On this day, the British East India Company appointed James Bridgman as the chief of the factories at Hooghly and Balasore. He was to leave in 1653 and Powle Waldegrave assumed his charge.
Gabriel Boughton, who is said to have cured Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s daughter and then also a female member of the household of Bengal governor Shah Shuja, who was Shah Jahan’s son, had obtained the permission for the East India Company to build a factory at Hooghly.
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In 1650, the factories of Balasore and Hooghly were united.
Within a few years, George Gawton was appointed as agent of Hooghly. Three factories in Balasore, Cossimbazar and Pattana came under the Hooghly agency.