Elihu Yale

 

 

Elihu Yale (5 April 1649 – 8 July 1721) was a British-American colonial administrator and philanthropist. He served as President of the British East India Company settlement in Fort St. George, at Madras. He is best remembered as the primary benefactor of Yale College (now Yale University), which was named in his honor. His fortune, as of 1699, amounted to £200,000.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, to David Yale (1613–1690), a wealthy Boston merchant and attorney to Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, and Ursula Knight, he was the grandson of Ann Lloyd (1591–1659), daughter of George Lloyd, Bishop of Chester, who after the death of her first husband, Thomas Yale Sr. (1587–1619), in England, married Governor Theophilus Eaton (1590–1658). Governor Eaton was the brother of Nathaniel Eaton, Harvard's first Headmaster and President designate, at the founding of Harvard in 1636, and father of Samuel Eaton, one of the seven founders of the Harvard Corporation, the charter that incorporated Harvard in 1650. It was them, along with his uncle Thomas Yale Jr. and aunt Anne Yale Jr., that brought the Yale/Eaton family to America. Elihu's grandfather, Thomas Yale Sr., was a wealthy London merchant and son of Dr. David Yale of Erddig Park, Chancellor of Chester. His uncle was Thomas Yale, Chancellor of the head of the Church of England for Queen Elizabeth I^[2] and was also a grandson of John Lloyd, Judge of the High Court of Admiralty and one of the founders, along with Queen Elizabeth Tudor, of the first Protestant College of the University of Oxford.

The ancestry of the Yales can be traced back from Chancellor Thomas Yale, born 1525, to many noble houses of Wales as descendants of the Royal House of Mathrafal, the Royal House of Aberffraw, the Tudors of Penmynydd, and many others. For the House of Mathrafal, it was through Tudur ap Gruffudd, Lord of Gwyddelwern and brother of the last native Prince of Wales, Owen Glendower, while for the House of Aberffraw and the Tudors of Penmynydd (the parent house of the House of Tudor), it was through Elen Ferch Tomos, the mother of Owen. From these families they inherited Lordships and estates.   Wikipedia