[2] Hobson was dispatched from London in July 1839, with instructions to take the constitutional steps needed to establish a British colony in New Zealand.

[4] He attended a (barely) private school, but despite this disadvantage he joined the Royal Navy on 25 August 1803 as a second-class volunteer.

The sloop Whim was under the command of Lieutenant William Hobson and two midshipmen from Tyne when on 29 September a pirate schooner captured her at Guanaha.

In December 1834 he obtained a commission from the First Lord of the Admiralty – George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland – to the East Indies on HMS Rattlesnake.

On 18 September 1836, HMS Rattlesnake left for Port Phillip District (later Melbourne) conveying Captain William Lonsdale and other officials to the new colony.

On 26 May 1837 Hobson sailed to the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, in response to a request for help from James Busby, the British Resident, who felt threatened by wars between Māori tribes.

[8] On his return to England in 1838, Hobson submitted a report on New Zealand, in which he proposed establishing British sovereignty over the islands in small pockets similar to the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada.

[9] At the time, the British government recognised the sovereignty of the Māori people, as represented in the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand of October 1835.

Hobson was appointed lieutenant-governor under the Governor of New South Wales, Sir George Gipps—ratified on 30 July 1839[3]—and British consul to New Zealand—confirmed on 13 August 1839.

On 14 August 1839, Constantine Henry Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby issued Hobson with detailed instructions, giving the British government's reasons for intervention in New Zealand and directions for the purchase of land "by fair and equal contracts".

[10] Hobson arrived in the Bay of Islands aboard HMS Herald on 29 January 1840 with a small group of officials, including an executive council consisting of Colonial Secretary Willoughby Shortland, Colonial Treasurer George Cooper and Attorney-General Francis Fisher.

On 11 July 1840, the French frigate L'Aube arrived at the Bay of Islands on its way to Banks Peninsula as part of the settlement plan of the Nanto-Bordelaise Company.

Near the end of 1840, the Port Nicholson settlers sent a petition to Queen Victoria calling for Hobson's dismissal over his treatment of them.

In November 1840, the Queen signed a royal charter for New Zealand to become a Crown Colony separate from New South Wales.