Elihu Yale

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Elihu Yale

Elihu Yale (born April 5, 1649 in Boston , Massachusetts Bay Colony , † July 8, 1721 in London ) was a merchant of Welsh descent, governor of the British East India Company in Madras and sponsor of the Yale College named after him, which later became Yale University emerged .

Life

Elihu Yale returned to England with his family in 1651 , grew up in London and went to school there. In 1670 he moved to Madras (India, now Chennai ) and worked there in the East India Company , where he quickly became successful. In 1687 he became governor of Madras, but also remained active as a businessman, which made him rich quickly. In 1680 Yale married the widow Catherine Hynmers in St. Mary's Church in Chennai, India. It was the first wedding in St. Mary's Church, which was consecrated on October 28th.

In 1692 Yale resigned as governor due to a scandal. In 1699 he returned to England and became governor of the East India Company.

donation

Between 1714 and 1721, at the request of Cotton Mather , Elihu Yale donated 560 pounds sterling to the Collegiate School in Old Saybrook , Connecticut , which corresponded to the sale of 9 bales of goods (an enormous sum for the time) and 417 books, including school furnishings and a painting by British King George I.

In 1716 the college moved to New Haven , Connecticut and was renamed Yale College two years later in honor of Elihu Yale.

Elihu Yale died in London on July 8, 1721, 22 years after his return to the British Isles. He is buried in the cemetery at Wrexham in North Wales.

In 1887 Yale College was officially renamed "Yale University".

Controversy

In his functions as governor and businessman he enriched himself by participating in the slave trade . Among other things, he advocated a regulation called ten-slaves-per-vessel, according to which at least ten slaves should be carried out on every European ship from the colony. He also tracked all traders who did business in Southeast Asia and had not been licensed by the East India Company.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "The Hindu", dated August 21, 2012 Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 4, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Elihu Yale was a slave trader | Digital Histories at Yale. November 8, 2014, accessed July 1, 2020 . 

literature

• Joseph Hirst Lupton:  Yale, Elihu . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 63:  Wordsworth - Zuylestein. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1900, p. 282 (English).