Elihu Yale's Grave

Grid reference: SJ335501
Co-ordinates: 333505, 350125
Bearing: NE

Elihu Yale (1649 - 1721) was not born in Wrexham, but in Boston, Massach...Masacchh...America. He didn't even die in Wrexham, and he's buried here simply because of a claim that his family hailed from nearby Llandegla.

He was by all accounts a crook, a fraudster and a thug. An official of the British East India Company, he nonetheless amassed a considerable personal fortune through secret contracts with merchants in Chennai, and through using the company's money for his own personal comfort. He was a tax gouger who also put down the riots which his policies caused with ruthless brutality.

Yale used some of this money to benefit the expansion of the Collegiate School of Connecticut. In gratitude, the governors of the school changed its name to his.

George W. Bush is a graduate of Yale University. Just sayin'.

Grid reference: SJ335501
Co-ordinates: 333505, 350125
Bearing: SE

The grave inscription.

© Nigel Stapley