{{Short description|Scottish-American cotton merchant}} {{infobox person | name = Andrew Low | birth_date = {{birth date|1812|07|20|df=yes}} | birth_place = Kincardineshire, Scotland | death_date = {{death date and age|1886|06|27|1812|07|20|df=yes}} | death_place = Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England | resting_place = Laurel Grove Cemetery<br />Savannah, Georgia, U.S. | occupation = Cotton merchant | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Sarah Cecil Hunter<br>|1844|1849|reason=died}} * {{marriage|Mary Cowper Stiles<br>|1854|1863|reason=died}} }} | children = 7 | relatives = Alastair Hugh Graham (grandson) }} '''Andrew Low II''' (20 July 1812 – 27 June 1886) was a Scottish-American cotton merchant.
==Early life== Low was born in Kincardineshire, Scotland, on 20 July 1812. He was a son of William Low and Katherine ({{nee}} Reid) Low.<ref name="andrewlowhouse"/>
==Career== In 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.<ref name="greatamericantreasures"/> 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,<ref name="1886Obit"/> 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.<ref name="greatamericantreasures"/>
He was also a director of the Merchants National Bank and the Central Railroad.<ref name="1886Obit"/>
==Personal life== [[File:Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace 2019.jpg|thumb|200x200px|The Wayne–Gordon House in Savannah, Georgia.]] In 1844, Low was married to Sarah Cecil Hunter (1817–1849), a daughter of Alexander Hunter and Harriet ({{nee}} Bellinger) Hunter.<ref name="andrewlowhouse"/> Together, they were the parents of three children: Andrew (who died young), Amy and Harriet.<ref name="greatamericantreasures">{{cite web |title=Andrew Low House Museum |url=https://www.greatamericantreasures.org/destinations/andrew-low-house-museum/ |website=www.greatamericantreasures.org |publisher=Great American Treasures |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
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 ({{nee}} Mackay) Stiles.<ref name="Depew1890">{{cite book |last1=Depew |first1=Chauncey M. |title=Titled Americans, 1890: A list of American ladies who have married foreigners of rank |date=20 October 2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-78366-005-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hkrDCwAAQBAJ |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Her father also served as U.S. Chargé to the Austrian Empire. Together, they were the parents of:<ref name="andrewlowhouse">{{cite web |title=Historical Figures - Andrew Low House Museum |url=https://www.andrewlowhouse.com/explore/historical-figures/ |website=www.andrewlowhouse.com |publisher=Andrew Low House |access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref>
* Katie Mackay Low (1855–1923), who died unmarried.<ref name="andrewlowhouse"/> * Mary Cowper Low (1859–1932), who married David Charles Guthrie V of East Haddon Hall in 1891.<ref name="andrewlowhouse"/> * 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.<ref name="andrewlowhouse"/> * Jessie Low (1862–1934),{{refn|group=lower-alpha|At her baptism at Christ Episcopal Church in Savannah on 29 July 1862, her sponsors were Miss Mary Glenn and Gen. Robert E. Lee.<ref name="andrewlowhouse"/>}} 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),<ref name="Fox-Davies1895">{{cite book |last1=Fox-Davies |first1=Arthur Charles |title=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 |date=1895 |publisher=Jack |page=426 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KDw6AQAAMAAJ |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref> in 1888.<ref name="1888hugh">{{cite news |title=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. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94449019/the-marriage-of-mr-hugh-graham-second/ |access-date=7 February 2022 |work=The Morning Post |date=26 November 1888 |pages=5}}</ref>
The Andrew Low Carriage House, part of the Juliette Gordon Low Historic District, is at 330 Drayton Street in Savannah.<ref name="andrewlowhouse"/> Low hosted William Makepeace Thackeray at his mansion, located in front of the carriage house.<ref name="Fant2016">{{cite book |last1=Fant |first1=Jennie Holton |title=The Travelers' Charleston: Accounts of Charleston and Lowcountry, South Carolina, 1666-1861 |date=31 January 2016 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-61117-585-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CgEQCwAAQBAJ |access-date=8 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Sammons2018">{{cite book |last1=Sammons |first1=Tania June |title=The Andrew Low House |date=1 April 2018 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-5398-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e5q8DwAAQBAJ |access-date=8 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Low died on 27 June 1886 at his home, Beauchamp Hall, Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire, England.<ref name="1886Obit">{{cite news |title=The Death of Andrew Low |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94499553/the-death-of-andrew-low/ |access-date=8 February 2022 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |date=29 June 1886 |pages=2}}</ref><ref name="1886Notice">{{cite news |title=ANDREW LOW. DECEASED |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94499704/andrew-low-deceased/ |access-date=8 February 2022 |work=The Standard |date=28 July 1886 |pages=4}}</ref> His body was returned to America and he was buried alongside his wives at Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery.<ref name="Guss2004">{{cite book |last1=Guss |first1=John Walker |title=Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery |date=2004 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-1629-5 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qbo2Zu1jgpgC |access-date=8 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
===Descendants=== Through 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''.<ref name="Eade">{{cite book|last1=Eade|first1=Philip|title=Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited|date=2016|publisher=Hachette UK|page=96|isbn=9780297869214|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VOEeCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT96|accessdate=30 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="Lovell1995">{{cite book |last1=Lovell |first1=Caroline Couper |title=The Light of Other Days |date=1995 |publisher=Mercer University Press |isbn=978-0-86554-465-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-HK2wDu2IWIC |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== ;Notes {{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
;Sources {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6kq5x63 Low, Andrew, 1813-1886.]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Low, Andrew}} Category:1812 births Category:1886 deaths Category:Scottish emigrants to the United States Category:Businesspeople from Savannah, Georgia Category:Burials at Laurel Grove Cemetery Category:19th-century American merchants Category:Merchants from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Cotton merchants