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Elihu Yale, (April 5, 1649 – July 8, 1721), was the first benefactor of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in the United States.
Life
Born in Boston, Massachusetts to David Yale (1613-1690) and Ursula Knight (1624-1698). His grandmother, Ann Lloyd (1591-1659), was also the wife of Governor Theophilus Eaton (1590-1657) of New Haven Colony by a second marriage, after her first husband, Thomas Yale (1590-1619), suddenly died at Chester, in England. Yale moved to England with his family when he was four, and never returned to North America.
Yale's ancestry can be traced back to the family estate at Plas yn Iâl near the village of Llanarmon yn Iâl, Denbighshire, Wales. The name Yale is the English spelling of the Welsh place name, Iâl.
For 20 years, Yale was part of the British East India Company, and he became the second governor of a settlement at Madras (present-day city of Chennai) in 1687, after Streynsham Master. He was suspended from the post, however, in 1692 after arguments with his council and his superiors. Yale amassed a fortune in his lifetime, and was generous with the proceeds.
In 1718, Cotton Mather contacted Yale and asked for his help. Mather represented a small institution of learning that had been founded as the Collegiate School of Connecticut in 1701, and it needed money for a new building in New Haven. Yale sent Mather a carton of goods that the school subsequently sold, earning them 560 pounds sterling, which was a substantial sum in the early 1700s. In gratitude, officials named the new building Yale; eventually the entire institution became Yale College.
Death and legacy
Yale died on July 8, 1721, and is buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St Giles in Wrexham, Wales. His tomb is inscribed with these lines:
- Born in America, in Europe bred
- In Africa travell'd and in Asia wed
- Where long he liv'd and thriv'd; In London dead
- Much good, some ill, he did; so hope all's even
- And that his soul thro' mercy's gone to Heaven
- You that survive and read this tale, take care
- For this most certain exit to prepare
- Where blest in peace, the actions of the just
- Smell sweet and blossom in silent dust.
The church tower on the campus of Yale University is a replica of that of St Giles Church in Wrexham.
Elihu later became the name of a "senior society" founded in 1903 at Yale.
Alexandra Robbins, in her article for Atlantic Monthly about Skull and Bones, alleges that the gravestone of Elihu Yale was stolen years ago from its proper setting in Wrexham, and is displayed in a glass case, in a room with purple walls, which belongs to a building called the Tomb of the Skull and Bones at Yale University.
In 1999, American Heritage magazine rated Elihu Yale the "most overrated philanthropist" in American history, arguing that the college that would later bear his name (Yale University) was successful largely because of the generosity of a man named Jeremiah Dummer, but that the trustees of the school did not want it known by the name "Dummer College".
Other references to the name
Elihu Yale is also the name of the Atlanta Police Chief in Tom Wolfe's novel A Man in Full. In the novel Elihu Yale is understood to be a black man, a fact that could possibly be interpreted as more of Tom Wolfe's commentary on class division in the United States. Wolfe himself earned a PhD. in American Studies from Yale.
Yale College, Wrexham, a college in Wales, is also named after Elihu Yale.
1649 births | 1721 deaths | Welsh-Americans | Yale University
"Elihu Yale"