Job Charnock

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Job Charnock (d. 1693) is regarded by many as the founder of Calcutta.

He went out to India in 1655 or 1656, apparently not in the East India Company's service, but he soon joined it thereafter. He was first stationed at Cossimbazar, and subsequently at Patna. In 1685 he became chief agent at Hughli, a Portuguese trading settlement on the river of the same name. Being besieged there by the Mughal viceroy of Bengal, he put the Company's goods and servants on board his light vessels and dropped down the river 27 miles to the village of Sutanati, a place well chosen for the purpose of defence, which occupied the site of what is now Calcutta. It was only, however, at the third attempt that Charnock finally settled down at this spot, and the selection of the future capital of India was entirely due to his stubborn resolution.

He was a silent morose man, not popular among his contemporaries, but always a faithful man to the Company, which rated his services very highly. He is said to have married a Hindu widow and they had three daughters. His tomb, with its latin epitaph, can still be seen in the graveyard of St. John's Church. It is the oldest building in Calcutta

A Calcutta High Court ruling in 2001 pronounced that a "trading settlement" had existed on the site of Calcutta long before the first European settlers came down the Hooghly, and that therefore Calcutta has no "official" birthday.

References

H.E. Busteed Echoes from Old Calcutta (Calcutta) 1908

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