Andrew Low II (20 July 1812 – 27 June 1886) was a Scottish-American cotton merchant.
Andrew Low | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 July 1812 Kincardineshire, Scotland |
| Died | 27 June 1886 (aged 73) Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England |
| Occupation | Cotton merchant |
| Spouses | Sarah Cecil Hunter
(m. 1844; died 1849)Mary Cowper Stiles
(m. 1854; died 1863) |
| Children | 7 |
| Relatives | Alastair Hugh Graham (grandson) |
Early life
editLow was born in Kincardineshire, Scotland, on 20 July 1812. He was a son of William Low and Katherine (née Reid) Low.[1]
Career
editIn 1829, aged 17, Low emigrated from Scotland to Savannah, Georgia, to work for his uncle, also named Andrew. In 1839, his uncle retired back to England, and the young Low was in charge of the cotton firm, eventually becoming "the premier cotton merchant in pre-Civil War Savannah" and the city's richest man.[2] After his uncle died in 1849, he inherited all of his property (including his home at 329 Abercorn Street) and businesses in Savannah and in Liverpool, England. The firm, known as Andrew Low & Co. in Savannah and Isaac Low & Co. in Liverpool,[3] had a fleet of cargo ships which carried cotton from their warehouse, the Scott and Balfour Stores, on the river in Savannah to England, where he maintained an office in Liverpool.[2]
He was also a director of the Merchants National Bank and the Central Railroad.[3]
Personal life
edit
In 1844, Low was married to Sarah Cecil Hunter (1817–1849), a daughter of Alexander Hunter and Harriet (née Bellinger) Hunter.[1] Together, they were the parents of three children: Andrew (who died young), Amy and Harriet.[2]
In 1854, five years after Sarah's death, Low remarried, to Mary Cowper Stiles (1832–1863), a daughter of U.S. Representative William Henry Stiles and Elizabeth Ann (née Mackay) Stiles.[4] Her father also served as U.S. Chargé to the Austrian Empire. Together, they were the parents of:[1]
- Katie Mackay Low (1855–1923), who died unmarried.[1]
- Mary Cowper Low (1859–1932), who married David Charles Guthrie V of East Haddon Hall in 1891.[1]
- William MacKay Low (1860–1905), who married Juliette Magill Gordon in 1886; she later founded the Girl Scouts of the USA; he lived at Wellesbourne House in England.[1]
- Jessie Low (1862–1934),[a] who married Hugh Graham, a son of Sir Frederick Graham, 3rd Baronet, and Lady Jane Seymour (a daughter of Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset, and wife Jane Georgiana Sheridan),[5] in 1888.[6]
The Andrew Low Carriage House, part of the Juliette Gordon Low Historic District, is at 330 Drayton Street in Savannah.[1] Low hosted William Makepeace Thackeray at his mansion, located in front of the carriage house.[7][8]
Low died on 27 June 1886 at his home, Beauchamp Hall, Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire, England.[3][9] His body was returned to America and he was buried alongside his wives at Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery.[10]
Descendants
editThrough his daughter Jessie, he was posthumously a grandfather of four: Ronald Andrew Hugh Graham, Sybil Hattie Hermione Graham, Murial Mary Graham and Alastair Hugh Graham (1904–1982), an Oxford friend of Evelyn Waugh who was considered an inspiration for Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited.[11][12]
References
edit- Notes
- ^ At her baptism at Christ Episcopal Church in Savannah on 29 July 1862, her sponsors were Miss Mary Glenn and Gen. Robert E. Lee.[1]
- Sources
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Historical Figures - Andrew Low House Museum". www.andrewlowhouse.com. Andrew Low House. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ a b c "Andrew Low House Museum". www.greatamericantreasures.org. Great American Treasures. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ a b c "The Death of Andrew Low". The Atlanta Constitution. 29 June 1886. p. 2. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
- ^ Depew, Chauncey M. (20 October 2013). Titled Americans, 1890: A list of American ladies who have married foreigners of rank. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78366-005-6. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1895). Armorial Families: A Complete Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, and a Directory of Some Gentlemen of Coat-armour, and Being the First Attempt to Show which Arms in Use at the Moment are Borne by Legal Authority. Jack. p. 426. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ "The marriage of Mr. Hugh Graham, second son of Lady Hermione Graham, and the late Sir Frederick Graham, Bart., of Netherby, and grandson of Sir James Graham, the eminent statesman, with Miss Jessie Low". The Morning Post. 26 November 1888. p. 5. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ Fant, Jennie Holton (31 January 2016). The Travelers' Charleston: Accounts of Charleston and Lowcountry, South Carolina, 1666-1861. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-61117-585-1. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
- ^ Sammons, Tania June (1 April 2018). The Andrew Low House. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-5398-2. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
- ^ "ANDREW LOW. DECEASED". The Standard. 28 July 1886. p. 4. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
- ^ Guss, John Walker (2004). Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery. Arcadia Publishing. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-7385-1629-5. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
- ^ Eade, Philip (2016). Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited. Hachette UK. p. 96. ISBN 9780297869214. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
- ^ Lovell, Caroline Couper (1995). The Light of Other Days. Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-86554-465-9. Retrieved 7 February 2022.