Aaron Lopez collection
Item
Country
US
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
eng
Contact information: postal address
110 Benevolent Street, 02906 Providence, RI
Contact information: phone number
001 401 331 8575
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
reference@rihs.org
Reference number
MSS 541
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (official language of the state)
Aaron Lopez collection
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
Aaron Lopez
Date(s)
1756/1783
Language(s)
eng
Extent
0.15 linear metres
Type of material
Textual Material
Scope and content
The Aaron Lopez collection comprises personal and business papers belonging to Aaron Lopez (1731-82). The collection is organised into 12 folders, as the following:
Folders 1 and 2: Store blotters (1770 and 1774-75.)
Folder 3: Log books for ships owned by Lopez & Rivera (Aaron Lopez and Jacob Rodriguez Rivera), mainly in the slave trade, namely Sally (1767), Hannah (1768), Cleopatra (1770-73), Africa (1773-74) and Washington (1783).
Folders 4-10: Correspondence, 1756-69 (4), 1770-71 (5), 1772 (6), 1773-79 (7), 1780 (8), 1781 (9), 1782-83 (10).
Folder 11: Miscellaneous, 1756-67, including a bill of lading of the sloop Industry (1756); account with Joseph and William Rotch of the sloop Hummingbird (1760); oath of allegiance (citizenship) of Aaron Lopez and Isaac Elizar (1761); crew list of the ship America (1765); order for spermaceti candles from M. Crowley (1766); and account with John Newdigate (1767).
Folder 12: Miscellaneous, 1769-74, including sales of sundries from the sloop industry, accounts with Jones & Moe (1769-70), records related to the ship Cleopatra (1773) and a bill of sale of an enslaved person named Charles, from Joseph Holloway of Exeter to Aaron Lopez (1774).
Folders 1 and 2: Store blotters (1770 and 1774-75.)
Folder 3: Log books for ships owned by Lopez & Rivera (Aaron Lopez and Jacob Rodriguez Rivera), mainly in the slave trade, namely Sally (1767), Hannah (1768), Cleopatra (1770-73), Africa (1773-74) and Washington (1783).
Folders 4-10: Correspondence, 1756-69 (4), 1770-71 (5), 1772 (6), 1773-79 (7), 1780 (8), 1781 (9), 1782-83 (10).
Folder 11: Miscellaneous, 1756-67, including a bill of lading of the sloop Industry (1756); account with Joseph and William Rotch of the sloop Hummingbird (1760); oath of allegiance (citizenship) of Aaron Lopez and Isaac Elizar (1761); crew list of the ship America (1765); order for spermaceti candles from M. Crowley (1766); and account with John Newdigate (1767).
Folder 12: Miscellaneous, 1769-74, including sales of sundries from the sloop industry, accounts with Jones & Moe (1769-70), records related to the ship Cleopatra (1773) and a bill of sale of an enslaved person named Charles, from Joseph Holloway of Exeter to Aaron Lopez (1774).
Archival history
The provenance of the bulk of the Lopez Papers is unknown. Most correspondence was catalogued in the 1970s but may have arrived well before that. The provenance of some items is known. Mrs. Samuel Slater Durfee donated the logbook in 1927. Twenty-four letters were transferred from the massive Shepley Collection purchased from the Shepley Library in 1938. Alan Macauley donated the 1774 slave bill of sale in 1975 as part of the Thurston Papers. A few items marked "from the collection of Paul C. Nicholson" arrived as part of a bequest from his estate in 1956, including five documents relating to the slave ship Cleopatra and a 1771 letter. The Newman Congregational Church donated a 1766 order for spermaceti in 1976. The archives of the Archdiocese of Boston donated nine letters in 1979.
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 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, and others) and Europe (Bristol, London, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Cadiz, and others) 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 the 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 great 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 moved 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, and others) and Europe (Bristol, London, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Cadiz, and others) 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 the 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 great 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 moved 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: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
Records are organised by typology and arranged chronologically.
Access, restrictions
The collection is available in microfilm format (E445 .R4, part 2, reel 11).
Links to finding aids
Author of the description
Carla Vieira, 2022
Bibliography
Linked resources
Filter by property
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Aaron Lopez Papers | Existence and location of originals |
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Rhode Island Historical Society | Collections (official language of the state) |