donors, by trying to remove a memorial to him due to his slave-trade links.
Jesus College is seeking permission from the church to take down an ornate marble plaque to the 17th century benefactor and royal courtier from the wall of its chapel.
Lawyer Justin Gau told a rare Church of England court hearing that the authorities at Jesus College were trying to wipe Tobias Rustat from the institution’s past.
The case is being closely watched as Britain grapples with the legacy of its colonial past, and calls from campaigners to remove statues and monuments to those linked to slavery.
In June 2020, protesters toppled the statue of Edward Colston, who like Rustat, was a leading figure in the Royal African Company which made its fortune in human trafficking.
Four people were in December cleared of criminal damage in the Colston case, which saw his effigy dragged through the streets of Bristol and dumped in the city’s harbour.
In his final submission to the ecclesiastical court, sitting in Jesus Chapel itself, Gau placed the college’s request in the context of contemporary “cancel culture”.
Representing a group of 65 former students who oppose removal, he said Rustat was “being erased”.
The college wants “to get rid of an elderly and unpopular relative who has been hugely generous in the past”, he told a judge.
Instead of relocating or removing the plaque, the alumni group wants a “retain and explain” strategy.
The college currently has a sign up about Rustat’s slavery links but argues that keeping it by the chapel door is unfair to students upset by its presence.
College head Sonita Alleyne has told the court the chapel was “very, very problematic” and should become an “uncontested space” as some students had refused to enter.
Gau said the college wanted to remove the memorial but keep the benefits from Rustat’s endowment to fund scholarships, a dinner and a conference.
“In simple terms they are keeping the benefits but hiding the sources. It might be said that this is money laundering on an industrial scale.”
He also alleged the college had spread a “false narrative” and “allowed a bogus claim to spread that he made his fortune from slavery”.
The college says Rustat “had financial and other involvement in the Royal African Company (RAC)... over a substantial period of time including at the time when he donated to the College.”
He gave around £3,230 (around £500,000 or $675,000 in current money) to the college, mostly to fund scholarships for children of clergy.
Gau argued that the Church of England at the time of the memorial, erected on Rustat’s death, did not oppose slavery.
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