Elihu Yale
Portrait from Circa 1701:
Printed Portraits from the Time of Elihu Yale
through April 1, 2001 at Yale
University
YALE, Elihu, philanthropist,
born in or near Boston, Massachusetts, 5 April, 1649; died in England, 8 July,
1721. His father, David, came to New Haven from England in 1638, but returned in
1651, and was followed in 1652 by his family, including Elihu, who never
revisited this country. The son went to the East Indies about 1678, and in
1687-'92 was governor of Fort St. George, Madras. Gov. Yale acquired great
wealth in India. On 22 May, 1711, Jeremiah Dummer wrote from London to Governor
John Pierpont, then a trustee of the Collegiate school of Connecticut:
" Here is Mr. Yale, formerly governor of Fort George in the Indies,
who has got a prodigious estate, and, having no son, now sends for a relation of
his from Connecticut to make him his heir. He told me lately that he intended to
bestow a charity upon some college in Oxford under certain restrictions which he
mentioned. But I think he should much rather do it to your college, seeing he is
a New England and, I think, a Connecticut man. If, therefore, when his kinsman
comes over, you will write him a proper letter on that subject, I will take care
to press it home."
The result was that between 1714 and 1721 Governor Yale gave to the
Collegiate school books and money whose total value was estimated at £800. The
timeliness of these gifts, rather than their intrinsic value, made them a great
aid to the struggling college, and in 1718, after its removal from Saybrook to
New Haven, its trustees named the new collegiate building in the latter place
Yale college.
This name, applied at first only to the edifice, was given formally to the
institution in the charter of 1745. President Thomas Clap says that Yale
"... was a gentleman who greatly abounded in good humor and
generosity, as well as in wealth."
He is buried in Wrexham, Wales, the ancient seat of his family. On his tomb
is engraved an epitaph which contains the well-known couplet: "
Born in America, in Europe bred, in Africa traveled, and in Asia
wed."
A full-length portrait of Governor Yale hangs in Alumni hall, Yale college.
The accompanying illustration represents the completed corner of the quadrangle
of buildings that is to enclose the college grounds. The original "Yale
college" is not now standing, the oldest building on the grounds having
been erected in 1752. -- Edited Appletons Encyclopedia,
by Louis K. - Upper St. Clair High
School, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM
