• John G. Wanton

  John G. Wanton (1729-1797) was a prosperous merchant from a powerful family in colonial Rhode Island. Son of one governor and cousin to another, John pursued a mercantile career and built a thriving business supplying the British military in North America.

  Read John G. Wanton’s full profile here.

• Charles & Catherine "Kitty" Dudley

  Charles Dudley (1737-1790) was appointed Newport’s customs collector in 1768. 18th century customs officials received both a generous salary and a percentage of their collection, and since Newport was one of North America’s busiest ports Dudley quickly built a fortune, and was sometimes derisively referred to as “Lord Charles Dudley” among colonists.

  Dudley married into a long-standing elite Newport family in 1769 when he wed Catherine “Kitty” Crooke (1750-1800). The Crookes were a large mercantile family whose lineage also included several prominent Rhode Island politicians.

  Read Charles & Kitty’s full profile here.

• Caesar Babcock

  Caesar Babcock (b. ~1758- 1836) was a young Black man enslaved by Hezekiah Babcock of Hopkinton, Rhode Island, who also enslaved 10 other people of African descent. He was likely kidnapped in western Africa as a child or teenager and brought to North America along with around 400,000 other captives over the course of the 18th century.

  Read Caesar Babcock’s full profile here.

• Aaron Lopez

  Aaron (Duarte) Lopez (1732-1782) was a Newport merchant and during the imperial crisis became one of the wealthiest men in Newport. Born Duarte Lopez and raised in Lisbon to a family engaged in trade with Portugal’s South American colonies, Lopez and several of his siblings emigrated to British North America in the 1740s and early 1750s.

  Read Aaron Lopez’s full profile here.

• Solomon Southwick

  Solomon Southwick (1731-1797) operated Newport’s only printing press during the imperial crisis and for much of the revolutionary era, publishing a weekly newspaper, the Newport Mercury, along with hundreds of the books, pamphlets, almanacs, and other printed materials that informed colonists and fueled political debate. 

  Read Solomon Southwick’s full profile here.

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