of the same name, who graduated B.D. from St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1619, was incorporated in that degree at Oxford on 13 July 1619, and was rector of Aston-le-Walls, Northamptonshire, from 1612 till his death there in 1628 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714).
Christopher Middleton was the author of: 1. 'A Short Introduction for to Learn to Swimme, gathered out of Master Digbies Booke of the Art of Swimming, and translated into English for the better instruction of those who understand not the Latin tongue, by Christopher Middleton,' 1595, 4to. This was illustrated with woodcuts of persons swimming. It was a translation of the 'De Arte Natandi libri duo,' 1587, of Everard Digby [q. v.] 2. ' The Historie of Heaven: containing the Poetical Fictions of all the Starres in the Firmament, gathered from amongst all the Poets and Astronomers, by Chrystopher Middleton. Printed for him 1596,' 4to (Bodl.) 3. 'The Famous Historie of Chinon of England, with his Strange Adventures for the love of Celestina, daughter to Lewis, King of France; with the worthy Atchivement of Sir Lancelot du Lake, and Sir Tristram du Lions for faire Laura, daughter to Cadar, Earle of Cornewall, beeing all Knights of King Arthur's Round Table. By Chr. Middleton. At London, printed by John Danter for Cuthbert Burbie,' 1597, b.l. 4to, forty-seven leaves. The dedication is by Danter (Brit. Mus.) 4. 'The Legend of Humphrey, Duke of Glocester, by Chr. Middleton. London, printed by E. A. for Nicholas Ling,' 1600, 4to. The author dedicates this poem to Sir Jarvis [i.e. Gervase] Clifton. It is preceded by a Latin hexastichon by Robert Allott, a sonnet by Michael Drayton, and two short poems by John Weever. The poem, consisting of 184 six-line stanzas, is written on the plan of the poems in the 'Mirror for Magistrates,' and 'need not shrink from a comparison with the majority of the poems in that collection.' (There are two copies of the original edition in the Museum and one in the Huth Library.) It is reprinted in the ' Harleian Miscellany ' (1813), x. 165.
[Harleian Miscellany, x. 164; Brydges's Censura Literaria, iii. 256; Hazlitt's Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, iv. 208–9, 211; Ames's Typographical Antiquities (Herbert), pp. 1029, 1033, 1342, 1382; Cooper's Athenae Cantabr. ii. 147; Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetica, p. 216.]
MIDDLETON, CHRISTOPHER (d. 1770), commander in the navy and Arctic voyager, was from about 1720 in the employment of the Hudson's Bay Company, and seems to have been early recognised as a capable servant of the company and a scientific navigator. In a memorial which he addressed to the admiralty, apparently in 1750 (Captains' Letters, M. 17), he stated that for several years before 1741 he had commanded a ship which was worth to him, one year with another, 800l. As early as 1721 he observed the variation of the magnetic needle at Churchill (Phil. Trans. xxxiv. 73); and he claimed ‘to have found, from repeated observations, a method of obtaining the true time at sea by taking eight or ten different altitudes of the sun or stars when near the prime vertical, by Mr. Smith's or Mr. Hadley's quadrant,’ and to have practised it from about 1737. This is the method of finding the ship time now in daily use at sea, for determining the longitude; whether Middleton found it out himself or not, he must have been one of the first to practise it, for Hadley's quadrant was only introduced at a meeting of the Royal Society in 1731. On 7 April 1737 Middleton was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, as one ‘who has communicated to this society several curious observations relating to the variation of the needle in the northern seas, printed in the “Philosophical Transactions”’ (information from the society; Phil. Trans. xxxvii. 71, 76, xxxviii. 127, xxxix. 270); and in 1741 he was, after several years' solicitation, prevailed on, he says, by Arthur Dobbs [q. v.], who promised him a great reward from the public, or at least an equivalent to his profits in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, to undertake the discovery of the north-west passage. Dobbs, however, did nothing more than obtain for him a commission from the admiralty as commander in the navy, 5 March 1740–1, and an appointment to the Furnace sloop, with pay, for himself and servant, of 7s. 6d. a day. Some two months later he sailed for the Arctic seas in company with the Discovery tender, commanded by Lieutenant Moor.
On 27 June he left the Orkneys; made Cape Farewell on 16 July, and the entrance of Hudson's Strait on the 25th. The passage was clear of ice, and on the 31st he was off Carey's Swan's Nest; here he held a council, which agreed that it was too late in the season to attempt any discovery. By 9 Aug. they got into the Churchill River in search of winter quarters, and for the next six weeks they were busily employed in digging docks for the ships, repairing an old fort that was in ruins, and cutting firewood. By the end of September the winter had set in very cold. They were well housed, well clothed, had an ample supply of fuel and plenty of provisions; but the men suffered terribly from scurvy. ‘By
