"A Dog And Cat Life": The Story of Matthew Low, Part 2

Born in 1837 in London, Matthew Low was the son of Sampson and Mary (Stent) Low. Sampson Low was one of the best known publishers in London. His authors included Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade, Bulwer-Lytton and Elizabeth Gaskell. In addition he was the publisher of an important trade journal, the London Publisher's Circular, and knew many literary people.

The Lows lived a life of wealth and culture at 41 Mecklenburgh Square, Bloomsbury, London. They had a large family, and Matthew was their youngest son.

By 1851, when he was fourteen, Matthew was boarding at John Peto’s school for gentlemen in Brighton, the famous seaside resort town in Sussex. He was there for most of the 1850s. Late in the decade, he met Elizabeth King, three years his junior, who was working in her aunt’s pub. Matthew Low wrote in 1887:

I met my wife in one of the public gardens of Brighton, England, in 1858...and she so interested me with her deceptive, winning manner and imposing tale, and being then very pretty and only 18 years of age, I became infatuated with her and promised to marry her.

Cue the Thomas Hardy plotline: she told him she was a gentleman’s daughter, but then he discovered that her father was a mere railway porter. As for Elizabeth, she was a barmaid “in a second class saloon and hotel.” Learning all of this, Matthew abandoned her, but in November 1859 Elizabeth came up to London. She demanded to see him. She also demanded that he marry her. Elizabeth said that she knew the Lows “were very rich, [and] she said she would cause trouble” if Matthew didn’t marry her. Fearing trouble, Matthew did so.

We next see them in the 1861 census, two years later. Matthew and Elizabeth were lodging with Miss Harriette Langford, who ran a “School for Young Ladies” in Lewisham, Kent. Matthew was working for the Bank of England, probably as a clerk of some kind.

Ten years later they were living in less bucolic lodgings in Lambeth, South London. Matthew was a Printing Machine Agent. It was about this time that Matthew first left her “as I could not stand her company any longer.” He began drinking and seeing other women.

This did not impress his parents back at 41 Mecklenburgh Square, Bloomsbury. Sampson Low gave them the money to go away to the US. Matthew and Elizabeth sailed on the Russia which docked in New York in August 1872. On the manifest Matthew is described as a printer.

The Lows lived in various lodgings in Brooklyn, and Matthew worked at several jobs, including a stint at something called the Universal Hard Rubber Works in Hoboken, New Jersey. When he returned to Brooklyn from another job in Philadelphia, he said he was told that Elizabeth had acted like “a grass widow,” i.e. had affairs, while he was away. This did not improve matters between them.

In the spring of 1886 Sampson Low died and left Matthew $7000. Elizabeth wanted some of that money. They fought about the usual matters - money, alcohol, other women and incompatibility.

Elizabeth left him in December 1886, without a forwarding address (said Matthew). But when she returned on Christmas Eve, Matthew gave her money and presents, too. Perhaps she brought him a Christmas gift too, for they resumed marital life “and things seemed nice (if a cat and dog life can be so considered).”

Alas, it did not last long. Three days later, Matthew said, she tried to poison his supper. He admitted that he was drinking again by this time. She found this out and pulled his whiskers and spat in his face. He retaliated by “box[ing] her ears [and then] she would run to the neighbours and say I was murdering her.”

Sometime around New Year’s Day 1887, the Lows separated. A few weeks later, Elizabeth sued Matthew for failing to support her. Her address was given as 1244 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn. Matthew was described as a “middle aged man” who had once worked for Harper’s, but now had “an interest” in a religious newspaper called the Church Press.

Late January brought more accusations on both sides - as well as the odd date for dinner, the theatre, and presents from Matthew. He said he did put it in writing that he would give her all his money around this time - but that was only because she came to his office and screamed at him.

In February Matthew began drinking even more heavily. Elizabeth had had him committed to the Inebriates’ Home, “a noble red brick building” that resembled a castle, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Elizabeth then sued the publishers of the Church Press for the $3000 Matthew had invested in that paper. The paper failed and Matthew had been fired. At some point he had turned his interest in the paper over to Elizabeth (just before his commitment, presumably).The publishing company countered that Matthew actually owed them the $3000 and were suing him as well.

Another month, another altercation. Sometime in the spring of 1887, there was a final blow-up in which Elizabeth “cursed [Matthew] in this world and the next.” And yet (he wrote later that year) “through everything I loved my wife better than any living woman; but now things are altered and that curse still rings in my ears.”

In May 1887, Matthew made the attempt on his life with arsenic and was arrested for attempted suicide once he was treated in hospital. He was released on $1000 bail but stayed free less than a day. Alexander Kyle, his friend, was the bondsman; Kyle was made so uneasy by Matthew’s behavior (not specified) that Kyle returned Low to jail less than 24 hours later. Low stayed in the Raymond Street jail until his trial.

