| Name | Elihu YALE |
| Birth | 5 Apr 1649, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts |
| Death | 8 Jul 1721, London, Middlesex County, ENGLAND Age: 72 |
| Burial | St. Giles' Church, Wrexham, WALES |
| Education | Private school, London, ENGLAND |
| Father | David YALE (1613-1690) |
| Mother | Ursula KNIGHT (1624-1698) |
| Unmarried |
| Children | David |
| UNNAMED | |
| UNNAMED | |
| UNNAMED |
The third, Elihu Yale, was the major benefactor of Yale College (now University) and the source of its name. - [1]
Yale College, Wrexham, a college in Wales, is also named after Elihu Yale. - [4]
The history of Yale can be summed up in three phases: Yale Grammar School, Yale Sixth Form, and Yale College. It is named after Elihu Yale, best known for being the prime benefactor of Yale University. Founded in 1950 as a Public school. In 1999, Yale University sued Wrexham Council over the use of the name Yale College (which had been the name of Yale University's undergraduate college for 225 years before Yale Wrexham was founded). As a result of the settlement of the trademark infringement suit, the Yale College in Wales must always be legally referred to as Yale College Wrexham or Yale College of Wrexham, Wales. The site was remodelled in 1990 and now comprises older buildings, and very modern, airy buildings that make up the majority. There are three main campuses: Roxburgh House, Bersham Road and Grove Park, Roxburgh House handles "Apprentices", Bersham Road handles "Skills", and Grove Park handles GCSEs and A levels.
Yale College is, officially, a bilingual college, helping to foster Anglo-Welsh relations, although the predominant language spoken is English. The college magazine, ZED, helps keep students abreast of local opinions, with editorials and news releases.
In an expression of local patriotism, to Wrexsamians (people who live/work in Wrexham) Yale University is known as The Other Yale, in reference to the comments made by Yale University about Yale College Wrexham. Young local children are often unaware that there is a university, and many assume that the American Yale is not as old as the Wrexham Yale, despite the world-renowned Yale University being more than two centuries older than Yale Wrexham. - [5]
Although born in Massachusetts, Elihu's family moved to Britain when he was very young. In later life Yale would spend 27 years in India working for the East India Company, where he married a wealthy widow. They had four children, though one died soon after birth, and Elihu's wife took the remaining children back to England when the couple separated.
Returning to Britain in 1699, Yale divided his time between Plas Grono and London. It was during this time that he was invited to make a donation to the Connecticut College, New Haven, USA and sent a gift of books. In 1718 he was asked for a further donation, with the college suggesting that if he chose to donate the college would be renamed in his honour. He sent books and other items which were sold to raise funds for the college, which was then duly named after him.
Elihu Yale died in London on July 8th 1721, and was buried in Saint Giles' Church, Wrexham. - [2]
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. - [4]
Although he was born in Boston and his step-grandfather had helped found New Haven Colony, Elihu Yale was raised in Britain, and was both an ardent member of the Church of England and a loyal supporter of the Crown.
He was, however, an extremely wealthy man, who had amassed his fortune in India while working for the East India Company. Therefore, he was one of the people who was approached by Jeremy Drummer, an agent who was in England representing the Connecticut and Massachusetts colonies. Drummer persuaded Elihu Yale to donate 32 books to the Collegiate School (as it was then known) in 1713.
Just a few years later, dissatisfied with the school's site in Saybrook, Connecticut, the trustees of the Collegiate School began searching for a new home for the institution, preferably one with a central facility. In a bidding war with Hartford, the citizens of New Haven pledged 2,000 English pounds to the Collegiate School if it would relocate there.
In order to raise additional funds for this building, in 1718 the school's trustees asked Cotton Mather, a Harvard alumnus who was unhappy at having been passed over for the presidency of his alma mater, to approach Elihu Yale on behalf of the so-called "Academy of Dissenters" in New Haven.
In his letter, Mather suggested to the childless Elihu Yale that "if what is forming at New Haven might wear the name of Yale College, it would be better than a name of sons and daughters. And your munificence might easily obtain for you such a commemoration and perpetuation of your valuable name, which would indeed be much better than an Egyptian pyramid."
Elihu Yale responded by sending a gift of three bales of goods, 417 books, a portrait of King George I ("to remind them of their duties to the king," noted Schiff) and a set of royal arms, which was later destroyed during the American Revolution.
The bales of goods included 25 pieces of garlic (a kind of cloth), 18 pieces of calico, 17 pieces of worsted goods, 12 pieces of Spanish poplin, 5 pieces of plain muslin, and 2 pieces of black and white silk crepe.
"The black crepe was to make the tutors' robes," said Lorimer at the April 5 ceremony.
The sale of the textiles raised 562 English pounds for construction of the Collegiate School building, which was promptly renamed Yale College. "Although it may not seem like much today, Elihu Yale's gift was the largest received by Yale College for the next 100 years," said Lorimer.
The donated books were not sold, however, but kept for use by the college, noted Franklin in his remarks. "From the beginning, this institution has been an institution of books," he said. "It is interesting to note that the people who received these books, desperate though they were for money, never gave a thought to selling them." - [3]
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. - [4]
[1] - http://www.otal.umd.edu/~walt/gen/htmfile/2644.htm
[2] - http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/guides/halloffame/historical/elihu_yale.shtml
[3] - http://www.colonialwarsct.org/1717.htm
[4] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elihu_Yale
[5] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_College_Wrexham