Description
The origins of the name of the public house are not clear. The building was constructed circa 1715 as a house, and became a pub by 1776. Originally called 'The Roebuck', it was variously renamed the 'Nags Head', 'Marquis of Granby', and 'The Full Measure' over the years. In 1855 it was renamed the 'East Indian Chief' by the Pryor family, also owners of the Hatfield Brewery. The pub remained under that name until 1965 when it closed and was converted to a private house. It is likely that the name has links to the East India Company, although the person to whom the name relates is not known. An article in the Hatfield Local History Socity newsletter (No, 97, June 2015) explores some possible identification for the 'East Indian Chief'.
The East India Company was founded in 1600 as a joint stock company to trade with the ‘East Indies’ – initially its focus was the spice trade with South East Asia. As the company expanded, it founded trading posts in India, and began trading in commodities including cotton, silk, tea, indigo and opium. The Company built fortified outposts in India to protect its interests, and its growing power in India in the eighteenth century led to it seizing control of the territories of Bengal, Bihar and Orrisa. The Company played a significant role in the expansion of British imperialism in the country, and over the course of the following century the East India Company conquered the entire of the Indian sub-continent. At the peak of its power, it had its own armed forces of circa 260,000 soldiers and was the largest corporation in the world.
During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the East India Company trafficked enslaved peoples from Africa to work on plantations in India and Indonesia. The Company officially ended involvement in the trafficking of enslaved peoples in 1834.
By the mid nineteenth century the Company’s high prices and high taxes on the Indian population had led to significant unrest, and the rebellion of 1857 led to the transfer of control of India to the British government. The East India Company was dissolved in 1874. The East India Company leaves a legacy in many place names in England, such as the East India Dock in London. There are also many examples of streets that are named after the Company or after individuals associated with it, or that relate to its activities, such as Nutmeg Lane in London’s Docklands.
(Sources: Wikipedia – East India Company; the National Trust website – What was the East India Company?; Britannica – East India Company; the History of London website – The East India Company).