The judge had Matthew was committed to the Flatbush Insane Asylum later in May. The application for this was in Elizabeth’s name. She said that they lived together at 67 Sands Street, Brooklyn and that they had “no property of any description.”

Two doctors testified at the trial. They had examined Matthew and thought he suffered from melancholia. He had told them that he heard the voices of deceased relatives asking him to join them. He dreamed of his mother every night. He paced the galleries of the jail and thought of hurling himself over the railing.

And then all was quiet until August.

In August 1887, feeling vastly improved (said the Eagle) Low sued Elizabeth for the return of $20,000 that he said was his. At this time he was still at the Flatbush Insane Asylum. Elizabeth’s lawyer read out several letters that Matthew wrote to her. He thanked her for caring for him when he was ill and that he wanted her to have all his money. The lawyers all appeared to be rather confused at this point. Matthew’s lawyer asked for time to read the letters and ponder his course of action. The courts probably did not know what to do about the Lows at this point, and probably hoped that they would both go away.

In November of the same year, Elizabeth sued Matthew for divorce on grounds of infidelity. Alexander Kyle testified that “Mr. Low had told him about hiring a house at 42 Second Street, New-York, where he had installed a woman.” This was just before Matthew took the poison and went to Kyle’s store, he said.

Matthew’s landlady in New York, Mary Splaine, testified that Matthew had lived there with a woman he called his wife - not the plaintiff, Mary said, but “a young and handsome woman.” Poor Elizabeth cried when she heard that.

The newspapers reveal just enough of this couple to intrigue and sadden the reader - and to generate so many questions. Perhaps fiction could do more justice to the Lows - theirs is just the sort of story Wilkie Collins would have seized upon. And it is so like the Wilkie Collins novels published by Matthew's father, Sampson Low.

[Note #1: I have been unable to trace either Matthew after 1887. Elizabeth was reported to have “sailed for Europe” in June 1888. And a "Matthew Lowe" died age 66 in New York City in 1900, but I have not ascertained whether it was this Matthew.]

[Note #2, Six Degrees of Separation Moment: Matthew’s nephew Sampson Low was the minister of St. John’s Yeovil, Somerset in the 1880s and 1890s; two of his parishioners were my husband’s great grandparents.]

SOURCES

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“William Henry Low,” Oct. 14, 1881, p. 2 [Matthew’s brother, who took over the family publishing business in London].
“His Wife Made the Complaint,” Jan. 25, 1887, p. 4.
“Took Poison In His Soup,” May 8, 1887, p. 1.
“Rough On Rats Didn’t Work,” May 9, 1887, p. 6.
“Matthew Low Is In Jail Again,” May 10, 1887, p. 6.
“A Noted Publisher’s Son,” May 13, 1887, p. 6.
“Matthew Low Committed,” May 14, 1887, p. 6.
“Timelines,” July 19, 1887, p. 4.
“It Still Rings,” Aug. 3, 1887, p. 4.
“The Lawyer Was Surprised,” Aug. 8, 1887, p. 6.
“A Brief Bout,” Nov. 18, 1887, p. 4.
“About Brooklyn,” Jul. 22, 1888, p. 4.

From the New York Times:

“Editor and Publisher at Odds,” Feb. 12, 1887, p. 8.
“The Wife Cried A Little,” Nov. 19, 1887, p. 3.

Census Records:

Sampson Low household, 1841 British Census, St. George the Martyr/Holborn, Lambs St/ Stables, Middlesex; ED 3, 42 Lamb's Conduit St., H0107/671/1.

John Peto household [headmaster of school for "gentlemen"], 1851 British Census, Brighton/ Brighthelmstone, Brighton/The Palace, Sussex; ED 1r, 4-5 Montpelier Terrace, H0107/1646/473, p.14.

Harriette Langford household, 1861 British Census, Lewisham/Sydenham, Kent; ED 10, 1 St. Germain Cottage, RG9/417/F67, p. 15.

Mrs. A. Vivian household, 1871 British Census, Lambeth St. Mary, Lambeth/Brixton, Middlesex [6 Barrington Crescent]; RG10/688, ED 24, Folio 13, p. 23.

Sampson Low household, 1871 British Census, St. Pancras/St. Peter, Pancras/Gray, London, Middlesex [41 Mecklenburgh Square]; ED 8, RG10/216, Folio 29, p. 51.

Matthew Low household, 1880 US Census, Brooklyn, Kings, NY [104 Schermerhorn St], ED 15, FHL 1254841, T9-841, p. 330.4000.


Other Records

New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [Ancestry]
New York Petitions For Naturalization [Ancestry]
International Genealogical Index

Illustration from Wilkie Collins' No Name, (New York: Harper's, 1873), opposite page 104.