Early Life
Duarte Lopez was born in 1731 in Lisbon, Portugal. He belonged to a family of conversos who professed Catholicism while they continued to practice Judaism in secret. In 1750 Lopez married a woman named Anna, and within two years the couple had a daughter, Catherine.
Aaron's older brother José had left Portugal years earlier, reclaimed his Jewish identity, and taken the name Moses. Moses was naturalized in 1740 and granted a license by the General Assembly to make potash in 1753, and he became a successful merchant in Newport. In 1752 Duarte and his family moved to Newport, where they lived as Jews and became Aaron, Abigail, and Sarah.
Read more about this topic: Aaron Lopez
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“In the course of twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did not wish to lose the early ones. Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“The man nearest my soul,
Who like a brother toiled in my affairs,
And laid his love and life under my foot.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)