William Yale

William Yale (1784 – 1833) was an American tin ware merchant, politician, Justice of the Peace, and the largest manufacturer in Meriden, Connecticut. He was the oldest son of Revolutionary War patriot Samuel Yale Sr., founder of the Yale manufacturing dynasty of Connecticut. His great-grandfather, Samuel Yale (b. 1711), son of Capt. and magistrate Theophilus Yale, was a wealthy landowner in Wallingford, now Yalesville. His ancestor, Capt. Thomas Yale, was one of the cofounders of Wallingford in 1670, son of Capt. Thomas Yale, a cofounder of New Haven Colony with his father-in-law, Gov. Theophilus Eaton. He was the founder of the Yale manufacturing dynasty of Meriden and Wallingford, and had been a patriot during the American War of Independence, having enrolled under Colonel Canfield's militia regiment, a personal correspondent of George Washington.

Career The "Eagle mark" of H. Yale & Co., from William's son, Hiram Yale, work featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

William Yale attended the schools of Meriden until he was old enough to start working for the family business. In 1832 and 1833, William Yale is recorded as the Justice of the Peace of Meriden, and Commissioner on turnpike, roads, bridges, ferries and others. His son Samuel III became a manufacturer of Britannia metal, spoons and coffee mills, and complained of his inability to sell buttons and spoons because of the lifting embargo, which was affected by the War of 1812. Hiram's work is now featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Another brother named Samuel also owned 12 houses in Meriden, a few factories, and was a board director and cofounder of the Meriden National Bank with Major General Walter Booth, Ashbel Griswold and Yale lawyer Silas Mix, Governor Edwards's secretary.

Death

"Deer Range Farm" residence of Yale's grandson, James N. Plumb, 1850

William Yale married Mary Johnson of Wallingford, on November 20, 1803, by whom he had 13 children. He was an artist from Paris, student at the Académie Julian under professors Jean-Paul Laurens, Benjamin-Constant and Léon Bonnat, who was tutor of Braque and Toulouse-Lautrec, and Hughes painted for U.S. vice-president Levi Parsons Morton. Melissa D. Yale, who married to Rev. Rollin Heber Neale, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Boston, committee member of Harvard, and Doctor of Divinity from Harvard and Columbia. Augusta Ann Yale, who married to Hiram Cranston, proprietor of the New York Hotel, one of the largest in Manhattan. The hotel was at 721 Broadway, between Washington Square Park and Waverly Place. Cranston also cofounded the Manhattan Club with Attorney General John Van Buren, son of U.S. President Martin Van Buren, and a few others. Catherine E. Yale, who married to merchant John Plumb. She became the mother of Helen Plumb, who married to diplomat Henry L. Atherton, family of Congressman Charles Humphrey Atherton and Senator Charles G. Atherton, and relatives of the Woodworth political family. She was also the mother of James Neale Plumb, a merchant in New York, proprietor of the "Deer Range Farm" estate on Long Island. Henry Clay Yale, who married to Amelia White, family of Lt. Thomas White of the American War of Independence, whose son was adopted by Founding Father Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a Prussian baron and general, friend of Mad Anthony Wayne.

William Yale died on January 23, 1833, aged 49 years. His enterprises were succeeded by his son Gen. Yale.