The Madras High Court complex in Chennai, spread across an expansive 107 acres, is not only one of the oldest judicial sites in India but also an unlikely repository of early colonial memories. Among its many structures lie two modest 17th-century tombs—those of Joseph Hynmers, a senior official at Fort St. George, and Jacca David Yale, the young son of Governor Elihu Yale. Their presence within the bustling campus has always been little known, but in recent years these graves have become the center of a complex legal and heritage debate, culminating in a landmark decision of the Madras High Court directing their relocation.
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| old colonial tombs, Madras High court complex thehindu.com |
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| old colonial tombs, Madras High court complex thehindu.com |
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| Colonial toms, Madras High court. sriramv.com/ |
Above image: The English company's official Hynmers’ Obelisk in 1939, courtesy Elihu Yale, the American Nabob of Queen’s Square by Hiram Bingham, Dodd Mead & Sons, 1939.... ’The Obelisk, dating back to the 1680s is the burial spot of Joseph Hynmers, second-in-council, Fort St. George, Died in May 1680, he was buried here. His widow Catherine married Elihu Yale the same year and in 1689, David, the couple’s son died and was buried under the obelisk next to Hynmers. Except the two, rest of the surviving tombstones were shifted to a place close to St. Mary;s church in the fort. Since 1750s the graves have been here in the same spot and witnessed the construction of one of the earliest judicial complex including law college, etc............
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| Gov. Elihu Yale Ft. St. George, Chennai , sriramv.com |
The origins of these tombs go back to the 1680s, when a guava garden adjoining Fort St. George served as a burial ground for English East India Company officials. Joseph Hynmers, second-in-council at the Madras Presidency, died in 1680 and was interred here under a prominent obelisk. In the same year, his widow Catherine married Elihu Yale at St. Mary’s Church in the Fort—the first marriage recorded there. Their four-year-old son, Jacca David Yale, died in 1689 and was buried next to Hynmers. Over time, most other tombstones from the old burial ground were moved to the precinct of St. Mary’s Church, but these two remained in situ. Since the 1750s, they have quietly witnessed the rise of the colonial judicial complex, the construction of the Indo-Saracenic law college building, and finally the sprawling High Court campus of modern Chennai.
In 1921, during the British era, the Hynmers–Yale tombs were declared a protected monument under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904. After Independence, they continued to be governed by ASI regulations, including the 100-metre construction embargo around protected structures. However, the growing space constraints in the High Court—particularly the acute shortage of parking—framed the monuments as obstacles to necessary infrastructure development. The court proposed a multi-level parking facility on the site, prompting litigation on whether the tombs deserved continued protection.
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| Colonial toms, Madras High court complex.barandbench.com |
In a significant ruling, the Madras High Court held that the tombs possessed no substantial archaeological, historical, or aesthetic value, and were protected merely because they had existed for over three centuries. The judge emphasized that independent India was under no obligation to preserve what the colonial administration had arbitrarily classified as “protected,” urging authorities to shed the “slavish mindset” inherited from British rule. The Archaeological Survey of India was directed to relocate the tombs to a suitable site, ensuring their preservation without impeding modernization of judicial infrastructure.
The case also reignited scrutiny of Governor Elihu Yale himself, whose reputation has long been clouded by allegations of corruption and participation in the Indian Ocean slave trade. Though Yale’s later philanthropic contributions helped establish Yale University (one of the IVEY universities, New Haven, Connecticut) in the United States, historians have documented his role in enforcing slave-trade regulations and personally profiting from the trafficking of enslaved individuals from Madras.
Thus, the debate over the tombs transcends heritage preservation. It reflects evolving attitudes toward colonial memory, the need for pragmatic urban development, and the reassessment of figures once celebrated but now understood through a more critical historical lens. The relocation of the Hynmers–Yale tombs marks a turning point in reconciling these complex legacies within a modern judicial landscape.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/101425590.cms
