Low, Isaac, 1735-1791

Dates:

Birth 1735-04-13

Death 1791-07-25

Gender:

Male

Nationality: Americans, Britons,

Language: English,

Biographical notes:

Isaac Low (April 13, 1735 – July 25, 1791) was an American merchant in New York City and a Founding Father of the United States who served as a member of the Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association, and he later served as a delegate to the New York Provincial Congress. Though originally a Patriot, he later joined the Loyalist cause in the American Revolution.

Born at Raritan Landing in Piscataway, Province of New Jersey, Low served as a tax commissioner for the New York provincial government during the French and Indian War. Low was then a prominent merchant in New York City and was chosen as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1763. He was an active speaker against taxation without representation and the chairman of New York City's Committee of Correspondence in 1765. He became chairman of New York City's Committee of Sixty in 1774. Low was named one of nine delegates from New York to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and to the New York Provincial Congress the following year where he pursued a moderate approach towards the British. In 1775, he was a founder and the first president of the New York Chamber of Commerce.

Opposed to armed conflict with the British Crown, Low quit the Patriot cause after the Declaration of Independence was announced in 1776 and relocated to New Jersey, where he was imprisoned on suspicion of treason by the New Jersey Convention. He was eventually released after George Washington intervened, but after collaboration with the British occupation forces in New York, his property was confiscated after the New York assembly passed a motion of attainder in 1779. Four years later, Low emigrated to England. He died in Cowes on the Isle of Wight.