A newly launched Register of British Slave-Traders has brought to light the historic involvement of a prominent Liverpool family and their law firm’s predecessors in the transatlantic slave trade, including a massacre believed to be orchestrated by one of their ancestors. The register identifies thousands of Britons connected to the slave trade, among them Ambrose Lace, a slave ship captain implicated in the deaths of nearly 400 people on the Calabar River in 1767, in what is now Nigeria.

Historians involved in compiling the register detail how Lace, who hailed from Liverpool, may have been dispatched to Old Calabar to intervene in a dispute between rival African merchant settlements. According to research presented by James Sweet, president of the American Historical Association and a professor at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, Lace invited traders from Old Town (Obutong) under the pretense of brokering peace with their rivals from New Town (Atakpa). The following day, several Old Town merchants were captured after being sent to deliver messages to British ships, which then opened fire on their canoes. Others were handed over to their New Town adversaries and killed, with British sailors reportedly participating in the violence.

This massacre left the New Town faction, allied with Lace, in control of the local slave trade. Subsequent years saw slave traders from Bristol, previously allied with the Old Town merchants, excluded from the business dominated by Liverpool interests, including Lace and his investors.

Ambrose Lace's attempts to distance himself from the atrocity included testimony before Parliament denying British involvement. An abolitionist, Thomas Clarkson, recounted in 1787 a tense encounter with Lace, during which Lace referred to the massacre only as “a bad business.” Lace’s son Joshua advanced the family’s legal legacy, representing slave traders and founding the Liverpool Law Society. By the late 19th century, efforts to sanitize Ambrose Lace’s role included collaboration with historian Gomer Williams, who attributed blame for the massacre primarily to African allies rather than Lace himself.

The law firm that emerged from the Lace family origins evolved in name from Laces to Berrymans Lace Mawer and eventually to BLM after a 2014 merger; it merged again in 2022 to become part of Clyde and Co, a legal practice with combined revenues of approximately £700 million. Despite the historical findings presented publicly in 2023, the current firm has declined to comment on the research linking its ancestry to the slave trade and massacre.

Experts underscore the complexity of such histories, noting that African merchants also participated in the violence, which adds nuance to the narrative. The broader implications touch on how longstanding companies handle their historical legacies. William Pettigrew, author of *Britain’s Slave Traders: A Forgotten History*, observed that while some firms capitalize on a lengthy heritage as a brand asset, others recognize that concealed or uncomfortable histories can alienate younger consumers who increasingly demand transparency about corporate pasts.