Elihu Yale
Elihu Yale, (
April 5,
1649 –
July 8,
1721), was the first benefactor of
Yale University in
New Haven,
Connecticut in the
United States.
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.
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 wedWhere long he liv'd and thriv'd; In London deadMuch good, some ill, he did; so hope all's evenAnd that his soul thro' mercy's gone to HeavenYou that survive and read this tale, take careFor this most certain exit to prepareWhere blest in peace, the actions of the justSmell 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".
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.
