[1][2][3] He had a scientific mind, and had published observations that earned him election the Royal Society, in 1737.
[4] Arthur Dobbs, a member of the Irish House of Commons played an influential role in organizing the expedition.
[1][2][5] J.C. Beaglehole, in his Life of Captain James Cook, notes that the expedition was commissioned in 1740, the same year George Anson was directed to lead a squadron into the Pacific Ocean, to attack Spanish shipping.
Middleton was able to get the government to put pressure on the Hudson's Bay Company to allow his ships to moor off Fort Prince of Wales, at the mouth of the Churchill River, and to provide room for his crew, during the winter of 1742, so he could begin his expedition as soon as the Bay was free of ice.
Dobbs thought that Middleton's reports that he did not find a Northwest Passage were part of a hoax, and the two men conducted a pamphlet campaign, denouncing each other.