Thomas Yale (1525/6 – 1577) was the Chancellor and Vicar general of the Head of the Church of England : Matthew Parker, 1st Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London. He was also Ambassador to his distant cousin, Queen Elizabeth Tudor, and Dean of the Arches at the Court of High Commission, during the Elizabethan Religious Settlement.

As Dean of the Arches, he was the most senior judge of the Church of England from 1567 to 1573. After Archbishop Grindal's suspension in 1577, the Queen gave him command of the Province of Canterbury, governing two-thirds of the ecclesiastical territories of England, and the entirety of Wales, during the Elizabethan Age.

Early life Thomas Yale was born in 1525 or 1526 to David Lloyd ap Ellis of Plas-yn-Yale, a member of the House of Yale. His grandfather, Ellis ap Griffith, founder of the House of Yale, was the Baron of Gwyddelwern, and a member of the Royal House of Mathrafal.The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Biographical, The American Historical Society, New York, 1920, p. 51-52 This Ellis was a cousin of the Tudors, and a grandson of Lord Tudor Glendower, brother of Owen Glendower, last native Prince of Wales, and character in Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1. Tudor Glendower was first cousin of Sir Owen Tudor, and Ellis was third cousin of Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth I, as seen in their genealogies.What is a Second Cousin, Owain Glyndwr, brother of Tudur ap Gruffudd, grandfather of Ellis ap Griffith (Elissau ap Gruffudd), founder of the House of Yale, "see House of Tudor#Patrilineal descent, common ancestor with Sir Owen Tudor is Tomos ap Llewelyn, Tudur's grandfather and Owen's great-grandfatherWhat is a Second Cousin, Owain Glyndwr, brother of Tudur ap Gruffudd, grandfather of Ellis ap Griffith (Elissau ap Gruffudd), "see House of Tudor#Patrilineal_descent

Thomas Yale's great-uncle, Gruffydd Vaughan, was the Governor and proprietor of Cilgerran Castle in Wales, and a relative of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke of Raglan Castle.Old Pembroke families in the ancient county palatine of Pembroke, Henry Owen, London, 1902, p. 54-55 Gruffydd was granted the castle for having hidden his cousin Jasper Tudor during the War of the Roses, before Henry Tudor's ascension as the first Tudor monarch at Bosworth. Jasper was Thomas Yale's third cousin, along with his brother, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, father of the first Tudor monarch, and half-brothers of King Henry VI of the House of Lancaster.What is a Second Cousin, Owain Glyndwr, brother of Tudur ap Gruffudd, grandfather of Ellis ap Griffith (Elissau ap Gruffudd), "see House of Tudor#Patrilineal_descent, common ancestor with Jasper Tudor is Tomos ap Llewelyn

Thomas had two brothers, one named Roger, the other named John. Roger Lloyd Yale of Brynglas was Secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, along with Thomas Cromwell, and was married to Katherine, a daughter of William ap Griffith Vychan, Baron of Edeirnion and Lord of Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion., World History Encyclopedia'Henry VIII: April 1529, 21-25', in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 4, 1524-1530, ed. J S Brewer (London, 1875), pp. 2414-2427. British History Online, [accessed 24 April 2023].Strype, Life of Parker, ii. 186 Wolsey was Henry VIII's chief minister and Lord Chancellor during the English Reformation, as well as the owner of Hampton Court Palace.

His other brother, John Wynn (Yale), the ancestor of the House of Yale (Yale family) of America and Wales, was the father of Dr. David Yale of Erddig Park, Chancellor of Chester, who married Frances Lloyd, daughter of Admiralty Judge John Lloyd, who cofounded with Queen Elizabeth the first Protestant college at Oxford. His wife Elizabeth was a granddaughter of Sir William Griffith of Penrhyn Castle, the Chamberlain of North Wales and relative of Margaret Beaufort.

David Yale became the great-grandfather of Governor Elihu Yale who gave his name to Yale University.The Episcopal Administration of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1559-1575, p. 95 His son, Thomas Yale Sr., was the father of the Yales who emigrated to America with the Eaton family, and was a cousin by marriage of Francis Willughby and Duchess Cassandra Willoughby of Wollaton Hall. Cassandra was related to Jane Austen, author of Pride and Prejudice.Jane Austen: 6 Interesting Facts About the Beloved English Author, Two specialists from the Jane Austen Society of North America share intriguing highlights of the author's life, career and literary impact.

David Yale was also the uncle of Countess Elizabeth Weston, daughter of Knight Simon Weston, whose family was well connected with the Earls of Essex, having participated in their Rebellion and Expedition against the Tudors and Habsburgs. The Yales were members of the House of Yale and bore coats of arms. Their House is, on the maternal side, a cadet branch of the Royal House of Mathrafal, through the Princes of Powys Fadog, and a cadet branch on the paternal side of the Fitzgerald Dynasty, through the Merioneth House of Corsygedol. The Lord of Yale title historically belonged to this family.

Career

Thomas Yale graduated B.A. at Cambridge University in 1542–3, and was elected a Fellow, member of the governing body of Queens' College of the University of Cambridge about 1544. He commenced M.A. in 1546, and filled the office of Bursar to his college from 1549 to 1551. He was one of the Proctors of the university for the year commencing Michaelmas 1552, but resigned before the expiration of his term of office. In 1554 he was appointed Commissary of the Diocese of Ely under Chancellor John Fuller, and in 1555 he was Keeper of the Spiritualities of the Diocese of Bangor during the vacancy after the death of Arthur Bulkeley, Bishop of Bangor. In that year he subscribed the Roman Catholic articles imposed upon all graduates of the university.

