Canada
Hudson Bay
William WALES, astronomer, born Warmfield, Yorkshire in 1734, son of John & Sarah Wales "parents of humble circumstances". John was from Wakefield and Sarah from Wragby, Yorkshire. At the same time that Capt. Cook, also a Yorkshireman, was preparing to sail on his first voyage to the South Seas in 1768, Wales was preparing to travel to Hudson Bay, Canada with fellow atsronomer, Joseph Dymond, also a Yorkshireman. Each expedition was to observe the transit of Venus around the globe on behalf of the Royal Society Committee. The observation of the transit of Venus was vital to the future of navigation at that time. Two observers were to sent to 3 observation sites, North Cape, Hudson Bay and the South Seas. William had asked the Royal Society Committee to send him to a warm climate but they decided otherwise. He was to go to Hudson Bay and winter-over there.
In 1766, Wales had married Mary Green, dau. Joseph Green and sister of Charles Green, the astronomer that would travel with Cook. Mary and Charles were from Yorkshire too! Charles was born in Wentworth village in 1734. He died at sea of dysentery contracted when the Endeavour called at Jakarta for repairs.
The Royal Society Committee wrote to the Hudson Bay Company asking for "an estimate of the expense to convey Wales and Dymond by their annual ship to Fort Churchill in May 1768, and to return in October, 1769........The Hudson Bay Company would receive payment in full from the Royal Society Committee." John Smeaton of Austhorpe, Yorkshire, a civil engineer, had designed the Observatory that Wales would take with him. As William set sail, his pregant wife and young daughter were heading to Yorkshire up the Great North Road. A son was delivered in North Withham, Lincs.
In 1772, Wales sailed with Cook on his Second Voyage. On his return he was appointed Master of the Mathematical School in Christ Hospital, Newgate Street, London.
