Seth Low was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on March 29, 1782 to David and Hannah (Haskell) Low. He was educated at Harvard College and graduated in 1804. He joined the Salem Light Infantry in 1805 and ran an apothecary in Salem for some time. In 1807 he married Mary Porter (1786-1872) and they had 12 children, eight sons and four daughters.

In 1829 the entire family moved to Brooklyn, New York. There, Low's pharmaceutical business flourished, importing drugs and India goods. Low became a developer and built two blocks of houses on Concord and Washington Streets and added a "classical school" behind them. He was president of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Brooklyn and among the incorporators of the City of Brooklyn in 1834, serving as an alderman. He was the first president of the Board of Education, a supporter and board member of the Brooklyn Institute, Packer Collegiate Institute, and of other organizations. In 1843 he founded the Brooklyn Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, which sought moral uplift and teaching the value of thrift, sobriety and hard work. He was also among the founders in 1844 of the First Unitarian Church of the Saviour on Monroe Place and Pierrepont Street, beginning a long tradition of the Low and White family involvement there. He died in Brooklyn in 1853.

Abiel Abbot Low was born on February 7, 1811 in Salem, the son of Seth and Mary Low. Abiel grew up attending public schools, and became a clerk in the house of Joseph Howard & Company, a company engaged in the South American trade, and moved to New York with his family in 1829. In 1833, Low sailed to Canton, China, and started working as a clerk for the mercantile house of Russell & Company, the largest American firm in China and also the leading American opium trading and smuggling enterprise in China, founded by Samuel Russell, and of which Low's uncle, William Henry Low, had been head for some years. In 1837, after four years of learning the intricacies of trading in China, Low became a partner in the firm. In 1840, he launched his own business in a joint venture with Wu Bingjian, also known as Howqua, a mentor for young Americans in China, a very important Hong merchant, head of the Canton Cohong and one of the richest men in China. The company, A. A. Low & Brother named for both him and his brother, Josiah Orne Low, rapidly became one of the leading China and Japan silks and teas trading company.

Low launched his own fleet of clippers, among which were the Houqua, the first streamlined ship, named after his Chinese business partner who had died in 1843, and the Samuel Russell, named after the founder of the mercantile company in which Low had worked as a clerk. Two other of Low's clippers, the Contest and the Jacob Bell, were subsequently destroyed by Confederate privateers during the Civil War.

He is also known for his philanthropy activities. In 1858, he became president of the Brooklyn Female Academy, later the Packer Collegiate Institute, and remained on the Packer board until his death in 1893. He was known to give bonuses to teachers and anonymous scholarships to deserving students. He also contributed to the development of the Brooklyn Library, the City hospital and many other cultural, educational, social and religious enterprises.

Low married Ellen Almira, daughter of Josiah Dow of Brooklyn on March 16, 1841, and had two sons and two daughters from this marriage: Harriette Low (1842-1884), Abbot Augustus Low (1844-1912), inventor (notably of the paper shredder), businessman and industrialist, Ellen Low (1846-1884), and Seth Low (1850-1916) who later became mayor of New York and president of Columbia University. Upon the death of his wife in 1850, Low married Anne Davison Low, widow of Low's brother William Henry Low. He died in Brooklyn on January 7, 1893.

William Henry Low was born to Seth (1782-1853) and Mary Porter Low (1786-1872) in 1816. He formed the firm Low and Berry in New York with a friend, but later went to Canton to work as a clerk, at his brother Abiel’s suggestion, in order to improve his financial situation. When he arrived at Canton in September 1839, the Opium War had just started; he left in the fall of 1841, after Canton was set on fire by the British, forcing trade to come to a stop. William returned to Brooklyn and married Ann Davidson Bedell (1819-1890), he died in 1845.

Edward Allen Low was born to Seth (1782-1853) and Mary Porter Low (1786-1872) in 1817. He went to Canton in 1841, where he worked for Russel and Company and became partner at the firm in 1848 (“More Canton Letters” 7). He became a partner in his brother Abiel Abbot’s firm A. A. Low and Brothers in New York. In 1854 he married Lucy Elizabeth Haskell, a distant cousin. Edward died in 1898 (Loines 11-12).

Harriet Low was born to Seth (1782-1853) and Mary Porter Low (1786-1872) in 1809. At a young age she accompanied her aunt and uncle, Abigail and William Henry Low (1795-1834), to China for five years. William went to Canton to head the firm Russell and Company, while Abigail and Harriet went to Macao. Two years after returning from China, Harriet married John Hillard. Hillard had been born to English parents in Richmond, Virginia in 1813. After John and Harriet were married they moved to London. The Hillards remained in London until 1848, when John’s bank, Coates and Company, failed. The couple and their five daughters returned to Brooklyn, New York. John died in 1859, and Harriet died in 1877 (Loines 17-18).