Aaron Lopez Papers
Item
Nota de estado
Finalizado
Country
US
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
eng
Contact information: postal address
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
Contact information: phone number
001 2122948301
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
RCMiller@cjh.org (archive and library services)
Inquiries@cjh.org (research inquiries)
Inquiries@cjh.org (research inquiries)
Reference number
P-11
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (official language of the state)
Aaron Lopez Papers
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
Aaron Lopez
Date(s)
1752/1994
Language(s)
dut
fra
eng
heb
por
spa
Extent
14 boxes
Type of material
Textual Material
Physical condition
Poor
Scope and content
This collection comprises commercial and personal records relating to Aaron Lopez, a Portuguese Jewish merchant who settled in Newport in the mid-18th century and became one of the most active businessmen in the North Atlantic trade before the Revolutionary War. The collection comprises a large proportion of the Lopez papers, second only to that held by the Newport Historical Society in Newport, RI.
The collection is divided into four series according to the type of documents:
Series I gathers shipping records arranged first by type of ship (brigantine, schooner, ship, sloop, snow) and then alphabetically referring to the ship name. This documentation includes bills, receipts, invoices, instructions given to the captains and masters, lists of goods, portage bills and other records relating, for instance, to the journey, crew, ship's repair, and transaction of goods.
Series II is composed of mercantile accounts transmitted by Aaron Lopez (and also his son Joseph Lopez, who carried on the family business after Aaron's death) or his correspondents for services performed, goods shipped and sold, bills of exchange, labour, etc., which are not directly associated with a ship or voyage. The records are primarily arranged according to the name of the port: Newport (boxes 6-9); East Greenwich, Kingston, Providence and Warren (box 10, folders 30-44); Massachusetts ports, including Boston, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Salem, Swansey and Worcester (box 10, folders 1-29); other American ports, including New York, Philadelphia and Poughkeepsie (box 11); foreign ports, including Amsterdam, Bristol, Curaçao, Halifax, London, Madeira, St. Eustatius, St. Nicholas Mole and Sheffield (also box 11). Boxes 12 and 13 contain miscellaneous accounting records arranged in chronological order.
Series III comprises correspondence sent or received by Lopez. It includes original documents and typescript copies of letters held by other institutions, notably the Newport Historical Society.
Series IV comprises photostats (donated by Lee Max Friedman) about the various efforts of Aaron Lopez to obtain naturalisation as a British citizen in Rhode Island and Massachusetts between 1760 and 1762. It also includes ship records and manifests, and accounts, whose originals are part of the Suffolk Files collection of the Massachusetts State Archives and the collection of the Rhode Island State Archives. In addition, this series contains inventories of estates for Joshua and Juliet Lopez, Aaron Lopez's children.
Therefore, this collection gathers accounts and correspondence to or from critical mercantile firms, merchants and mariners in British North America and abroad, such as Newport mariners Nathaniel Hathaway, Benjamin Allen, Jeremiah Osborne, John Peters and Benjamin Wright; and merchants Henry Lloyd of Boston, Henry Cruger of Bristol, George Hayley of London, William Stead of Sheffield and Joseph Rotch of New Bedford. In addition, some of Lopez's correspondents, clients, suppliers and partners were Sephardim settled in North America and the West Indies, whose names abound in this collection. Some examples are the following: Abraham and Jacob Rodriguez Rivera, Moses Seixas, James Lucena, Isaac and Abraham Pereira Mendes, Abraham Lopez, Moses Lopez, Daniel Gomez, Moses de Daniel Gomez, David Lopez Junior, Abraham Sarzedas and Isaac da Costa.
The collection is divided into four series according to the type of documents:
Series I gathers shipping records arranged first by type of ship (brigantine, schooner, ship, sloop, snow) and then alphabetically referring to the ship name. This documentation includes bills, receipts, invoices, instructions given to the captains and masters, lists of goods, portage bills and other records relating, for instance, to the journey, crew, ship's repair, and transaction of goods.
