The daughter of Jacob Rodriguez de Rivera and Hannah Pimental Sasportas Rivera, Sarah grew up among the wealthy Sephardic merchant families of Newport, Rhode Island. And it was from within that world that she would marry. Her cousin, Aaron Lopez, the “merchant prince” of Newport, became her husband when she was in her teens, his first wife, Abigail, having died a few years earlier.

Her son, Joshua, who appears with her in this portrait was one of their nine children. Joshua would marry Rebecca Touro, the only daughter born to Isaac Touro—father of Abraham and Judah, and the spiritual leader of Newport’s Jewish community.