The Drax Family in Barbados and London

The Drax family still owns Barbados' Drax Hall, built on slavery. Dr Paul Lashmar explores 400 years of their wealth and legacy in Britain.

Dr Lashmar will speak about his five years of research into the Drax family. Four centuries after James Drax arrived on the island as one of its first English settlers in 1627, his descendants are among the wealthiest landowners in Britain - and still own the colonial sugar plantation Drax Hall in Barbados where their ancestors enslaved people for over 200 years. The talk also cover Sir James Drax’s later life in the City of London.

Hear Dr Lashmar's story of a research adventure that has lasted more than five years. It explores the story of the dynasty that pioneered the British sugar industry and created the blueprint for slave-based plantation economies. From the violent origins of British colonialism in the Caribbean to the quiet entrenchment of inherited privilege in the English countryside, this is a history that lays bare the enduring legacies of empire—and the families who still profit from them.

In his later years James Drax, knighted by both Cromwell and Charles II moved back to London, to a house near Gresham Street in the City. Headed today by former Conservative MP Richard Drax, the family’s staggering wealth spans a 15,000-acre Dorset estate, physical assets worth at least £150 million, and the historic Drax Hall plantation—a site that remains a lasting monument to slavery.