Series II is composed of mercantile accounts transmitted by Aaron Lopez (and also his son Joseph Lopez, who carried on the family business after Aaron's death) or his correspondents for services performed, goods shipped and sold, bills of exchange, labour, etc., which are not directly associated with a ship or voyage. The records are primarily arranged according to the name of the port: Newport (boxes 6-9); East Greenwich, Kingston, Providence and Warren (box 10, folders 30-44); Massachusetts ports, including Boston, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Salem, Swansey and Worcester (box 10, folders 1-29); other American ports, including New York, Philadelphia and Poughkeepsie (box 11); foreign ports, including Amsterdam, Bristol, Curaçao, Halifax, London, Madeira, St. Eustatius, St. Nicholas Mole and Sheffield (also box 11). Boxes 12 and 13 contain miscellaneous accounting records arranged in chronological order.
Series III comprises correspondence sent or received by Lopez. It includes original documents and typescript copies of letters held by other institutions, notably the Newport Historical Society.
Series IV comprises photostats (donated by Lee Max Friedman) about the various efforts of Aaron Lopez to obtain naturalisation as a British citizen in Rhode Island and Massachusetts between 1760 and 1762. It also includes ship records and manifests, and accounts, whose originals are part of the Suffolk Files collection of the Massachusetts State Archives and the collection of the Rhode Island State Archives. In addition, this series contains inventories of estates for Joshua and Juliet Lopez, Aaron Lopez's children.
Therefore, this collection gathers accounts and correspondence to or from critical mercantile firms, merchants and mariners in British North America and abroad, such as Newport mariners Nathaniel Hathaway, Benjamin Allen, Jeremiah Osborne, John Peters and Benjamin Wright; and merchants Henry Lloyd of Boston, Henry Cruger of Bristol, George Hayley of London, William Stead of Sheffield and Joseph Rotch of New Bedford. In addition, some of Lopez's correspondents, clients, suppliers and partners were Sephardim settled in North America and the West Indies, whose names abound in this collection. Some examples are the following: Abraham and Jacob Rodriguez Rivera, Moses Seixas, James Lucena, Isaac and Abraham Pereira Mendes, Abraham Lopez, Moses Lopez, Daniel Gomez, Moses de Daniel Gomez, David Lopez Junior, Abraham Sarzedas and Isaac da Costa.
Archival history
This collection results from purchases and gifts by Samuel Oppenheim (1915), Lee Max Friedman (1936) and The Sang Foundation (1979). The collection was recently reorganised. Previously, the Lopez papers were kept in strict chronological order. To restore, to the greatest extent possible, the original order in which the records' creator kept them, the collection was divided into four series.
Administrative / Biographical history
Duarte (Aaron) Lopez was born in Portugal in 1731. His father, Diego José Lopes, was a Spanish converso who operated as a tobacco contractor in Portugal. Nothing is known about Aaron Lopez's early life before moving to Newport in 1752 with his wife and daughter. There, he joined his older half-brother Moses. Moses Lopez, whose Christian name was José Lopes, had left Portugal as a young man; he went to London and later crossed the Atlantic to New York City before establishing himself in Newport, Rhode Island, in the early 1740s.
Following his arrival in Newport, Duarte quickly redeemed himself and his family as Jews, assuming the name of Aaron, and, with the help of his brother Moses, set himself up in business. One of his earliest ventures involved participation in the consortium established by several Newport merchants to manufacture spermaceti candles. By 1760, his efforts to engage in the wholesale commodities trade had also proved successful. His business activities grew widely over the next 15 years to include whaling, a few ventures in the slave trade, and, especially, the trade with the West Indies. Lopez traded to a wide range of markets in North America, the Caribbean (Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, Curaçao, St. Eustatius, etc.) and Europe (Bristol, London, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Cadiz, etc.) through a vast network of agents and correspondents, and transacting a great variety of goods: sugar, molasses, rum, spermaceti candles and other whale products, wood, cloth, furniture, hardware, earthenware, live animals, and even kosher beef and cheese.
In 1761 Lopez, along with fellow Jew Isaac Elizer, sought naturalisation in Rhode Island under the Act of 13 George II, ch. 7, which authorised the naturalisation of Jews as well as dissenting Protestant groups as citizens of the Crown within the North American colonies after seven years' residence. However, the two were refused by the colony's courts and the legislature. After seeking the advice of renowned Boston lawyer Samuel Fitch, Lopez set up residence in Swansey, Massachusetts, and was finally naturalised at Taunton in October 1762. Elizer was naturalised in New York a year later.
