Lopez, Aaron, 1731-1782

Jewish colonial merchant and philanthropist, of Newport, R.I.; b. in Portugal.

Jewish colonial merchant and shipper, of Newport, R.I.; b. in Portugal.

Duarte (Aaron) Lopez was born in Portugal to well-to-do parents who were part of the Converso community. By the early 1740s Lopez was established as a merchant chiefly in Newport, R.I., trading in wholesale commodities and exporting Newport manufactures.

Merchant.

Jewish communal leader in Newport, Rhode Island.

Aaron Lopez (1731-1782)

Duarte (Aaron) Lopez was born in Portugal in 1731 to well-to-do parents who were part of the Converso community. Raised to practice Judaism only in secret, while maintaining outward conformity with Catholicism to all appearances, Lopez reached maturity, married and had a baby daughter before deciding to leave Portugal for a new, openly Jewish life in British North America, where he joined his older brother Moses. Moses Lopez, who had himself left Portugal in his teens, had come of age in New York City before establishing himself in Newport, Rhode Island, in the early 1740s.

The passage of Aaron Lopez to British America was unique in its directness. Most of the escaping Portuguese conversos made their way first to London, where they were supported for a brief period by Congregation Shaar HaShamaaim (also known as the Spanish and Portuguese Jews Synagogue) at Bevis Marks in return for their open redemption as Jews.

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 a number of Newport merchants for the manufacture of 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 and a few ventures in the slave trade, as well as the export of Newport manufactures such as furniture, axes, plank and board, flour, barrel staves and salt fish.

In 1761 Lopez, along with fellow Jew Isaac Elizer, sought naturalization in Rhode Island under the Act of 13 George II, ch. 7, which authorized the naturalization 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 as well as by the legislature. Lopez, after seeking the advice of renowned Boston lawyer Samuel Fitch, set up residence in Swansey, Massachusetts, and was finally naturalized at Taunton in October 1762. Elizer was naturalized in New York a year later.

In Newport, Aaron began to establish ties with gentiles of his station, including among them Ezra Stiles, the Congregational minister of the town. Stiles, who had a great scholarly interest in Jewish scripture, came to know members of Newport's Jewish community 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 the daughter of his business partner, Jacob Rodriguez Rivera.

With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1776, Lopez began to suffer a dramatic downturn in his business, along with most colonial merchants. As the British took Savannah in 1778, 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 course of 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. He left behind his grieving wife Sarah, devoted father-in-law and business partner Jacob Rodriguez Rivera, and 15 surviving children. Ezra Stiles, now President of Yale University, composed the following epitaph for him:

"He was a merchant of eminence, of polite and amiable manners. Hospitality, liberality, and benevolence were his true characteristics. An ornament and valuable pillar to the Jewish society, of which he was a member. His knowledge in commerce was unbounded and his integrity irreproachable; thus he lived and died, much regretted, esteemed and loved by all."