The name of a physician who was the co-owner of a ship that brought slaves to Bermuda in the mid-18th century is featured among hundreds published in a register of British slave traders.

The extensive data, which was launched in September, include multiple references to Bermuda. George Forbes, who was born in Scotland, and Joseph Lightbourne were described as co-owners of the slave ship Elizabeth.

The Guardianreported that the database — a collaboration done by several universities in Britain — was compiled after three years of research that uncovered 13,000 people who invested in Britain’s trafficking of enslaved Africans.

The Register of British Slave Traders reveals names of people who invested in the trafficking of captive Africans from 1563 to 1807.

Dr Forbes’s remains are said to be buried at St Peter’s Church in St George’s where a memorial plaque in the church bears his memory. Dr Forbes died in 1778 at the age of 68.

It was noted that Mr Lightbourne owned a sloop, Betsey and Ann, which originated from Bermuda. It was seized in New Jersey during the American Revolution.

Allured Popple, Governor of Bermuda from 1737 to 1738, is also listed in the database.

Mr Popple had shares in the Royal African Company, founded in 1672, which trafficked about 150,000 enslaved African people, the report stated.

The Governor was an investor in the ship Ruby that transported slaves from Gambia and London. It was estimated that the ship carried 50 slaves on board.

Dr Forbes was said to be Mr Popple’s personal physician when he was Governor.

Elias Roberts, a member of the Somers Island Company and son of Virginia plantation owner William Tucker, is also listed.

Mr Roberts, according to the register, owned the ship Swallow, which transported an estimated 100 slaves between London, Barbados and Calabar, off the coast of Guinea.

Ralph Noden was the owner of the ship Caesar, which carried an estimated 273 slaves from the coast of Africa to Jamaica.

He was an agent of the trade for Bermuda from 1724 to 1750, the register stated.

Sir Robert Clayton, a former plantation owner, had shares in the Somers Island Company as a part of wedding dowry for his wife, Martha Trott.

He owned a 75-acre plantation in Hamilton that was given to him by his father-in-law, Perient Trott.

Mr Clayton was involved in 100 slave-ship crossings and was a noted financier of the trade, the register stated.

The Guardian reported that the Royal African Company held a monopoly on the trafficking of enslaved people from Africa but this was removed in stages from 1689 under pressure from individual “separate traders”.

The traders lobbied the British Parliament since they wanted to participate in the trafficking themselves.

The earliest British slave traders were privateers and piratical ship captains and owners such as John Hawkins, whose voyages in the 1560s were backed by Queen Elizabeth I, her chief minister, William Cecil, leading courtier Robert Dudley and Sir Thomas Lodge, the Lord Mayor of London.

The register also traced investors beyond London to Bristol, Liverpool and other port towns and cities as Britain’s trafficking of enslaved people increased dramatically.

The research had its genesis in the Slave Voyages database, a collaboration project between universities launched in 2008.

The project documented enslaved ships, how many people were trafficked and how many died on the notorious Atlantic crossings, as well as the owners and investors.

The joint venture project was undertaken by Britain’s Arts and Humanities Research Council and included research by King’s College London, Lancaster University, the University of Manchester and University College London.