William Wales (1734-98) and Joseph Dymond (1746-1796) were two young Yorkshire men sent to the shores of Hudson Bay by the Royal Society of London to observe the transit of Venus on 1769 June 3. They stayed for over a year at Fort Prince of Wales, near modern-day Churchill, Manitoba. They had worked under the Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, who recommended them for the transit expedition. In 1765, Wales married Mary Green, sister of Charles Green who was the astronomer on James Cook's expedition to observe the transit at Tahiti.
