Captain Thomas Yale (1616 – 1683) was an English military officer, merchant and magistrate. He was a puritan who emigrated from London to the New England Colonies aboard the Hector in 1637, and cofounded, with his stepfather, Governor Theophilus Eaton, the colony of New Haven. He was also a deputy to the Connecticut General Assembly and fought in King Philip's War.
His half-brother, Samuel Eaton, cofounded the Harvard Corporation, and his stepuncle, Nathaniel Eaton, became the first head of Harvard, and built Harvard Yard and Library. His nephew, Governor Elihu Yale, became an early benefactor and namesake of Yale College, while his former estate, situated in New Haven, became part of Yale's Old Campus.
Early life
Thomas Yale was born on May 6, 1616, in Chester, England, to Anne Lloyd and Thomas Yale of Lichfield, members of the Yale family.Dodd, A. H., (1959). YALE family, of Plâs yn Iâl and Plas Grono Wrexham. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 5 Mar 2024BLP History Monograph No 2 - Bishop Lloyd, Chester Civic Trust, Chester, England, 2019, p. 16 His family was part of the British nobility, as members of the landed gentry, and were a cadet branch of the royal House of Mathrafal, through the Princes of Powys Fadog, Lords of Yale.The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Biographical, The American Historical Society, New York, 1920, p. 51-52 His father was a London banker named Thomas Yale, and lived at the Plas Gronow estate in Wales, near Wrexham, now Erddig Hall.
The estate had been acquired by his grandfather, Chancellor David Yale, during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor, to whom his uncle, Chancellor Thomas Yale, was an Ambassador and Dean of the Arches. He was also the Chancellor to two heads of the Church of England, being Matthew Parker, Queen Anne Boleyn's chaplain, and Edmund Grindal, the past Bishop of London. His maternal grandfather was Lord Bishop George Lloyd, and lived at Bishop Lloyd's House and Bishopscourt, a residence that would become the summer home of the Earl of Derby, grandson of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.Bishopscourt, Historic Houses Association, Buckingham Palace Road, London, Accessed March 4, 2024 His great-grandfather, Judge John Lloyd, also cofounded the first Protestant college at the University of Oxford, along with Elizabeth Tudor, Lord William Cecil and Sir Nicholas Bacon.
During the 15th century, Yale's ancestors had led the last Welsh War of Independence as Prince of Wales, and lost to Henry V, also known by Shakespeare as Prince Hal. They became thereafter involved at court during the 16th century with the newly formed Church of England, founded by their cousins, the Tudors.What is a Second Cousin, Owain Glyndwr, brother of Tudur ap Gruffudd, grandfather of Ellis ap Griffith, founder of the House of Yale, "see House of Tudor#Patrilineal_descent, common ancestor with Sir Owen Tudor is Tomos ap Llewelyn, Tudur's grandfather and Owen's great-grandfatherWhat is a Second Cousin, Owain Glyndwr, brother of Tudur ap Gruffudd, grandfather of Ellis ap Griffith (Elissau ap Gruffudd), "see House of Tudor#Patrilineal_descent This new group of Protestants, known as the Puritans, would be persecuted by the policies of King Charles I of England during the 17th century, forcing the Yales and other Protestant families to emigrate to the New World, in search of religious freedom and economic opportunities.Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Puritanism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Nov. 2023, Accessed 10 March 2024.
Biography
With the death of his father in 1619, Yale's mother remarried around 1625 to a wealthy Puritan merchant and Oxford graduate, named Theophilus Eaton. Eaton was previously the Ambassador to King James I of England at the court of King Christian IV of Denmark, and made his wealth as Deputy Governor of the Eastland Company in Britain. The family initially lived at the Saltonstalls's home in London.Elihu Yale : The Nabob of Queen Square, Bingham, 1939, p. 2-3 Yale's stepfather was a friend and business partner of Sir Richard Saltonstall, nephew of the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Richard Saltonstall.Elihu Yale : The Nabob of Queen Square, Bingham, 1939, p. 2-3
Yale then became an apprentice to his stepfather in the Grocers Company in the City of London.(London Apprenticeship Abstracts and Records, 1442-1850, Grocer, Livery Company, 1636) During this time, Eaton started negotiations with a group of merchants, including Sir Richard Saltonstall, to obtain a royal charter for the colonization of Massachusetts.Bremer, Francis J. (2012). Building a New Jerusalem, Yale University Press, p. 75-76
They obtained the charter in 1628, and formed the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with Yale's stepfather elected as one the ten members to govern the colony by order of the King's Privy Council.The Rise and Fall of the New Haven Colony, Charles M. Andrews, Tercentenary Commission, Yale University Press, Connecticut, 1936, p. 8 As a result, Eaton became one the cofounders of the colony, including the city of Boston, and one of the bankers who financed the Puritan Migration to the Thirteen Colonies.Stories of old New Haven, Baldwin, Ernest Hickok, Abbey Press, New York, 1902, p. 16-19 He initially governed from England, having Gov. John Winthrop emigrate first to the colonies in 1630 aboard the Arbella, a ship that he co-owned, and lead the Winthrop Fleet.
