Captain Thomas Yale

Tudor Manor of Capt Yale's family in New Haven Colony, c. 1640

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 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. His father was a London banker named Thomas Yale, and lived at the Plas Gronow estate in Wales, near Wrexham, now Erddig Hall. 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. 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. Yale's stepfather was a friend and business partner of Sir Richard Saltonstall, nephew of the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Richard Saltonstall.

Yale then became an apprentice to his stepfather in the Grocers Company in the City of London. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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 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. New Haven Colony was the second settlement on Long Island Sound, preceded by Saybrook Colony, and the third in Connecticut. 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.

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. The structure would later be demolished and become the home of Eli Whitney, patriarch of the Whitney family, during the Industrial Revolution. 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. 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.

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. 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.

In 1643, the Eaton/Yale family estates in New Haven, excluding those of both families in Britain, were valued for taxation around £4,200, or about 300 million dollars in 2024 money in relation to GDP. In 1650, Yale's half-brother, magistrate Samuel Eaton, became one of the seven founders of the Harvard Corporation, and became one of its board directors and teachers.

After the death Gov. Theophilus Eaton in 1658, Yale went back to England with his mother, half-sister Hannah Eaton, his son Elihu, and brother David. He returned in 1659 to New Haven Colony. His brother David stayed in Cripplegate, in the City of London, and owned a merchant's counting house there until the Great Plague. He then acquired land in North Haven and settled there around 1660. Capt. Yale died on March 17, 1683, in Connecticut Colony, at 63 years old.

Family The first Yale College house, c. 1742, by artist John Greenwood

Yale's brother-in-law, Gov. Edward Hopkins, became the 2nd Governor of Connecticut, and served Oliver Cromwell in England as a Member of parliament and Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty.

Hopkins gave a part of his fortune to Harvard, and founded Hopkins Grammar School. The latter would have as one of its early students, Abraham Pierson, first head of Yale College and one of its cofounders. Another of Yale's brother-in-law was William Jones, Deputy Governor of Connecticut and Magistrate of the United Colonies.

Yale's stepsister married Judge Valentine Hill, a merchant and real estate developer, associate of Deputy Gov. William Aspinwall, who was involved in the Antinomian Controversy, and succeeded to Sir Henry Vane in his office. Yale's half brother, Samuel Eaton, cofounder of the Harvard Corporation, married the widow of Gov. John Haynes, 1st Governor of Connecticut.

Yale's nephew, David Yale, became a wealthy Boston merchant and attorney to Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, brother of the Gov. of Windsor Castle, the Earl of Holland. Her nephew was Gov. William Stoughton, chief judge of the Salem Witch Trials, and patron of the 1st Stoughton Hall at Harvard. Her sister-in-law, Mary Hubbard, was the sister of Rev. William Hubbard, who graduated from the first class of Harvard, and the grandaunt of Mary Whittingham, who married Gov. Saltonstall, and Elizabeth, who married Col. Appleton Jr., son of Col. Appleton Sr., member of the Appleton family.

David Yale lived on Scollay Square, at the past home of Gov. John Endecott, and became the father of Gov. Elihu Yale, early benefactor and namesake of Yale College. Harvard reverend, Cotton Mather, had been asking him for donations, at the time, an art collector and member of the Royal Society with Isaac Newton. His other nephew, Thomas Yale, became Ambassador to Narai the Great, King of Siam, representing the British East India Company during the Anglo-Siamese War, led by his brother Elihu.

Marriage

Thomas Yale married to Mary Turner, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Turner, who died at sea as captain of the Phantom Ship in 1646. The ship, built for ocean travel, never reached its destination, and sank in the Atlantic, along with its passengers and cargo of wheat, peas, hides, beaver, pelts and manuscripts. Yale's daughter, Hannah Yale, married Lt. Emos Talmadge, and became the grandmother of Abraham Hemingway, ancestor of writer Ernest Hemingway.

As the American patriarch of the Yale family, early notable descendants of Capt. Thomas Yale included : Capt. Theophilus Yale, Capt. Elihu Yale, Rev. Elisha Yale, manufacturer Burrage Yale, merchant William Yale, abolitionist Barnabas Yale, Rev. Cyrus Yale, abolitionist Levi Yale, inventor Linus Yale Sr., fur merchant James Murray Yale, newspaper entrepreneur Moses Yale Beach, and many others.