Codrington College

Codrington College is an Anglican theological college in St. John, Barbados now affiliated with the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill. It is one of the oldest Anglican theological colleges in the Americas. It was affiliated to the University of Durham from 1875 to 1965. History Foundation and Early History Codrington College was founded with the profits from the bequest of Christopher Codrington, who after his death in 1710 left portions of his sugar cane estates – the Codrington Plantations as well as land on Barbados and Barbuda to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to establish a religious college in Barbados. As the sugar cane estates were still operating, the society and the college benefited directly from the institution of slavery. In addition to his bequest to the Society, Codrington provided £10,000 (the equivalent of approximately £1.2 million in modern terms) and roughly 12,000 books to his alma mater, All Souls College, Oxford. In his will, Codrington wrote: "Paragraph 8, Item: I give the bequeath my two plantations in Barbados to the Society for Propagation of the Christian Religion in Foreign parts, Erected and established by my late good master, King William the Third, and my desire is to have the plantations continued Intire and three hundred negroes at least Kept thereon, and A convenient number of Professors and Scholars maintained there, all of them to be under the vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, who shall be obliged to Studdy and Practice Physick and Chyrurgery as well as Divinity, that by the apparent usefulness of the former to all mankind, they may both ender themselves to the people and have better opportunitys of doeing good to mens souls wilst they are taking care of their Bodys. But the Particulars of the Constitution I leave to the Society Comps'd of good and wise men." Codrington's bequest is unusual for the time in that it was intended to benefit the Afro-Caribbean population of Barbados, rather than colonial colleges which benefited the white planter class. Wilder pointed out that while Codrington directed that a portion of his charitable bequest be used to educate the enslaved population of Barbados immediately or directly, this provision was effectively blocked by the objections of fellow planters. Moreover, the Society, having taken over the Codrington Plantations continued to use slave labour, branding the word "Society" on the chests of slaves owned by them.