Yale then became an apprentice to his stepfather in the Grocers Company in the City of London.[19] 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.[20]
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.[21] 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.[22][16] 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.[15]
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.[23][24] 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.[25] They were among the wealthiest families to emigrate to New England before 1660, and would become the wealthiest family in New Haven Colony.[26][27]
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.[41][29] In the same year, Yale's stepfather and his brother-in-law, Gov. Edward Hopkins, formed the New England Confederation, a military alliance with other colonies against the attacks of Indians and Dutch from New York, named New Amsterdam at the time.[21] On July 1, 1644, Yale took the Oath of fidelity with his wife, and were both assigned places in New Haven's meeting house. Yale then became attorney to Dr. Thomas Pell, the Lord of Pelham, New York, and brother of pioneer mathematician John Pell, colleague of René Descartes.[42] 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.[15][43][44][45]
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.[4] In the same year, Yale received letters from his sister Hannah in England, from Hoghton Tower, the seat of her friend, Sir Richard Hoghton, making him her attorney.[46] He then acquired land in North Haven and settled there around 1660.[5][25] In April 1660, he was called upon with other men to settle the boundaries of a parcel of land bordering Connecticut, and in 1667, was involved in a land dispute with his brother-in-law, William Jones, later Deputy Governor of Connecticut.[47] Yale and some others were assigned from 1665 to 1666 to collect the country rate for Connecticut.[48]
In September 1667, September 1668 and September 1675, Yale and others were appointed to take the list of men's estates, which would be used by the town to assess the taxes rates.[48] Yale became one of the principal men of the colony, and served as deputy to the Connecticut General Assembly, and as an alternate deputy in 1664.[48][7] He also served in King Philip's War as a captain in the militia, defending the colony against the attacks of the Indians, which lasted from 1675 to 1678.[49] Capt. Yale died on March 17, 1683, in Connecticut Colony, at 63 years old.[25] His estate would later be part of the grounds of Yale College, on which the Old Campus was erected, and would later include a parcel owned by Benjamin Franklin.[25][50]
Thomas Yale married to Mary Turner, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Turner, who died at sea as captain of the Phantom Ship in 1646.[4][25] His stepfather, Gov. Eaton, had commissioned the ship with merchant Thomas Gregston, and Deputy Gov. Stephen Goodyear, patriarch of the Goodyear family.[65] 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.[65] A second ship would be built in 1646, and a third in 1648.[65]
The couple had 9 children, of which Yale's daughter, Abigail Yale, married Maj. Moses James Mansfield, judge and namesake of Mansfield, Connecticut.[4] Yale's daughter, Mary Yale, married Capt. Joseph Ives, one of the founders of Wallingford, Connecticut, and became the ancestor of Capt. Job Yale, who served in the 10th Regiment of the Connecticut Line during the American War of Independence.[66][5][4] Yale's daughter, Elizabeth Yale, married Joseph Pardee, and were the parents of Lt. John Pardee.[4] His son, Capt. Thomas Yale, cofounded Wallingford, Connecticut.
Yale's son, Nathaniel Yale, married Ruth Bishop, daughter of Deputy Gov. James Bishop.[4] Nathaniel was also the son-in-law of Lt. John Peck, son of Deacon William Peck, trustee of Hopkins School, and became the ancestor of Maj. Gen. Hezekiah Barnes of the Revolutionary War.[4][67] Yale's daughter, Hannah Yale, married Lt. Emos Talmadge, and became the grandmother of Abraham Hemingway, ancestor of writer Ernest Hemingway.[68][69][70]
^ abcdMorison, Samuel Eliot. “The Harvard Presidency.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 4, 1958, pp. 435–46. JSTOR, Accessed 7 Mar. 2024., p. 436
^Dexter, Francis Bowditch. Ancient Town Records, Vol. I, New Haven Town Records 1649-1662, New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1917, p. 118-218-225-254
^The American Genealogist vol. 88 no. 3 (July 2016). A Waggon Load of Eatons: The Great Budworth, Cheshire, Ancestry of Theophilus1 Eaton, Nathaniel1 Eaton, and Frances1 Low (Eaton) of New England (continued, part 3), by Scott G. Swanson, p. 222-235
^ abcDexter, Francis Bowditch. Ancient Town Records, Vol. II, New Haven Town Records 1649-1662, New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1919, p. 89-207-238-303-340
^Jacobus, Donald Lines. Families of Ancient New Haven, Vol. I, printed by Clarence D Smith, 1923, p 241
^Holden, Reuben A. (1967). Yale: A Pictorial History. New Haven: Yale University Press, Part II, p. 58 of 236