Did you know that the man after whom the Yale University in the U.S. is named, Elihu Yale, was the name responsible for giving all streets of Madras a name?
Prior to this, there were no names at all. Historian V. Sriram, while delivering a talk on “Madras Money for Yale University” said, “He insisted that all the streets of Madras be given names because when there is a war and you need to station the army at various places, same place will be referred to by multiple people in multiple names and imagine the confusion that it would create.”
It was during his tenure that the Corporation of the City too was set up. It was the oldest corporation of the British Empire in 1688 and when the charter came, it was met with a procession with dancers performing, musicians singing and a lot of celebration and Nathaniel Higginson was the first Mayor of Madras, he added.
“Madras had the tallest flagstaff in the whole of India measuring up to a 148 feet as well. Yale gave instructions that a mast that floated off from a shipwreck in 1688 be brought to Fort St. George and be used for hoisting the flag and it remained the flagstaff till 1996,” he said.
Yale, who came to Madras in 1672, rose rapidly, from joining as a writer in East India Company to finally becoming the Governor itself but also earned money slyly through various means, Mr. Sriram said. Much later, he helped in founding Yale University.
“Yale’s legacy was about £10-15 million in current value. That was the money he could make in Madras on a salary that never exceeded £100,” he said.