In Newport, Aaron began to establish ties with gentiles of his station, including Ezra Stiles, the Congregational minister of the town. Stiles, who had a tremendous scholarly interest in Jewish scripture, came to know Jewish community members during his residence in Newport. Following the death of his wife Abigail in 1762, Aaron also established broader ties within Newport's Jewish community by re-marrying Sarah Rivera, the daughter of his business partner, Jacob Rodriguez Rivera.
With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1776, Lopez suffered a dramatic downturn in his business, along with most colonial merchants. Lopez evacuated his family to Leicester, Massachusetts, where he set up a retail shop and a modest commodities trade via overland routes through Salem, Boston and Providence. Over the next four years, he became a key supplier to the American forces, providing such necessities as flour and leather breeches.
In 1782, while on the way to Newport with his family, Aaron Lopez accidentally drowned in Scott's pond in Smithfield, Rhode Island, while watering his horse.
Following his arrival in Newport, Duarte quickly redeemed himself and his family as Jews, assuming the name of Aaron, and, with the help of his brother Moses, set himself up in business. One of his earliest ventures involved participation in the consortium established by several Newport merchants to manufacture spermaceti candles. By 1760, his efforts to engage in the wholesale commodities trade had also proved successful. His business activities grew widely over the next 15 years to include whaling, a few ventures in the slave trade, and, especially, the trade with the West Indies. Lopez traded to a wide range of markets in North America, the Caribbean (Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, Curaçao, St. Eustatius, etc.) and Europe (Bristol, London, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Cadiz, etc.) through a vast network of agents and correspondents, and transacting a great variety of goods: sugar, molasses, rum, spermaceti candles and other whale products, wood, cloth, furniture, hardware, earthenware, live animals, and even kosher beef and cheese.
In 1761 Lopez, along with fellow Jew Isaac Elizer, sought naturalisation in Rhode Island under the Act of 13 George II, ch. 7, which authorised the naturalisation of Jews as well as dissenting Protestant groups as citizens of the Crown within the North American colonies after seven years' residence. However, the two were refused by the colony's courts and the legislature. After seeking the advice of renowned Boston lawyer Samuel Fitch, Lopez set up residence in Swansey, Massachusetts, and was finally naturalised at Taunton in October 1762. Elizer was naturalised in New York a year later.
In Newport, Aaron began to establish ties with gentiles of his station, including Ezra Stiles, the Congregational minister of the town. Stiles, who had a tremendous scholarly interest in Jewish scripture, came to know Jewish community members during his residence in Newport. Following the death of his wife Abigail in 1762, Aaron also established broader ties within Newport's Jewish community by re-marrying Sarah Rivera, the daughter of his business partner, Jacob Rodriguez Rivera.
With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1776, Lopez suffered a dramatic downturn in his business, along with most colonial merchants. Lopez evacuated his family to Leicester, Massachusetts, where he set up a retail shop and a modest commodities trade via overland routes through Salem, Boston and Providence. Over the next four years, he became a key supplier to the American forces, providing such necessities as flour and leather breeches.
In 1782, while on the way to Newport with his family, Aaron Lopez accidentally drowned in Scott's pond in Smithfield, Rhode Island, while watering his horse.
Access points: locations
Access points: persons, families
Access points: corporate bodies
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
The collection is divided into four series. The shipping records in series I are organised by type of vessel, and, for each type, the folders are arranged alphabetically by the vessel's name. The accounting records in series II are firstly divided by geography and, at a second level, by individuals; the folders are arranged alphabetically by name. The correspondence in series III is organised by the sender or addressee (the originals) and year (the typescript copies); the records are arranged chronologically. Records of series IV are organised in chronological order.
Access, restrictions
The collection is on 31 microfilm reels. Box 10, Folders 12 and 17 were digitised in 2017 as part of the Digitization-on-Demand program.
Links to finding aids
Existence and location of copies
Existence and location of originals
Author of the description
Carla Vieira, 2022
Bibliography
Published primary sources
Linked resources
Filter by property
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Aaron Lopez Papers | Existence and location of originals |
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| American Jewish Historical Society (Center for Jewish History) | Collections (official language of the state) | |
| Rhode Island State Archives | Collections (official language of the state) |
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Special Collections | Existence and location of copies | |
| Petitions to the General Assembly | Existence and location of copies |