In 1636, Harvard College would be created by a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with Eaton as one of its magistrates and financial managers from London.Harvard College Records, The Colledge Booke No. 3, Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Volume XV, Collections, Boston, 172-175, p. 6-10Records of the governor and company of the Massachusetts bay in New England, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Volume I, 1628-1641, William White Press, Boston, 1853, p. 60 A year later, in 1637, Yale embarked with his family and stepfamily aboard the ship Hector to the New World, which included his mother, stepfather, stepuncle Samuel Eaton Sr., along with his Yale siblings and Eaton half and stepsiblings. They were among the wealthiest families to emigrate to New England before 1660, and would become the wealthiest family in New Haven Colony.Thirteen Historical Discourses, on the Completion of Two Hundred Years, Leonard Bacon, Durrie & Peck, New York, 1839, p. 90-93-357Leading Business Men of New Haven County, William Hale Beckford, Mercantile Publishing Company, 1887, p. 11
They arrived in Boston in 1637, and resettled in New Haven around 1638. They acquired the land from the Quinnipiack's Indians, renaming it New Haven Colony, and established a theocracy, where every member of the government had to be jointly a member of the Puritan church. Yale signed with his stepuncle Samuel Eaton Sr., and stepfather Theophilus Eaton, the Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony on June 4, 1639, with his stepfather elected as 1st Governor of the Colony.Hoadly, Charles J, MA. (editor) Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, From 1638 to 1649 (Hartford: Case, Tiffany and Company, 1857), p. 17-21 New Haven Colony was the second settlement on Long Island Sound, preceded by Saybrook Colony, and the third in Connecticut.New Haven Town Plan, The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, Accessed March 7, 2024 The colony grew with outposts in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, including the town of Greenwich, which Gov. Eaton cofounded with agent Robert Feake.Lambert, Edward R. (1838). History of the colony of New Haven, Before and after the Union, The Original Six, Hitchcock & Stafford, p. 54-55
Yale's mother Anne Yale, and stepfather Gov. Eaton, built an English manor for the family, with over 20 fireplaces, and was among the largest in New England at the time.Bremer, Francis J., 'Everyday Life in Mr. Davenport's Town', Building a New Jerusalem (New Haven, CT, 2012; online edn, Yale Scholarship Online, 31 Oct. 2013), Accessed 10 Mar. 2024. The structure would later be demolished and become the home of Eli Whitney, patriarch of the Whitney family, during the Industrial Revolution.New Haven Architecture, Selections from the Historic American Buildings Survey, No. 9, National Park Service, Washington, D. C., June 1970, p. 60 Their religious leader in New Haven was Puritan minister John Davenport of London. He came from a prominent family; his brother, Francis Davenport, was the royal chaplain of Queen Henrietta Maria, aunt of Louis XIV of Versailles.Goodrich J., Suspicious Moderate: The Life and Writings of Francis à Sancta Clara (1598–1680). Anne Ashley Davenport. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017. xv + 668 pp. $75. Renaissance Quarterly. 2018;71(3):1150-1151. doi:10.1086/700501 The colony grew for its first decade, with territories added such as Milford, Guilford, Branford, Stamford and Southold, New York, on Long Island Sound, next to the Hamptons. They developed the fur industry and other ventures, including the Delaware Company, competing against the Dutch of New Netherland.Holland on the Hudson: An Economic and Social History of Dutch New York By Oliver A. Rink, 1989
Later life
In 1637, Yale's stepuncle, Nathaniel Eaton, was appointed the first head of Harvard, and after selecting the site, began the construction of the first Harvard College in 1638.Bail, Hamilton Vaughan. 1947.Views of Harvard to 1860: An iconographic study - Part I. Harvard Library Bulletin I (1), Winter 1947: 11-28, p. 15-20 He was awarded 500 acres of land in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in relation to his office, and was a friend of John Harvard, whom he met at Cambridge University in England. Eaton is credited for establishing the first printing press in British America under his tenure, and for the foundation of the Harvard Yard and Harvard Library in 1638.Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, Vol. V, George Thomas Kurian, Rowman & Littlefield, London, p. 748Harvard’s First Impressions, Corydon Ireland, Harvard Gazette, March 8, 2012The Illinois Teacher: Devoted to Education, Science and Free Schools, Volume 11, N. C. Nason, 1865, p. 293 Yale's aunt, Eaton's wife, was running the housekeeping department of the college.Morison, Samuel Eliot. “The Harvard Presidency.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 4, 1958, pp. 435–46. JSTOR, Accessed 7 Mar. 2024., p. 436 While initially Harvard's first teacher, Eaton and his wife would be both dismissed in 1639 for bad behaviors, including beating his assistant teacher and serving bad food.Burton, John Daniel,"Puritan town and gown: Harvard College and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1636--1800." (1996). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1593092095, p. 122-210 He left the country, and ended up in debtor's prison at Southwark, London, John Harvard's birthplace.Three centuries of Harvard, 1636-1936, Morison, Samuel Eliot, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1936, p. 7-12The New Imperial Encyclopedia and Dictionary, Richard Gleason Greene, Pacific Newspaper Union, San Francisco, 1906, p. 180-181