John Yale

Reverend John Yale (c. 1736–1800) was a British cleric and Rector of Lawford in Essex. He was made Steward and Chaplain of Horningsea in the city of Cambridge, and later, became Deacon and Fellow of the University of Cambridge. Notably, he was the heir to the Plas-yn-Yale estate in Wales of the Yale family, which was succeeded by his sister Sarah Yale, last of the direct male line. After her death, her cousin Lt. Col. William Parry Yale succeeded to the estate.

Early life London Manor of Rev. Yale's cousin, Elihu Yale, on Queen Square, probably painted by artist Michael Dahl Bostock Hall, property of Rev. Yale's family through Lancelot Bostock, father of Dorethy Bostock

Rev. John Yale was the son of Reverend John Yale Sr. of Plas-yn-Yale, who succeeded in the male line to the Yale family's ancestral estate. Rev. Yale Sr. was the great-grandson of Capt. Thomas Yale, son of Thomas Yale, who married Dorethy Bostock of Bostock Hall. Thomas Yale was the grandson of John Wynn Yale of Plas-yn-Yale, brother of Chancellor David Yale, and a grandnephew of Dr. Thomas Yale (d. 1577), who served his distant cousin, Queen Elizabeth Tudor, as an ambassador and Chancellor to the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England. His father-in-law was Hugh Hughes of Gwerclas, Baron of Cymmer-yn-Edeirnion and High Sheriff of Merioneth, who was from the other cadet branch of the Royal House of Mathrafal, acting as royal co-representatives with the Yales.

Career

Rev. Yale was born in Wrexham, Wales, and bred at Ruthin, Denbighshire. It is possible that he was the John Yale that was made Rector of Llandegla in 1760, but more likely, it was his cousin John Yale, a graduate of Jesus College at the University of Oxford. He admitted Robert Eyton, son of merchant Thomas Eyton, to Cambridge University, along with Ambrose Thelwall Lewis.

On 26 October 1779 he was presented to the rectory of Lawford in Essex by Cambridge University, and was appointed its Rector on 5 November, an office he held until his death.

Death

Yale died unmarried on 26 April 1800. His brother was an apothecary and surgeon on Catherine Street, in the City of Westminster, London.

Following Rev. Yale's death, proprietor of Plas-yn-Yale, his sister Sarah Yale became the successor to the estate, and the last of the direct male line of this branch of the Yale family.

She died without children, and as a heraldic heiress, had the Plas-yn-Yale estate and coat of arms entailed in her will to her cousin, Lt. Col. William Parry-Jones, brother of Gen. Loves Jones-Parry, making him the new head and heir general of the House of Yale, and exchanged by Royal licence 1867, his name and arms for those of Yale, becoming Lt. Col. William Parry Yale.

Col. Yale's successor was his nephew, Oxford barrister William Corbet Yale of Madryn Castle, father of Col. James Corbet Yale of Widcombe Manor, grandfather of Lt. Col. John Corbet Yale, and great-grandfather of Queen's Counsel David Yale (d. 2021).