During the reign of Mary Tudor, in November 1556, his name occurs in the commission for the suppression of heresy within the Diocese of Ely, and he assisted in the search for heretical books during the visitation of the university by Cardinal Pole's delegates.C. H. Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, 1843, ii. 110 In January 1556–7 he was among those empowered by the Senate to reform the composition for the election of Proctors and to revise the university statutes.Cooper, ii. 129 He was created Doctor of Laws in 1557, and admitted an advocate of the Court of Arches on April 26, 1559. In the same year, he and four other leading civilians, subscribed an opinion that the commission issued by Queen Elizabeth Tudor, for the consecration of Lord Archbishop Matthew Parker, as her first head of the Anglican Church, was legally valid.Strype, Life of Parker, i. 109The Continuity of the Anglican Church, The Irish Church Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 33 (Jan., 1916), p. 10 The civilians were Lord Chancellor Robert Weston, Vice-Chancellor Henry Harvey, Bishop Nicholas Bullingham, and Master Edward Leeds.The life and acts of Matthew Parker : the first Archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, John Strype, Clarendon Press, 1821

For the Archbishop's consecration, it was Yale who read the Queen's mandate and Oath of Supremacy, and then after prayer, the singing of the Litany, and some questions, and further prayers, with the four Bishops laying their hands upon Parker.Pilate and Herod, vol. 1. Stanley, Harvey, Rev., Indiana University His consecrators were the Bishops Miles Coverdale, William Barlow, John Scory, and John Hodgkins. Parker, a great friend of Lord William Cecil and Sir Nicholas Bacon, was previously the chaplain of Elizabeth during her childhood and her mother, Queen Anne Boleyn.The Dispersal of the Monastic Libraries and the Beginnings of Anglo-Saxon Studies : Matthew Parker and His Circle : A Preliminary Study, page 236 When Anne was arrested, he promised her that he would take care of the spiritual well-being of her daughter, as she was going to be executed for treason.Ives, Eric (2004) The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Blackwell Publishing, p267 He later became the chaplain of Elizabeth's father, King Henry VIII, and a close associate of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland.Parker, Matthew The Correspondence of Matthew Parker, D.D., Archbishop of Canterbury: Comprising Letters Written by and to Him, from A.D. 1535, to His Death, A.D. 1575 (edited for the Parker Society by John Bruce, and Thomas Thomason Perowne, 1853), p59 Archbishop Parker would become the chief architect of Anglican thought, bringing the Church of England into a national institution.

A few years later, Parker would also be of help to the Queen and Lord Cecil regarding the legitimacy of the Earldom of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as his father John had a bigamous marriage with a mistress. As the young Edward was a ward of the Queen, none had interest of accepting the petition of Lord Windsor and Katherine de Vere, his half-sister. Archbishop Parker settled the marriage matters, and Lord Cecil took credit in a letter.

Thomas Yale's nephew, Dr. David Yale, Chancellor of Chester, and Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge also later wrote a letter to Lord Cecil concerning the nominations of Humphrey Tyndall and Dr. Chaderton (the current President of Queens'), begging to keep the influence of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester over the Fellows of the university.Searle, William George (1871). The History of Queens' College of St Margret and St Bernard in the University of Cambridge. Part II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Despite this, Lord Cecil used his influence to have Tyndall elected President of Queens' College and Dr. Chaderton as Bishop of Chester, reducing the Queen's favourite influence.

On March 25, 1560, Thomas Yale was admitted to the Prebend of Offley in Lichfield Cathedral. In the same year he became Rector of Leverington in the Isle of Ely. He, Alexander Nowell, Richard Turner, and other Archiepiscopal commissioners, were sent to visit the churches and Dioceses of Canterbury, Rochester, and Peterborough, meeting with Dean Nicholas Wotton, a Royal envoy of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. On April 24, 1561, the Archbishop commissioned him and Vice-Chancellor, Walter Wright to visit the church, city, and Diocese of Oxford.

Judge

Yale was part of the Cambridge Reformers who were responsible for Elizabeth Tudor’s education, and aided her in her subsequent rise to power. As a reward for validating the election of Matthew Parker as new head of the Anglican Church, she gave him positions. On June 28, 1561, he was constituted for life Judge of the Court of Audience, Official Principal, Chancellor, and Vicar general to the 1st Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and in the same year obtained the Rectory of Llantrisant, Anglesey.

As a member of the household of Archbishop Matthew Parker, he now lived at Lambeth Palace in London, next to the Palace of Westminster.THE EPISCOPAL ADMINISTRATION OF MATTHEW PARKER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 1559-1575, JOHN I. DAELEY, Thesis submitted in the Faculty of Arts of the University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1967 The maintenance of ecclesiastical discipline was one of the largest tasks of Elizabeth's administration.The Episcopal Administration of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1559-1575, p. 96 Visitations of Dioceses and courts were necessary to prevent or punish breaches of the laws of the church, and was a matter of considerable discussion and controversy in Tudor England. In 1562 he became Chancellor of the Diocese of Bangor in Wales, and in May, was commissioned by Matthew Parker to visit All Souls and Merton College at Oxford. In 1563 he was on a commission to visit the Diocese of Ely with John Pory and Edward Leeds.