Christopher Middleton (navigator)

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For other people with similar names, see Christopher Middleton (disambiguation).
Christopher Middleton

FRS
Personal details
BornUnknown date, c. 1690
Newton Bewley, England
Died12 February 1770(1770-02-12) (aged 79–80)[1]
Norton, Durham, England
OccupationExplorer, navigator
EmployerHudson's Bay Company
Works"The Effects of Cold" (1743)
Awards
Military service
Branch Royal Navy
Service years1741–1770

Christopher Middleton FRS (c. 1690 – 12 February 1770) was a British navigator with the Hudson's Bay Company and Royal Navy officer.[1] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 7 April 1737.

Career[]

Privateer in Queen Anne's War[]

Middleton described serving aboard a privateer in Queen Anne's War.[1] The war was fought between 1701 and 1713.

Hudson's Bay Company service[]

Middleton was appointed second mate of the Hannah, in 1721, and appointed her captain in 1725.[1] He eventually made 16 annual voyages on ships supplying Hudson Bay Company outposts.

Middleton was a scientific sailor, and he methodically observed compass deviations, on his voyages.[1] Hudson's Bay was close to the location of the North Magnetic Pole. Middleton published a paper, describing his observations, in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions. Middleton's scientific endeavours earned him a Fellowship in the Royal Society.[1]

Northwest Passage[]

Main article: Northwest Passage expedition of 1741
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Middleton's Northwest Passage expedition established Wager Bay was just a deep bay, not an outlet to the Pacific Ocean

On 5 March 1741, Middleton was appointed to the command of , a Royal Navy bomb vessel which was refitted at Deptford Dockyard and rigged as a three-masted ship. In May, he left England on Furnace, accompanied by a smaller vessel, the purchased HMS Discovery, under the command of William Moor, and sailed to Hudson Bay in search of a Northwest Passage.[2]

He spent the winter at Fort Churchill, and then proceeded north, into Roes Welcome Sound and discovered Wager Inlet where he was iced in for three weeks. At the head of the sound he found himself blocked by ice, and named the place Repulse Bay.

Middleton returned to England in 1742, where he was presented with the Royal Society's Copley Medal, to whom he presented a paper entitled "The effects of cold; together with observations of the longitude, latitude, and declination of the magnetic needle, at Prince of Wales's fort, upon Churchill-River in Hudson's Bay, North America".[3]

Middleton was given command of , in May 1745, and commanded her until 1748, when peace was negotiated with Spain.[1] Royal Navy officers were entitled to half-pay, when not employed, and Middleton spent the rest of his life on half-pay. He went back to the Hudson's Bay Company, and requested a command, there, without success.

See also[]

  • Arthur Dobbs

References[]

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Williams 1974, § 1.
  2. ^ Barr 1983, p. 98.
  3. ^ Middleton 1743, pp. 157–171.

Bibliography[]

  • Barr, W. (March 1983). "Christopher Middleton (ca. 1690–1770)". Arctic. Arctic Profiles. 36 (1): 98–99. doi:10.14430/arctic2249.
  • Bennett, J. (September 2019). "Science and seafaring in the precarious career of Christopher Middleton". Notes Rec. 73 (3): 303–327. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2018.0046.
  • Dobbs, Arthur (1744). An account of the countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay. Self-published.
  • Laughton, J. K. (1894). "Middleton, Christopher". Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900. 37. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 342–343.
  • Middleton, C. (December 1743). "The effects of cold". Philos. Trans. Royal Soc. 42 (465): 157–171. doi:10.1098/rstl.1742.0040.
  • Williams, G. (1974). "Middleton, Christopher". Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 1741–1770. 3. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

External links[]

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