Yale, Elihu (1649–1721)

American merchant and benefactor. Yale College is named after him. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he went with his father to London, England, in 1652 and became an agent in the East India Company (1671–99). He served in India and was accused of profiting at the expense of the company in 1692 but was recalled in 1699. At the request of the silversmith Jeremiah Dummer and the theologian Cotton Mather, he gave books and other articles (1714, 1718) to the Collegiate School at Saybrook, Connecticut, which was renamed Yale College in 1718.