Elihu Yale (5 April 1649 – 8 July 1721) was a British colonial administrator. Born in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Yale lived in America only as a child, and spent the rest of his life in England, Wales, and India. He became a clerk for the East India Company at Fort St. George, later Madras, and eventually rose to the Presidency of the settlement. He was later removed from the post under charges of corruption for self-dealing, and required to pay a fine. In 1699, he returned to Britain with a considerable fortune, around £200,000 (equivalent to £32.2 million in 2025), mostly made by selling diamonds, and spent his time and wealth in philanthropy and art collecting.
He was the primary benefactor of Yale College, now Yale University, which was named in his honor, following a donation of books, portraits, and textiles at the request of Rev. Cotton Mather, a Harvard University graduate. He had no male heir, and no descendants of his have survived past his grandchildren. In the 21st century, Yale's connections to slavery in India began to be more closely explored, a process assisted by the digitalisation and online publication of the East India Company's records. In 2020, Peter Salovey, president of Yale University, launched the Yale and Slavery Research Project to explore the university's historical links with slavery and colonialism, including Elihu Yale's role.
Yale was 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 Anne Yale (born Lloyd), daughter of Bishop George Lloyd. After the death of her first husband, Thomas Yale Sr. (1587–1619), son of Chancellor David Yale, Anne Yale married Theophilus Eaton, ambassador to Denmark. Eaton was the co-founder of two of the Thirteen British Colonies, which are represented on the Flag of the United States, mainly through the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the New Haven Colony, and was the brother of Nathaniel Eaton, Harvard's first Headmaster and President designate, at the founding of Harvard in 1636.
His son, Samuel Eaton, the uncle of Elihu, was also involved in the foundation of Harvard, being one of the seven founder members of the Harvard Corporation, the governing board and charter that incorporated the college in 1650. It was they, along with Elihu's uncle and aunt, Thomas Yale Jr., and Anne Yale Jr., who brought the reconstituted Eaton/Yale family to America, while other members of the family stayed in England. Their estates in Wales were Plas-yn-Yale and Plas Grono, and Elihu's brother was London merchant Thomas Yale, later ambassador to the King of Siam for the East India Company.
Elihu's father, David Yale, would later come from London to New Haven Colony with his stepfather, Theophilus Eaton, in 1639. He moved to Boston in 1641 and met and married Elihu Yale's mother, Ursula, in 1643. In 1652, at the age of three, Elihu Yale left New England, as David Yale took his family back to London. While documentation of this period is sparse, a letter suggests that David Yale remained a successful merchant and settled his family in the Hanseatic merchant district "Steelyard Court". In 1662, at the age of thirteen, Elihu Yale entered the private school of William Dugard, but Dugard died a few months after Elihu Yale enrolled. Yale likely lived through the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London.
In 1670, Yale joined the British East India Company, starting as a clerk at East India House in London. Among the board was the Earl of Berkeley, Sir Samuel Barnardiston, Vice-Admiral John Robinson, and Chairman Sir Andrew Riccard. Yale's uncle, Connecticut Gov. Edward Hopkins, was also one of the shareholders. It is possible that Yale had business training in his father's merchant counting house beforehand. He then sailed to India in December 1671 on one of the East Indiamen, on a voyage that would take six months, with the eminent dangers of pirates, storms and diseases.
He landed in Madras on 23 June 1672, at Fort St. George, where Portuguese, English and Hindu lived. He then learned the rules of Gov. William Langhorne, some of which being the interdiction to start a duel, to desert the fort, or to blaspheme, and met with Father Ephrem de Nevers. At the time, the East India Company was already exporting to Europe spices, pepper, precious stones, Chinese porcelains, Japanese screens, and cotton cloth. In 1674, Yale was sent to negotiate the potential establishment of a new factory, and by February, was allowed to deal in private trade, which included pearls, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, neckcloths, cloves and nutmegs. By 1677, Gov. Langhorne was accused of corruption by competitors within the Company. The directors were always suspicious, and with huge fortune being made six months away from London, they easily mistrust their employees.
He was then replaced by Gov. Streynsham Master, the son-in-law of Richard Legh of Lyme Hall. In April 1678, Yale was promoted to the rank of Factor, doubling his salary. In June arrived the Welsh chaplain John Evans, future Bishop of Meath, who would become a lifelong friend. In 1679, Yale's duties now involved receiving and invoicing textiles worth about 100,000 pagodas, consisting of neckcloths, chintz, and longcloth of various grades. With the death of Joseph Hynmers, second-in-command, Yale was made Assistant to the Warehouse Keeper, and started courting his widow. They married at St. Mary's Church, the oldest Anglican Church in India, on 4 November 1680, with Sir Henry Oxenden, Governor of Bombay, as brideman. With his wife's capital, Yale learned the trade and became a specialist in diamonds and precious stones.
In January 1681, he was promoted to the office of Provisional Customer. In the same year, Gov. Streynsham Master was replaced by William Gyfford, and Yale was sent as a diplomat to meet the VOC Governor of Pulicat. Despite Master's loyalty, the directors once again believed the charges of bad management, fueled by enemies, who brought complaints after complaints to the board in London. According to Madras historian Arthur Pringle, the official records are full of invented circumstantial charges of injustice and fraud. Yale was then promoted to the office of Mintmaster, and was given a seat on the council, occupying the fifth position on a board of six, as the directors were "pleased with Elihu's behavior and ability". In 1682, he was sent to Porto Novo on the Coromandel Coast to find investment opportunities for the sale of longcloth. During his mission, a great storm struck the coast, and 14,000 persons died. He made assessments of harbor facilities and fortifications, and was welcomed with coconuts as gifts of diplomacy.
Yale then negotiated with Sikandar Shah, the Sultan of Bijapur, and obtained permission for the gold trade in his territory. In 1683, as a member of Gov. Gyfford's council, he became a cofounder of the Madras Bank, the oldest in India. On 12 February, the second-in-command was dismissed for his "language that was too independent and not sufficiently subservient in his letters". The Councilmen rose in rank, with Yale becoming Warehouse Keeper. When Gov. Gyfford was sent to inspect factories in the Bay of Bengal, Yale became acting governor for a few months, and procured three elephants from King Narai of Siam, to be sent to the Sultan of Gingee as war elephants. In peace time, they were used with a Howdah as status symbols, while at war, they were the prototypes of the modern tank. Yale then obtained a house and garden at St. Thomas Mount for the sickly and their convalesce. Thereafter, he received 3 princes from Sumatra, Indonesia, bringing a letter from Sultanah Inayat Syah, Queen of Acheen, resulting in a trade agreement. About this time, King Charles II of England died, with James II ascending to the throne. The change was well welcomed by the company, as the chairman, Sir Josiah Child, had spent a fortune on James's ascension. Yale then organized the official ceremony at Fort St. George, with Gov. Gyfford resuming his office, and received the ambassadors of Persia and Siam.