Seduva is located in northern Lithuania, about 25 miles west of Panevezys, on the Panevezys-Radviliskis highway and railroad.  It is in what was the Kovno Gubernia.

In the 16th century, Seduva was the location of a royal estate and of a town growing alongside a road leading from central Lithuania to Latvia in the north.  In 1554, there were 203 houses, including warehouses and stores.  In 1654, Seduva which had for some time been the seat of an eldership, received the Magdeburg charter and a town crest.

Its first wooden church was built in 1529;  the present day brick church dates back to 1642, with renovations and extensions in 1905.  During 1696-1762, a Jesuit mission house connected with their college at Pasiause, was active in the town.  A lower school was intermittently operative with 96 pupils in 1828.

From the middle of the nineteenth century on, it served as the seat of a township.  During the period of independence the Lietukis company carried on wholesale trade, while the town's dairy co-operative processed two million gallons of milk annually.

After the 1863 insurrection, all parish schools were closed and replaced by public Russian schools.  In 1871-73, a railroad was laid at a distance of 1 mile from the town.

Roughly half of its 3,783 inhabitants in 1880 (4,474 in 1897) were Jewish merchants and craftsmen.  At Seduva, grain, flax and linseed were purchased and shipped to the port of Liepaja in Latvia.

In 1923, it had 3,186 inhabitants, in 1939 about 3,700 and in 1959 it had 3,253.

Damaged during World War II, the town, which is a countryside district center, has been rebuilt and expanded.  Today Seduva contains a 110 bed hospital, a dairy, a number of factories and stores, and primary, secondary and trade schools.

In 1906, Seduva was segregated with Jews and Gentiles living at opposites sides of the town.