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Research dossier · General Reference

William Henry Low

American merchant

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 5, 2025
Entity authorityQ8012085 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Henry Low (1795 – March 22, 1834) was an American entrepreneur, businessman, and trader from Salem, Massachusetts, who was one of the American pioneers of the Old China Trade. In 1828, having settled in Canton, China, Low was admitted as a partner of the Russell & Co. trading company, as a replacement chosen by founding partner Philip Ammidon.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William Henry Low” is american merchant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Henry and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1795, 1834, 1828—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1795. For this dossier, William, Henry and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american merchant” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q8012085. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1795, 1834 and 1828.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Henry Low”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Henry Low primary sources, William Henry Low archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Henry Low”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Henry Low” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.