Colonial administrator and benefactor, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, of English parents. They returned to Britain in 1652, and he was educated in London. In 1672 he went to India in the service of the East India Company, becoming Governor of Madras in 1687. He was resident in England from 1699. Through the sale in America of some of his effects, he donated money to the collegiate school established (1701) at Saybrook, CT, which afterwards moved to New Haven. There in 1718 it took the name of Yale College in honour of its benefactor, and in 1887 the much-expanded institution became Yale University, the third oldest in the USA.
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).
Yale's ancestry can be traced back to the family estate at Plas yn Iâl near the village of Llanarmon yn Iâl, Denbighshire, Wales.
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.
In 1718, Cotton Mather contacted Yale and asked for his help.
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:
Wrexham Tower, part of Branford College, Yale, 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".
Yale College, Wrexham, a college in Wales, is also named after Elihu Yale.
User Comments Add a comment…