Aaron Lopez papers (Rare Documents)
Item
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Country
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US
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Language of name of institution
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eng
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Contact information: postal address
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3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220
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Contact information: phone number
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001 513 487 3000
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Reference number
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RD
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (official language of the state)
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Aaron Lopez papers (Rare Documents)
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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Aaron Lopez
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Date(s)
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1756/1781
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Language(s)
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eng
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Extent
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9 folders
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Good
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Scope and content
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The Rare Documents collections of the American Jewish Archives comprise several original documents related to Aaron Lopez. Most of the original documents are accompanied by copies, and some include the respective transcripts and English (in the case of Portuguese and Spanish originals) and/or German translations. They are the following:
RD-445: Aaron Lopez bills of lading, 1756 and 1761.
RD-446: Abraham Lopez letter, March 11, 1768.
RD-460: James Lucena letter, February 9, 1771.
RD-461: John Charles Lucena letter, May 22, 1772.
RD-780: William Strong letter, December 1, 1772.
RD-627: Thomas Potter letter, December 9, 1772.
RD-501: Mayne and Co. letter, June 10, 1775.
RD-796: Peter Timerman letter, April 1, 1780.
RD-737: Charles Sigourney letter, March 6, 1781.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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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.
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(source: Snyder, Holly. 2004. "Guide to the Papers of Aaron Lopez (1731-1782), 1752-1794, 1846, 1852, 1953")
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2022.
Linked resources
Items with "Existence and location of originals: Aaron Lopez papers (Rare Documents)"
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| Aaron Lopez Papers |
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